Hope does not disappoint

MATTHEW 24

The Second Coming

It’s Advent; and in Advent we are working with two different timescales. We prepare for Christmas, the first coming of Jesus. But we also have a tandem timeline running, as we prepare for the Second Coming.

For those overwhelmed by the horrendous consumerism of 21^st century Christmases, the idea that the ‘end is nigh’ might come as a huge relief! But for us who want to remain faithful to Christ, our hope for the Second Coming might also wake us up and shake us up.

Chapter 24 is yet more tough reading courtesy of Matthew. It is laden with imagery of hard times ahead for Jesus’ immediate (chronologically) followers as well as future disciples. There are predictions of the destruction of the temple, persecution of believers, the rise of false messiahs, the cycle of wars and rumours of wars and physical hardships caused by natural disasters (normal history in other words). 

And there are instructions to simply stay faithful. 'Stay with it - that's what God requires. Stay with it to the end. You won't be sorry, and you will be saved.' (Verse 13)

And then there is the scary stuff.

When I was a child of nine or 10, I remember an American singing group came to our church in Pakistan (Karachi’s Holy Trinity Cathedral) and gave a presentation of the gospel. It is seared in my memory because of one haunting song which was based upon Matthew 24.39-44. It was night and the main lights were switched off. We sat in near darkness as a spotlight shone on an incredibly beautiful woman singing the haunting lines ‘one will be taken, one left behind’. I was sat on the floor not far from the singers as lights shone on some but were suddenly switched off others as she sang about two men working in a field, and ‘one will be taken, one left behind’; then of two women grinding grain, and ‘one will be taken, one left behind’. I can remember feeling overwhelmed with deep sadness as well as worry about which was better: being taken (where to? By whom1? And how – beamed up like the cast of Star Trek?) or being left behind?

Jesus’ picture imagery of the Arrival of the Son of Man is powerful, memorable and was enough to put the fear of God into a young lad. Is that why he tells us these things?

We have been mulling over the character of Jesus as portrayed by Matthew. We have found in this gospel a gritty, devastatingly tough-minded (and tender-hearted) Christ. We have not very often found him to be someone we are attracted to, but rather someone we are powerfully drawn to. We can’t avoid his words. We can’t avoid his puzzling parables. We can’t avoid his healing miracles. We can’t avoid his confrontations with the religious elite. And we dare not avoid his teaching on the Second Coming.

When I was at theological college 12 years ago, there was a reluctance, I felt, to deal with this teaching. Some tutors did not believe in the second coming at all – that it was a metaphor (for what I was not sure). Others saw it as problematic for reasons, precisely, because of my reaction as a boy – that it is never right to scare people into the kingdom work; that if we only join the kingdom to look after ‘number one’ then it kind of automatically disqualifies us from the kingdom anyway. But neither of these approaches seems to be worthy of biblical scholarship or serious theological inquiry.

This chapter is all about preparedness. It is about the individual Christian and the whole fellowship of believers taking seriously the Advent message of waking up. The liturgy of Morning Prayer in Advent has this theme running right through it like a golden thread. Here is a taste of it in these call and response verses based on Romans 13:

Now it is time to awake out of sleep,
for the night is far spent and the day is at hand.
Now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed,
for the night is far spent.
Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness
and put on the armour of light,
for the day is at hand.
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ
and make no provision for the flesh,
for the night is far spent and the day is at hand.

Waking up to, watching out for and waiting for Jesus means something very, very intentional. This discipline takes a lifetime of pondering prayer and practice of living in the presence of God. Looking for Jesus in the present means being open to the Christ in everyone we meet – even, and especially, in the unexpected places and people. How do we encourage one another to recognise the hidden Christ like this? One thing Jesus is very clear about – there will be people who think they are the Christ – fake Messiahs and lying preachers – who we need to be most on our guard against. And there will also be people who will hate us because we carry Jesus’ name. Tough minds and tender hearts are needed.

But we are not to get paranoid about missing fake messiahs or that we are being tracked down by people who hate us, either. And in the same way, I believe, we are not to get paranoid about ‘being taken or being left behind’. We are just to be ready for the arrival of the Son of Man. And to live each day beautifully, faithfully and honestly – with humility and repentance. The Master is looking for people he can depend upon. And it must be possible that we indeed can be those people; not because of any merit in us, but because of Christ's grace which gives endurance. 

I want to end this section with the uplifting and timely words of Paul in Romans 5, who, in his characteristic list-minded approach to understanding the steps that lead to Christian maturity, says this:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.