How can we be watchful for our Lord’s coming in
glory at the end of the age, if we aren’t watchful for how He’s
present for us now, in the in-between time? 2,000 years ago God’s
Son came in the flesh when He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and
born of the Virgin Mary. He came to be our Savior, the One who
reconciles sinners to God. He came in weakness and humility, to
suffer and die on the Cross for the sins of all mankind. The
Creator of all things became a lowly creature so that one day all
things could become eternally new in Him. 2,000 years ago the
supreme event in human and cosmic history occurred, when God
became Man in Jesus Christ.
And most people then missed it, overlooked it
entirely. Kings after all are born in palaces, not in stables.
Kings are accompanied by nobility, by princes and princesses --
not by humble, smelly shepherds. It was to the lowly – to the
nobodies -- that the Son of God was first revealed. The angels
announced the Savior’s birth, not to the high and mighty, but to
shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flocks by
night. The powerful, the wealthy, those who were seated on lofty
thrones, were too busy with eating and drinking and all the
trappings of power to take notice of a humble birth in Bethlehem.
Scripture teaches it’s going to be the same way at
the end of the age, when the One born to Mary comes again. Those
who are all caught up in other things – preoccupied with eating
and drinking and good times, status, wealth, prestige, whatever
their opiate may be – will be taken by surprise. The Son of God
will come suddenly and they will be found sleeping, unprepared.
There will be one big difference, however. At His first advent,
our Lord came in meekness and humility so He could be betrayed and
crucified. At His Second Advent, Jesus will come in power and
there will be no resisting Him. As the Creed says, He will
come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead. . .
And who will be able to tell Him “no” when He says “yes”, or
tell Him “yes” when He says “no”? That’s how His coming will be at
the end of the age.
But right now, you and I and all Christians are in
the in-between time, the time between our Lord’s first and second
advents. We’re in the time of waiting, not the time of
fulfillment. We’re in the time of hope and expectancy, not the
time when hopes and expectations are realized. We’re in the time
of faith, not the time of sight. Now we see through a glass
darkly; then we will see face-to-face. And now in the
in-between time, while everything goes on pretty much as it always
has since the Fall into sin, our Lord warns you and me and all of
His Church to be watchful and alert and ready for His return.
Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when
that time will come, Jesus says in
today’s Gospel. He then describes what His return will be like.
A man goes on a journey and puts his servants in charge of his
house while he’s gone. Each servant is given a task to do, and
the doorman is commanded to keep awake and watchful for the
master’s return. Just because the master of the house is gone
doesn’t mean it’s party time. The servants are to conduct
themselves in expectation of his immediate return – even though
that return could be weeks, months, or even years in the future.
In the in-between time of their master’s departure and his return,
the servants are to be watchful and alert and always ready for his
arrival.
So it is in the Church, the household of faith, our
Lord says. He tells His people:
Therefore keep watch because
you do not know when the owner of the house will come
back--whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock
crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let
him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to
everyone: Watch!
In other words, Be ready. Be awake. Be prepared. Don’t be found
sleeping and indifferent if He comes suddenly. Keep watch, for He
is most assuredly coming again.
But the
question is, How are we to remain watchful and alert now, in the
in-between time? After all, Jesus was born, lived, suffered,
died, and was resurrected 20 centuries ago. To say the least,
that’s a long time. The Church has been waiting almost 2,000
years for Jesus to return. Again, that’s a long time. That
watchman at the door must be getting pretty sleepy by now. Those
servants must be feeling the need to let their guard down and
relax a little. The temptation to complacency beckons to us in so
many ways. Live for your career, for entertainment, for sexual
pleasure, for any one of a thousand things rather than in
expectation of our Lord’s reappearing. When the routine of
waiting gets to be too much, drags on for too long, how do we
Christians continue to wait and to hope and to be watchful for
Jesus’ Second Advent?
It’s helpful
to remember what it is we’re waiting for. Let’s put it this way:
perhaps you’ve got family coming in for Christmas, a son or
daughter and their children whom you haven’t seen in what seems
like ages. You can’t wait to see them again, to give them a hug
and a kiss and look them in the eye and tell them you love them.
Each day brings their arrival closer. Each day you anticipate
what it will be like when they walk through the door and set their
luggage down on the kitchen floor. At last you’ll have them with
you again. At last you’ll get to hear their voices and see the
changing expressions of their faces. You can hardly wait.
But in the
in-between time of waiting, let’s say your son or daughter calls
you on the phone periodically and lets you know how much they look
forward to being with you again. Only four more weeks till
we’ll be home! they say one Saturday. Only three more
weeks! they say during your conversation with them the
following Saturday. And those telephone conversations somehow
make their arrival seem nearer and dearer. They make the
anticipation bearable.
In the Church
we are to remember what we are waiting for. Or maybe I should
say, Who we are waiting for. Because it’s
not just an event – the climax of all human history -- for which
we’re waiting. It’s a Person – One who loves us and gave Himself
over to death on a Cross and the wrath of God in our place, for
our forgiveness and salvation. The Church is waiting for her Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, who shared our humanity so that through
faith in Him we could share in all the blessings of the redemption
He brings.
All these
blessings were secured for us on the Cross. The Cross of Christ
was a must to bring the final fulfillment of all God’s gracious
promises to His people when Jesus comes again. Your Savior came
in the flesh to serve and to lay down His life as a ransom for
you, to take away all your sins and give you all His
righteousness. God declares you “not guilty” by His grace through
faith in Jesus. Because Jesus carried all your sin away by His
death on the Cross, God doesn’t see that sin now. He looks at you
and sees a son or daughter – a member of His family forever for
Jesus’ sake.
And the Savior
who willingly suffered and died for you makes all this a reality.
In Christ alone you can be confident of God’s eternal welcome. In
Christ alone you have your share in God’s kingdom along with all
the saints in paradise. In Christ alone you have a future and a
hope infinitely brighter than anything this fallen world can even
hint at giving.
And it’s all
wrapped up in Jesus, the One who loved you and went to the Cross
to take all your sin and guilt away. It all comes to fulfillment
when He returns. You status as children of God will then be
revealed before the eyes of the entire universe.
That’s why the
Church prays, Come quickly, Lord. That’s why the Church strives
to remain watchful and alert. That’s why the Church is to be
faithful in proclaiming Christ crucified for the forgiveness of
sins. It’s why the Church catechizes and baptizes. It’s why the
Church is to administer the Sacrament of the Altar according to
her Lord’s institution. No other message is sufficient to the
task of saving us. No other message can bring us sinners the
forgiveness of our sins. No other message brings God’s gracious
comfort to all who are troubled and weighed down by guilt. No
other message can keep us watchful and alert for Jesus’ coming at
the end of the age. Don’t look for any other message, any other
word. Look for the message centered on Jesus – on His Cross and
resurrection and the promise of His return.
But there is a
“what” to our waiting as well as a “who”. Yes, we wait eagerly
for our Lord to reappear. We wait as those who by Holy Baptism
were implanted into Christ and made a new creation. We wait as
those who know that our true life is
hidden with Christ in God, and that when Christ, who is our life,
appears, then we also will appear with Him in glory.
That’s the
“what” of our waiting. For Jesus’ Second Advent will mean the
advent of the new heaven and the new earth. It will mean the
final overthrow of sin, death, and the devil. It will bring an
end to all suffering, all sickness, all sorrow and all
separation. It will drive a stake through the heart of all evil,
and will forever put down all rebellion against a holy God and His
gracious purposes. It means the new creation God made us in
Baptism will finally, fully be revealed. We will be made
completely and eternally new, in body and soul, when Jesus
returns.
But He’s not
returned yet, has He? That return is still future. It’s promise,
not yet present. We’re still in the in-between time, the time of
waiting, the time of watching, the time of tears, the time of
hope, the time when we’re called to be alert and wakeful and
ever-ready for our Lord’s return.
Like those
phone calls from your loved one I mentioned earlier, Jesus reminds
us through Word and Sacrament that He’s coming again. But it’s
more than a reminder. It’s a preparation-for. It’s a
getting-us-ready. Through the Means of Grace we’re forgiven and
strengthened in the Faith. The Lord’s Supper, for example, is a
foretaste of the heavenly feast to come that all believers in
Christ will be partakers of. Absolution grants us the forgiveness
Jesus won for the world on the Cross – the forgiveness which has
to be ours before we can ever welcome His reappearing.
To those who
have faith in Jesus that reappearing is not some awful threat but
a glorious promise. It’s not something to shrink from in fear
and dread, but something to be welcomed with joy and
thanksgiving. It’s something to be anticipated as the joyful
climax of all history, the towering pinnacle of God’s grace and
mercy, the full and final unveiling of God’s redemptive purposes
in Jesus Christ. It’s the ultimate moment that all of our earthly
moments have been yearning for.
So now, in the
in-between time, we watch and wait for our Lord’s reappearing. We
live out our days in the grace of our Baptism. We repent and
confess our sins and hear the Gospel proclamation of God’s
forgiveness in Christ. We partake of our Lord’s Body and Blood in
the Sacrament, the food that feeds our faith. And so we watch and
pray and always lean upon God’s grace in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That’s what the Church does in the in-between time as it’s waiting
for Jesus to come again. That’s what all believers in Christ do.
In Nomine Patris. . .
