“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.
Matthew 24:36-37
A dear, sweet, woman of faith at a former congregation always brought up this trendy topic at least twice a year it seemed. I would cringe inside when the topic came up. I still do.
You guessed it.
The END TIMES!
The second coming of Christ!
The Apocalypse!
No, not again. But there you have it. A lot of Christians are fascinated by this juicy topic. I think mostly because it carries with it the same attractions as a great Hollywood movie:
- Excitement
- Danger
- Fear of the unknown
This otherwise kind, very biblically savvy lifelong Christian seemed to have a never-ending fascination with Bible texts and current events that connected to End Of The World scenarios. In spite of otherwise knowing her Bible well, she would insist on having an animated conversation with me in the Lobby over coffee about how so-and-so (who was usually a more famous religious authority, published author, and/or tv preacher) had cracked the code and just knew that such-and-such an event now directly referred to one or more Bible passages about the second coming of Jesus and this same quasi-celebrity was predicting the exact date or at least warning that it must be imminent.
Well, problem is, in more than one place, Jesus said that even he didn’t know when he would be returning (click here or here for starters).
Even.
Jesus.
Didn’t.
Know.
So, what makes anyone think that brother so-and-so at xyz ministries on channel K(givemeallyourmoney)TV has suddenly cracked the code that the Son of God said was beyond his knowledge? I’ll tell you what.
It’s spelled H-U-B-R-I-S
It can also be spelled, F-O-M-O fear of missing out.
We are suckers for FOMO. We tend to assume that someone, somewhere is holding out on us. This is the mindset that Satan exploited in the Garden of Eden. in Genesis 3:1-6 we read:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other
Genesis 3:1-6
beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Now, there is a lot we could do with this text from Matthew chapter 24 as we enter the first week of Advent. But let’s just eave it to this: The main strategy that Satan used, and still uses, is to exploit the temptation that we are somehow missing out on something. More explicitly, God is holding something back from us. It worked on Eve. It also still works on us. It’s easy to get sidetracked by the Genesis reference. The point is, from the beginning, we have been vulnerable to FOMO. May of us crave being in the know. That’s why conspiracy theories prosper, with or without evidence.
In know, I know, I can hear the questions now:
- Why did God create a tree like that in for the first place?
- Why did God create humans to be like that?
- Why is Satan even allowed into the garden?
You’re gonna have to focus people. This is a blog post, not a book. I will address what I think is the better question today, given that this week we are entering into the season of Advent:
What are we supposed to do with such texts in Scripture in the first place?
My advice here is going to be the same as for a variety of situations:
Look to Jesus.
Jesus seems ok with not knowing when he, the Son of Man, would return and complete all that God had planned to do in redeeming creation. Now, Jesus is notorious for not answering questions directly. In the Gospels, he gets asked literally hundreds of questions. There are only a handful of times when he responds with a direct answer. Normally, he would just use the opportunity to re-direct the conversation to something more important or relevant. Here in Matthew chapter 24 and in Acts chapter 1, he answers directly: I don’t know. Only my Father in heaven knows.
Jesus seems ok with that arrangement. Perhaps we should be ok with that as well. Just maybe. Ya think?
Without getting into all the intricacies of how the Trinity works (remember, this is a blog post, not a book), there are some clear ‘job responsibilities’ delegated to each person in the Trinity. Apparently, among many other things, it’s the Father’s job to know and even initiate the return of the Messiah. And, in part, it’s Jesus’ job to be ok with that and faithfully wait until that day. Maybe Jesus gives us an opportunity, another hint about how to relate not only to texts like Matthew 24, and Acts 1, but also the Advent season in general.
Jesus seems to advocate a kind of active waiting. That is, we are told to basically not worry about when and in the meantime, busy ourselves with Kingdom work. In Acts chapter 1, they (we) are told that they will receive power from on high and that they (we) were to be witnesses. Witnesses to the home city, Jerusalem, their country of origin, Judea, the land to Samaria (which also represented serving people we’d least like to serve), and to the ends of the earth.
We are meant to think less about developing a ‘secret decoder ring’ style of Christianity where we wring our hands trying to discover something even Jesus said he didn’t know. You see, what I’ve noticed over almost thirty years of full-time ministry, is that this type of ‘cracking the code to be in on the know’ style of Christianity regularly leads to very little actual activity. This type of Christianity often hides in the safe enclaves of like-minded people doing nothing but pouring over dusty books and selectively interpreting signs but rarely gets any actual ministry done. A better way is to lead a life of active waiting. Taking action in word and deed in our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, is a clear set of marching orders. Something that we will know whether or not we are doing it.
Martin Luther was once asked what he would do if he somehow knew that Jesus would return tomorrow. ‘Plant a tree of course’ was his response. In other words, go on with living a good, Christ-honoring life every moment of every day. Doing our level best to be about work that makes life better for others while looking for opportunities to point them to Jesus. In this scenario, whenever he does return, he will find us busy with work he would take delight in. Make this a great Advent!
See you in the Mission Field!
Pastor Mark
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