The Lord’s Hour and Time

Since these things are written in the Scriptures, then, the matter is clear: the saints know that a certain time is measured out to every person, but that no one knows the end of that time. This is plainly shown by the words of David, “Make known to me the shortness of my days.” What he did not know, he wanted to be told. So too the rich man, while he thought he still had a long time to live, heard the words, “You fool, this very night they are demanding your soul from you. Then whose will the things you have prepared be?” And the Preacher speaks with confidence in the Holy Spirit and says, “Man too does not know his time.” That is why the patriarch Isaac said to his son Esau, “Look, I am old, and I do not know the day of my death.” [a]

Our Lord, then, as God and the Word of the Father, knew the time he had measured out to all, and knew the time for suffering which he himself had appointed for his own body as well. Yet since he had become man for our sakes, he hid himself when he was sought before that time came, as we do. When he was persecuted he fled, and avoiding the designs of his enemies he passed by, and “so went through the midst of them.” But when he had brought on the time he himself had appointed, at which he wished to suffer in the body for all people, he announces it to the Father, saying, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son.” And then he no longer hid himself from those who sought him, but stood ready to be taken by them. For the Scripture says that he said to those who came to him, “Whom are you looking for?” And when they answered, “Jesus of Nazareth,” he said to them, “I am he whom you are looking for.” And he did this even more than once, and so they at once led him away to Pilate. He did not let himself be taken before the time came, nor did he hide himself when it had come. He gave himself up to those who plotted against him, to show everyone that human life and death depend on the divine sentence, and that without our Father who is in heaven, not a hair of a person’s head can become white or black, nor a sparrow ever fall into the snare.