Coming Soon - Pt. 2

 

[Jesus said] “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding oat the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Matthew 24:36-44 ESV).

 

The nature of the Second Coming is visible, imminent, and final. Jesus promised the disciples he would not leave them as orphans by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in them and in that why the presence of Christ already dwells in believers (cf. John 14:18-26; Romans 8:9), but that is not what is meant by the return of Christ. He will return visibly and publicly in a way that all people will see him coming in the clouds (cf. Matthew 24:27; Revelation 1:7). As such, any notion that he will come secretly or that someone may have missed it is misguided because there will be no doubt about it when it happens (cf. 2Thessalonians 2:2).

 

Additionally, the return of Christ is also imminent, meaning it is near and when it comes it will happen quickly. Our reading today helps us with that. Early Christians anticipated that Christ could return in their lifetime and admonished believers to watch and be ready. It is unfortunate that many believers question the imminent nature of the return of Christ simply because the numerical sum of years between Jesus’ ascension and now feels like such a long time to us. We need to recapture the understand of the eternal nature of God. He does not measure time quantitatively as we do. He always sees time as qualitatively.

 

He hasn’t come yet because everything that needs to be finished has not been done. In many ways this is good news for us. Waiting is always difficult; however, if waiting means the end will be vastly better, isn’t it worth it? This is the reason for the call to readiness. Are you ready?