Home > Jesus is God in Mark's Gospel
This is the Christological peak of the discourse. Jesus describes the "shaking of the heavens" and His own arrival.
Jesus describes the sun darkening, the moon failing, and the stars falling. This imagery is deeply rooted in the "Day of the Lord" prophecies from the Old Testament.
The "falling stars" and darkening sun are not just physical events, but a "theological eclipse." The lights of the old creation dim because the True Light—the Creator Himself—is appearing in His unshielded glory.
Jesus is quoting Isaiah 13:10 and 34:4. In those contexts, these signs accompany the judgment of Yahweh. By applying them to His own arrival, Jesus is claiming to be the Executor of Divine Judgment.
Isaiah 13:10: "For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light."
Isaiah 34:4: "All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree."
Jesus refers to the "Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory." This is a direct invocation of Daniel 7:13–14. In the Old Testament, riding on the clouds is a specific "cloud-rider" motif reserved for Yahweh (Psalm 104:3, Isaiah 19:1).
Psalm 104:3: "He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind."
Isaiah 19:1: "He makes the winds his messengers, fire and flame his ministers."
If Jesus were a mere creature, He could not "ride" the clouds, which are the "dust of God's feet" (Nahum 1:3). This confirms His Ontological Equality with the Father.
In verse 27, Jesus says He will send out "his angels." In the entire Old Testament, the angels belong to Yahweh alone. For Jesus to call them His angels is an explicit claim to be the Commander of the Heavenly Host (the Lord of Sabaoth). Sabaoth = hosts/armies).
Jeremiah 31:10: "Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock."
The first coming was in "infirmity and humility" (the Incarnation), the second is in the manifestation of His Essence. The doxa (glory) seen here is the same glory Jesus had with the Father "before the world began" (John 17:5).
The "Son of Man" who will soon be mocked and stripped of His clothes (Mark 15) is the same One who clothes the entire sky in His own power. His divinity is hidden in the Passion but absolute in the Parousia.
This is a "High Christology" checkmate. If Jesus is not God, He is claiming to own God's angels, use God's "cloud-chariot," and perform God's specific end-time gathering.
The "Son of Man" title is actually a higher claim to deity in this context than the title "Son of God" was sometimes understood to be by the surrounding culture.