“The ETA of Our King”
Luke 21:25-36
Mark 13:32: But
about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son,
but only the Father.
Acts 1:6-7: So
when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you
will restore the
John Calvin: As
far as I’m concerned, I not only refrain purposefully from superfluous
investigation of useless matters, but I also think that I ought to guard
against contributing to the levity of others by answering them.
Eugene Peterson in “Reversed Thunder”: … while there are wise teachers available,
they often get missed because there are so many more around who are simply
foolish and who, like pushy guides at a tourist site, try to get us to hire
them to tell us all about the “furniture of heaven and the temperature of hell,
the number of the beast, and the calendar of doomsday. G.K. Chesterton once remarked that “though
Saint John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no
creature so wild as one of his own commentators.”
William Barclay: There
has always been much useless argument and speculation about the Second Coming.
Luke 21:15, 16, 34, 35a (The Message): It will seem like all hell has broken loose –
sun, moon, stars, earth, and sea, in an uproar and the whole world in a panic,
the wind knocked out of them by the threat of doom, the powers-that-be quaking…
But be on your guard. Don’t let the
sharp edge of your expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by
complete surprise…
[Prayer]
Long,
long ago, in what feels more and more like a galaxy far, far away, I took a
youth group to see the movie “Star Wars.”
There must have been some confusion, because one parent had assumed that
I had taken them to see “The Late Great Planet Earth,” based on the book of the
same name. Just out of seminary my
flippant response was, “I like my science
fiction straight.”
In
recent years I have taken on the task of reading the “Left Behind” series. This fictional series about the end of time,
just like “The Late Great Planet Earth,” is based on a form of biblical
interpretation called dispensationalism that has been around less than 200
years. My very serious and hopefully not
overly flippant response to those books, as well as dispensationalism itself,
is still, “I like my science fiction
straight.” This form of biblical
interpretation is so divorced from historical Presbyterian beliefs that a
former General Assembly of our denomination declared it to be heresy.
Advent
is a time of celebrating what already is while anticipating what is to be. As we move liturgically toward Christmas and
the celebration of our Lord’s first coming, at the same time we turn our thoughts
toward his second. We must be careful to
heed the words of Jesus about not knowing the time or season of his coming and
it not being for us to know the times or periods set by God the Father. We must be careful not to get caught up in
the speculative timelines of those who think they can outguess Jesus.
The
dispensationalists describe a future time they call the Tribulation, a time
when all hell does break loose. That’s
misleading. The time of tribulation is
right now. It began when Jesus ascended
back into heaven and will end when he comes again to bring the
When
Jesus said what he said in verses 25-26 he used apocalyptic terminology, a
particular form of symbolic language that was well known by those to whom he was
speaking. It was and is language used to
symbolize, in the words of Robert J. Dean, “the
giving way of the old order of creation to the new order of Christ’s eternal
kingdom.”
Often
lost in this vivid description of signs and portents is a crucial statement
that Jesus made: “Heaven and earth will
pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
In other words, whatever might be going on in heaven or on earth, we
can still place our ultimate trust in him.
Until he comes again there will always be wars and rumors of wars,
natural disasters, and people and governments hostile to the Gospel. There will always be places where Christians
go through the tribulation of persecution.
There will always be a spirit of antichrist abroad in the world. But we can be assured of one thing, in the
end Jesus wins. In life and in death we
belong to God.
In
her Advent meditation “Jesus is Coming… So Now What?” Heidi Husted Armstrong
writes, … because Jesus is coming again
the question is not ‘When?’ The question
is, ‘So now what?’ What do we do now?” Good question: what do we do? Worry?
Be scared? Seek answers to
unanswerable questions by reading books and articles by people who claim to
have figured out exact timelines of his coming?
Nope. We do what we’re called to do. We go about doing our Father’s business. We continue to be our Lord’s witnesses. To quote Ms. Armstrong again, “There is a bumper sticker that reads: ‘Jesus
is coming… look busy.’ But, [today’s]
text is saying don’t just look
busy… be busy! Be about the business of participating in the
coming of God’s kingdom, of living in the certainty of Christ’s glorious
return. Get busy loving and forgiving as
Jesus commanded. Get busy bearing burdens
and feeding the hungry. Get busy praying
and producing the fruit of the spirit in Jesus’ name. Get busy hoping, trusting, believing that
this purpose and fulfillment of history is assigned not to [totalitarian rulers, Islamic extremists, or any
national leader or nation], but to Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ.”
Years ago as a colleague and I mused over the Second Coming of Christ,
it dawned on me that maybe it would be something like the Cinderella
story. The analogy isn’t perfect, so
please bear with me. When Prince
Charming came seeking the one whose foot would fit into the glass slipper, what
was Cinderella doing? She was working
behind the scenes. She was dressed in
her work clothes. Her hands were
probably dirty. Odds are her hair was a
mess and her makeup non-existent. While
her sisters got all gussied up and sat in the parlor waiting for the prince to
show up, she just kept doing what she always did.
We
all know how the story turned out. The
prince put the shoe on Cinderella’s foot, it fit, they got married, and then they
lived happily ever after. We who are
Christ’s Body on earth – his Church, his expectant Bride – are not toiling at
the whims of a wicked stepmother. We, if
we’re faithful to our calling, are busy with our Lord’s business: worshipping,
praying, studying Scripture, serving the less fortunate, and sharing the Gospel
message. We are not to be like those
early Thessalonian Christians who caused all sorts of trouble by spending their
days sitting around waiting for the Lord to come, probably indulging in their
own fantasies about timelines and such.
Not
knowing when Jesus will come again all we can do is focus on his work, not
letting secondary concerns interfere with that work. We don’t want to be caught asleep at the
switch when our Lord shows up. We want
to be ready.
Over
twenty centuries ago a baby was born in a Bethlehem stable. Jesus, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, came
in an unexpected way, confounding those who thought they had it all figured out. Who’s to say that his Second Coming won’t
take place in a similarly confounding manner?
It will take place. That’s a
non-negotiable reality of our faith. But
it will take place in God’s own way and God’s own time. Only he knows the ETA, the estimated time of
arrival, of King Jesus. And he doesn’t
need our help in figuring it out. Amen.