The Unknown Day and Hour of the Messiah’s Return^(A)

³² “No one knows when that day or hour will come^[a]—neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be careful! Watch out! Because you don’t know when the time will come. ³⁴ It’s like a man who went on a trip. As he left home, he put his servants in charge, each with his own work, and he ordered the doorkeeper to be alert. ³⁵ So keep on watching, because you don’t know when the master of the house is coming—whether in the middle of the night, at the time the cock crows,^[b] or at daybreak. ³⁶ Otherwise, he may come suddenly and find you asleep. ³⁷ I’m telling you what I’m telling everyone: Be alert!”

The Coming of the Kingdom^(A)

²⁰ Once Jesus^[a] was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come. He answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with a visible display. ²¹ People^[b] won’t be saying, ‘Look! Here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ because now the kingdom of God is among^[c] you.”

²² Then Jesus^[d] told the disciples, “The time will come during which you will long to see one of these days when the Son of Man is with you,^[e] but you won’t see it. ²³ People^[f] will say to you, ‘Look! There he is!’ or ‘Look! Here he is!’ But don’t go and chase after him. ²⁴ Because just as lightning flashes and shines from one end of the sky to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his time.^{[g] 25} But first he must suffer a great deal and be rejected by those living today.^[h]

²⁶ “Just as it was in Noah’s time, so it will be in the Son of Man’s time. ²⁷ People^[i] were eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage right up to the day when Noah went into the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed all of them. ²⁸ So it was in Lot’s time. People^[j] were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. ²⁹ But on the very day when Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed all of them. ³⁰ The day when the Son of Man is revealed will be like that.

³¹ “The person who is on the housetop that day must not come down to get his belongings out of his house. The person in the field, too, must not turn back to what’s left behind. ³² Remember Lot’s wife! ³³ Whoever tries to save his life^[k] will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it. ³⁴ I tell you, two will be seated on the same couch^[l] that night. The one will be taken, and the other will be left behind. ³⁵ Two women will be grinding grain^[m] together. The one will be taken, and the other will be left behind.”^[n]