The Time Is Fulfilled

Time is an important thing in all our lives. Many of us feel as if we never have enough of it. We rush from one task to another, trying to catch up, only to discover that time keeps moving forward whether we are ready or not.

The famous Pink Floyd song Time captures this struggle:

"And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking racing around to come up behind you again..."  

The song expresses something deeply human. Time seems to move faster as we grow older. The years pass quickly, plans remain unfinished, and we wonder where the time has gone.

Yet Scripture offers a different perspective. The Book of Ecclesiastes reminds us:

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven..." (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

The biblical view of time is not one of randomness or chaos. Time unfolds according to God's purpose. There is a season for every event and a moment appointed by God for every work He intends to accomplish.

At the end of my last post, I asked an important question: What "time" is Jesus speaking about when He says, "The time is fulfilled"?

To answer that question, we must look at the promises God made long before the birth of Christ.

The first great promise comes in God's call of Abraham:

"And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:3)

This promise marks a turning point in the story of salvation. Following the Fall, humanity had wandered further and further from God. Yet in Abraham, God begins His plan to restore what had been lost. Through Abraham's descendants, blessing would come not merely to one nation, but to the whole world.

The centuries passed. Abraham died. His descendants became slaves in Egypt. God raised up Moses to lead them out of bondage and gave them His Law. Yet even Moses pointed beyond himself to another figure who was still to come:

"I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth." (Deuteronomy 18:18)

At the end of Deuteronomy, we read:

"And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face." (Deuteronomy 34:10)

Israel lived in expectation of this promised prophet. The people waited for one who would speak God's word with perfect authority and who would know God in an intimacy unlike any prophet before him.

The prophets continued to nurture this hope. Isaiah spoke of a coming age when God would visit His people, establish His kingdom, and bring salvation to the nations. Generation after generation waited for God's appointed time.

In his masterpiece Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI writes:

"Israel is allowed to hope for a new Moses, who has yet to appear, but who will be raised up at the appropriate hour."

The phrase "at the appropriate hour" is important. God's promises are never forgotten. They unfold according to His perfect timing.

This is what Jesus is announcing in Mark 1:15.

"The time is fulfilled."

The promise to Abraham has reached its fulfillment. The prophet greater than Moses has arrived. The hopes of the prophets are becoming reality. What generations longed to see is now present in the person of Jesus Christ.

This mattered two thousand years ago, and it matters just as much today.

The challenge for us is not simply to understand God's timing in history. The challenge is to recognize God's work in our own lives.

Do we make time for Him?

Do we allow Him to speak to our hearts?

Do we seek to know Christ, not merely as a historical figure, but as the living Lord?

The time was fulfilled when Christ came into the world. Yet every day presents us with another opportunity to respond to Him. God's time has arrived. The question is whether we are willing to receive it.