|
During the forty days after Easter, Jesus
just kept popping up, showing up, at the most unexpected
times in the most unexpected places. His disciples were
constantly surprised by his presence. On the road, in the
upper room, at a fish fry on the beach, and breaking bread
in the kitchen…Surprise! When you least expect it, Jesus
comes back. The Gospel writers don’t record it, but I’ll bet
two of the most frequently asked questions must have been
“When will he show up next?” and “Is Jesus coming back, or
what?”
And of course, that’s been the question of the ages for all
the ages ever since.
Across time, some people have thought
they were Jesus come back to life. Some have tried to
predict when Jesus would come. The most recent was a TV
evangelist with a new book claiming that the end of time
will come on December 21, 2012. The one thing they all have
in common is that they have all been wrong. Some have been
fixated on whether and when Jesus would come again to the
point that nothing else mattered. Some have given up on the
whole idea that Jesus might come again. But the witness of
scripture and the promise of our Lord is that one day, he
will come again. All the ancient creeds affirm it: “…from
thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” The
great anthems and hymns of the ages sing of it: “Soon and
very soon, we are goin’ to see the King.” The great
preachers of the ages have proclaimed it. And every time we
break the bread and lift the cup, we claim it as the great
mystery of our faith: “Christ has died. Christ is Risen.
Christ will come again.”
Especially those who have lived in times
of oppression and persecution have clung to it as the last
great hope. Best known to us are the African American
spirituals, written out of incredible suffering, yet singing
with the hope of the coming of the Risen Christ:
I’m gonna ride in the chariot in the
morning,
I’m gonna ride in the chariot to see
my Lord.
There’s a king and captain high and
he’s coming by and by.
Soon and very soon, we are going to
see the King.
And so for the past two thousand years,
Christians have asked, “Is Jesus coming again, or what?”
1. It’s the great affirmation of
the ages. It means history is going somewhere. Jesus is
coming again.
Contrary to many middle-eastern
mythologies of the day, the Bible does not see life as a
meaningless cycle, forever going round and round, going
nowhere…unlike the defeatist view of a hopeless
reincarnation, the dismal promise of possibly coming back
again if you’re lucky, but you’ll never know it…unlike
contemporary spirituality with no direction, no purpose, and
no center, no finale…a biblical view of history calls us to
look toward a day which the Bible calls the “Day of the
Lord,” when the promise of God’s good creation will be
fulfilled, when all of life will meld into the promise of
shalom, when there will be no more tears, no more crying, no
more pain, for the former things have passed away.
A biblical view of history says that
despite all the evidence to the contrary, God is still at
work in this world in redemptive ways. And when the final
curtain falls on this whole human drama, it won’t be the fat
lady who sings, it will be the whole of creation joining in
one great crescendo of praise when “at the name of Jesus,
every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father.” (Phil.
2:10-11)
…and the shorthand for that is “Jesus is coming again.”
The reading of the morning gives a
glimpse of that day. Luke includes it in the Holy Week
narratives, probably on Wednesday, just before Maundy
Thursday. In fact, in Luke’s Gospel, this is really Jesus’
“last lecture”—his final presentation to his students prior
to the final days. The next chapter begins: “Now the feast
of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover,
and the chief priests and scribes were seeking how to put
him to death.” In John’s Gospel, Jesus offers one more
extended “last lecture” at the last supper table, but in
Luke’s gospel, this is it.
I am sure you have seen the YouTube
video, the Oprah special guest, and now the book by Randy
Pausch called The Last Lecture. Pausch is a
47-year-old professor at Carnegie Mellon who is dying of
cancer. He gives one last lecture, aimed particularly at his
children. So here in Luke’s version, this is Jesus’ last
lecture.
It’s a narrative full of foreboding
images, describing events which Jesus’ hearers could see
taking place around them. Within thirty years it would all
be fulfilled. The great Temple was destroyed, without one
stone left on top of another. People were being led astray
by false teachers. Nations were rising against nations.
Famines and pestilence stalked the countryside. Persecution
of their Christian brothers and sisters was beginning. They
saw it all…right before their very eyes. Jesus says, “This
generation will not pass away until all of this is
fulfilled.” And yet, in the midst of it all, Jesus says,
“…you will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power
and great glory.”
Whew! Powerful stuff!
For that age and for every age when the
Church has been under persecution, this promise is the hope
which has given courage and strength to the church’s
witness. Jesus is saying to his age and every age, “Look
beyond the current crisis. Look for the evidence of God at
work even in the turmoil around you. Lift up your heads.
Straighten up your backs. Gather up your strength and you
will see the presence and the power and the glory of God
even in times of strife.”
Jesus encourages his disciples in the
face of suffering in every age: “Hang in there, because one
day the morning will break.”
One day, the great Day of the Lord will
come.
One day, a day of peace and brotherhood
will come to pass.
Swords will be turned into plowshares and
spears into pruning hooks.
One day, the fullness of life represented
in the life, death and Resurrection of
Jesus Christ will be lived out in
the human drama.
One day, Jesus will come again.
Do you see why this belief has
always resonated with Christians in suffering, much more
than with Christians in places of comfort and ease?
It’s not so much about Jesus literally
parachuting down out of the clouds and landing, hopefully
feet first, on the Mount of Olives, then setting up some
kind of global government, some new world order, where he
will rule a new United Nations from the Knesset. Take this
all too literally and you destroy the beauty, the power and
the inspiration of it all.
Rather Jesus lifts up the hope that in
the big sweep of time, God’s first intent for the created
order will be the final event of human history and God’s
kingdom will come on earth, even as it is in heaven; that
the life seen in Jesus will become the order of the day;
that the fullness of God’s revelation made known in his
life, death and resurrection will come once and for all.
Now, if you don’t believe something
like that, where do you think we are headed? What do you
believe?
That the best we can do is just muddle
through?
That the only hope for humankind is to
try to make the best of it until we
blow up or burn up the planet?
That all you can hope for is more of the
same?
Whether you take the language literally
or not, if you don’t hold out some kind of a hope for a
grand finale, if you don’t believe that in the end, good
will win out over evil and that one day the life seen in
Christ will conquer sin and the Resurrection victory over
death will extend to all creation, then what do you believe
about how this whole thing will end?
2. So the counsel of Jesus’ last lecture is, “Stay
watchful…Jesus is coming again.”
In Luke’s narrative, the conclusion to
Jesus’ last lecture is a call to stay attentive: “Take heed,
lest your hearts be weighed down with the cares of this
life.”
Eugene Peterson’s colorful translation
says, “Be on your guard. Don’t let the sharp edge of your
expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping.
Don’t go to sleep at the switch.”
The
good old King James Version says simply, “Watch ye,
therefore…”
Stay attentive. Stay alert. Stay awake.
Watch for the signs of Christ coming in the midst of the
human story. That’s also the focus of Randy Pausch’s The
Last Lecture. He addresses it to his own children,
and basically he is telling them to live. Live in memory and
hope! Live in an awareness of the brevity of life! Live with
an attentiveness to the world around you! So Jesus says,
“Watch, ye, therefore, for you do not know when your Lord
will come.”
When I was in seventh grade, I was
squirrelly, noisy, antsy…well, I was a seventh grader! I
remember being at Cherry Run Camp Meeting in Pennsylvania.
The youth were gathered on the porch of one of the cabins
one day, doing what seventh graders do—being squirrelly,
noisy, antsy…well, like seventh graders. One of the more
modest women of the camp came up on the porch and with a
look of disdain said, “Now, tell me. Would you want to be
doing this when Jesus comes?” We felt properly corrected and
hushed, and got quiet and subdued, at least until she was
out of sight.
But now, as an adult, I look back on that
moment, and if I had to answer her question today I would
say, “Yes! Yes! To be in touch with friends, experiencing
what it means to be a seventh grader, discovering joy in the
midst of all the turmoil of life—yes, that’s exactly what I
would like to be doing when Jesus comes.” Living life to the
fullest, attentive to the world, in touch with others,
looking for the signs of God’s good future in all of
creation. Watch! Stay awake! Listen! And you might just see
the Son of God coming in all his glory.
Theologian and author Barbara Brown
Taylor says it does no good to focus only on the past or
what is going to happen in the future:
…the time to start living is now. Because
whenever the end comes, that is when it will come—in the
now! Every morning when you wake up, decide to live the life
God has given you to live right now. Refuse to live
yesterday over and over again. Resist the temptation to save
your best for tomorrow. There is no time for that, no matter
how much time is left.
She
concludes:
Who knows? Ours may be the generation to
finally see him ride in on the clouds, or we may meet him
the way generations before us have—one by one, as we close
our eyes for the last time. Either way, our lives are in
God’s hands. Either way, God leaves the living to us. To
God be all honor and glory, now and forever.
(Christian Century, Sept. 21,
2004, page 38)
Is Jesus coming again, or what?
I really don’t know. All I know is I want
to live in the now, watching, attentive, awake and alert to
what God is doing now, “…until Christ comes in final
victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet, all honor and
glory is yours now and forever, amen and amen.”
|
