Day 26: Matthew 24
BACK TO THE FUTURE
When I read this passage, I'm reminded of a couple of friends, who will remain nameless, that believed that Australians lived in the future. They didn't think they just lived in a different time zone, they genuinely believed that they found out about world events first. The second coming of Jesus was one of these. They couldn't quite grasp how everyone would see Jesus at the same time, as Australians would clearly be the first to spot him. It's at those times that words fail me.
Anyway, in Matthew 24, Jesus talks about his return and the end of the world. I flick over this chapter often. If I'm being honest, I flicked ahead and wrote the entry for chapter 25 before doing this one, as I didn't quite know how to face it. I then came back, because I didn't want this chapter to be the final one I wrote. The second coming of Jesus is a difficult topic for me. It's quite often something that depends on people's theological interpretation, and before long it can develop into more a contest of who thinks they know the most, and I tend to zone out of those discussions. My ex-housemate will hate me for saying this, but in my eyes there are educated people on both sides of the fence, each thinking they're right, and I think a lot of our theology around it is educated guessing. Therefore I'm happy to leave the details alone.
However, what I do think is important is that we don't just bury our heads in the sand and ignore the potential return of Jesus completely. We live in these 'end times', where Jesus has gone up to heaven and we await his return. The longer that time goes on, I guess the harder it is to live in that expectation. I guess the early church must have thought he would come back very soon, in their lifetimes, but he didn't. So far, he hasn't returned in our lifetime either, but he might. It's a tough way to live, thinking that Jesus could return at any point. In a way, it's not possible to live our lives completely with this expectation, as then we wouldn't do things like go to university or plan for anything in the future, as there would be no point.
Jesus' return has been used to pressurise or guilt-trip people in the past. I know someone who was told as a kid that if Jesus came back and he was in the cinema, Jesus wouldn't take him back to heaven. That's not helpful. It's about as helpful as T-shirts which say 'Jesus is coming, look busy'.
Jesus' return is not something that's held over us to make sure we're all always doing good, just in case he comes back and catches us out and we won't get into heaven. That's just threats wrapped up in superstition. Religious weird talk with no benefit to anyone. Rather, the knowledge that Jesus is returning is something that should stirs us in a few ways. It should spur us on in the realisation that we don't know how long we have left. If we are to believe that the only way to eternal life is to have a relationship with Jesus, then this should spur us to be open about our lives following him, inviting others to know God for themselves.
Also, it reminds us that God is so much greater than anything else. He is beyond death, he is all powerful, and ultimately victorious. Just as the Bible is a book about Jesus, about this God who is so holy and above us, and yet so loving, passages like this point us to our ultimate destination if we know Him. As CS Lewis famously said, “If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world.”
It's tough to have in our minds every day, but ultimately we were made for another world. We weren't made to simply be content with what we have here. Jesus is returning. It may be in our lives, it may not. We still make plans for the future, but we must try to live in the knowledge that there is so much more to come, and a God who will ultimately call an end to this earth and be united with His people for eternity.
As we do that, it helps us keep life in perspective and focus on what matters. It helps us to take our eyes of ourselves, and look to Him, the only constant that there is.
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