The Sign Of The Son Of Man
THE SIGN OF THE SON OF MAN
MATTHEW 24:29-35
When Jesus returns, it will be in power and glory, and literally everybody will know about it.
Such cosmic phenomena as are described in 24:29 appear in the Old Testament as metaphors for disasters like the overthrow of cities; cf. Isaiah 24:1ff., which depicts in this way the downfall of a hostile city (Isaiah 24:10-12; 27:10). The tribulation of siege and warfare will be followed by the fall of Jerusalem, and “all these things” will be completed within the lifetime of “this generation” (24:34). Here is the answer to the disciples’ first question, “when will this be?” (24:3). There is no need to make difficulties about “this generation,” as though it meant “this race” (the Jews) or the generation of the end-time; the phrase is identical with that in 23:36 and the two passages point forward to the same sequence of events. Unlike the advent of the Son of Man (24:27), the fall of Jerusalem will be heralded by signs which cannot be mistaken by those who have eyes to see: just as the appearance of leaves on the fig-tree is a token of the approach of summer, so the events of 24:5-14, and especially the “desolating sacrilege” (24:15) and attendant signs (24:24), betoken the imminent destruction of the city and temple (in 24:33 we might render with KJV “it is near” rather than “he is near”).
The coming of the Son of Man, the subject of the disciples’ second question (24:3), follows the fall of Jerusalem. Matthew alone speaks of “the sign of the Son of Man” (24:30), which harks back to “sign” in 24:3. Since the Son of Man comes without preceding signs (24:27,37-44), his “sign” in 24:30 may be himself—the sign which is the Son of Man. Like Jonah, the Son of Man is his own “sign” (cf. 12:39). The expression was early interpreted as the sign of the cross in the sky, but this is improbable in the present context. His coming “on the clouds” with power and glory (cf. 16:27; 26:64) is based on Daniel 7:13; the trumpet-call for the ingathering of the elect (24:31) on Isaiah 27:13, and the wailing of “all the tribes of the earth” on Zechariah 12:10ff. As in Revelation 1:7, the original reference to the wailing of the families of Israel is given a world-wide extension.
The words of Jesus have the same binding and permanent validity (24:35) as the words of the law (5:18).