Read Matthew 24:36-44
A couple was shopping at a local department store. They had just purchased a piece of luggage and a cooler. As the husband was waiting for his wife to finish the rest of her shopping he dragged the luggage and cooler around with him to the shoe department. A clerk asked if he could be of assistance.
“No, thank you," He replied. “I’m just waiting for my wife."
At that point, a man behind him said, "I’m waiting for my wife, too, but I never thought of bringing a lunch and an overnight bag with me."
It’s the waiting time again because today is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent means the coming or arrival of something extremely important, in this case we are expecting for the arriving of Jesus Christ; based on today’s scripture reading, we are waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Dr. George Sweeting once estimated that "more than a fourth of the Bible is predictive prophecy...Both the Old and New Testaments are full of promises about the return of Jesus Christ. Over 1800 references appear in the O.T., and seventeen O.T. books give prominence to this theme. Of the 260 chapters in the N.T., there are more than 300 references to the Lord’s return--one out of every 30 verses. Twenty-three of the 27 N.T. books refer to this great event...For every prophecy on the first coming of Christ, there are 8 on Christ’s second coming."
(SOURCE: Today in the Word, MBI, December, 1989, p. 40.)
One of the problems with Jesus second coming is that most people want to know exactly when. His disciples wanted to know when and that’s why they asked this question about his return, and this passage is part of Jesus’ answer to their question. This anxiety of wanting to know when Jesus is coming has created a lot of problems in the history and even in today’s society.
In 1994, when I was still in seminary, one of my cousins told me that Rev. Harold Camping, the owner of the Family Radio, predicted that Jesus was coming on September 4, 1994. One day I got connected with one of his disciples, who was actually a policeman, through the internet and we started debating about this issue. I quoted this verse where Jesus said, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” But, he argued that Jesus said this before his the resurrection. He didn’t know it then, but after the resurrection it was a different story. He quoted a bunch of irrelevant Bible verses to support his argument. Then I gave up.
September 4, 1994, came by and nothing happened. I saw my cousin and asked him what Rev. Camping said and that I thought he must be embarrassed to see his fortunetelling didn’t come true. My cousin told me that Rev. Camping said Jesus had come on that day, and he was somewhere on this earth that we just didn’t know where he was yet. I was amazed by his “thick face.” By the way, a “thick face” is a Chinese expression of being shameless. A decade later, I stumbled on Family Radio and still heard him preaching and answering Bible questions.
Let us look at today’s scripture and see what Jesus teaches us how to deal with the issue of his second coming and how to wait for him.
1 – Don’t Speculate the Date of His Coming
Jesus said, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Jesus was very straight forward about his ignorance about his return date, and in all four gospels he repeatedly discouraged us from predicting his coming. Human beings are not created to handle the details of long range future. I don’t know why, but I believe God in his intelligent design created us to mature and evolve through the challenge of faith, hope, and love. Knowing the details will eliminate the necessity of faith, hope, and love, therefore, it would thwart the process of maturity. If you know the details of the future, you don’t have to use much of your brain much and don’t have to be creative anymore.
Back in Burma, on the streets and parks of Rangoon, there are rows and rows of little shops with people sitting there for palm reading, astrology, and fortunetelling. I thought that I wouldn’t see those things in America. But I was wrong. There is no shortage of fortunetellers, tarot card readers, and psychic hotlines in this most scientifically and technologically advanced nation. Event some pastors like Harold Camping, TV evangelists, and Radio evangelists are doing that, just like in Burma almost every Buddhist monk is a fortuneteller.
As Edwin Friedman said, one of the biggest substance abuse of all in our generation is human addiction to data particularly the data that we are not supposed to know. It is one of Satan’s ploys to halt human evolution by getting people addicted to something, and in our age it is addiction to data. If only I know a little more, I will be satisfied. I just need only a little bit more to make decision. The more we know, the more we want to know and our focus is then sidetracked from what matters most. Friedman say, data addition is part of a failure of nerve, “I am afraid of taking the next step without knowing everything.”
Jesus in his full human form told us that he doesn’t know about that day, but only the Father knows. So let us get sober for data addiction. Don’t try to speculate the date of his second coming that we are already told not to know. In Luke 21, we are also told not to believe in those people who speculate the time of Jesus return, not to go after them.
2 – Be Watchful
This is the paradox. Jesus doesn’t want us to know the day of his coming, but he wants us to be watchful. He said he would appear suddenly, “For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
He doesn’t want us to be intoxicated in the future, but he doesn’t want us to be intoxicated to the present either. He said, “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man.” In other words, Jesus says that it is foolish to be completely oblivious to the future, by swamping ourselves in eating, drinking, and sex.
My interpretation of this paradox is that God has designed human maturity and evolution by having our mind’s muscles constantly toned by making courageous decisions in the tension between “the resistance to the desire to know every detail of the future” and “watchfulness for God’s revelations and surprises.” It is a complex thought in a long sentence, so let me repeat. God has designed human beings to mature and evolve by having our mind’s muscles constantly toned by making courageous decisions in the tension between “the resistance to the desire to know the details of the future” and “the watchfulness for God’s revelations and surprises.” I believe this tension forces us to become creative and grow.
Jesus emphasizes this watchfulness again in the next verses, “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.”
Jesus is comparing his coming to the coming of a thief that you know that he is coming at that particular part of the night, but you don’t know exactly what time, so you stay awake to catch his coming. Being awake is another word for watchfulness. The opposite is like the people who fall asleep by getting intoxicated in their eating and drinking, etc., meaning those people that are consumed by the consumables. So, be alert. Be watchful.
3 – Be Ready
Jesus warned, “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” How can we be ready? Jesus mentioned it in the next passage, which is not included in today’s lectionary. But to make today’s thought complete, we must look at the next passage. He talks about readiness by being faithful:
“Who then is the faithful and wise slave, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. But if that wicked slave says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and he begins to beat his fellow slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know. He will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
See in this passage he is continue talking about his coming at an unexpected time. But, he wants to see us faithfully doing our work when he comes back because he has assigned each and everyone of us a task. You must know what God has assigned you to do. Each and every one of us is called by God to fulfill God’s purpose on earth.
In fact, God designed you uniquely to fulfill that particular purpose. Look at your figure prints; each of us has a unique set of figure prints. There is no other person in the world, even your twin sister or brother, that has the exactly the same finger print as yours. That means each one of us is created uniquely to fulfill a unique call. If you don’t fulfill you call, the rest of the world gets cheated because no one else can fulfill that call for you.
It is very important to discover your call in life and fulfill it. One of the ways to discover your call in life is by being sensitive to your concerns towards the things that concerns God. Like Bob Pierce said, “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.”
Recently, as I read the news about Burma, my mind kept revisiting a memory of my visit to Thailand years ago. I took a taxi to church one Sunday morning. I guess as we were passing by a red-light district from a distance, the taxi driver turn around and asked me whether I was interested in finding a prostitute. They obviously made money by bringing customers to the brothels. He said, “I know a place where there are beautiful girls, young Burmese girls, only fourteen, fifteen years old.” I felt a jolt in my heart. He didn’t know that I was from Burma. I told him, no thanks and just get me to the church. When I came back to my apartment that afternoon, I wept the entire evening. I still weep whenever I remember this reality. Burma, where I used to call home, has been in political turmoil for half a century—for more than my entire life—and the resulted poverty has forced many young people to be sold in neighboring countries, like Thailand, for sex slavery. For years I wish I could do something, but, being an exile myself, I felt powerless to do anything significant. Now, I have decided to find some ways to do something about it.
My point of mentioning this is that in each of you there is a story of life that breaks your heart that also breaks the heart of God. I want you to discover your call and I want you to spend the rest of your life fulfilling it. Jesus might come back in the next twenty years or a thousand years, but he might also come back tomorrow. When he comes back he wants us to see each of us fulfilling his or her call.
I hope you would be inspired by this video intro of Mama Heidi...
[Source of the video: http://www.wingclips.com/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16182&category_id=281]
I am not saying that everyone has to do what Mama Heidi does. As I said, each of us has a different call. We need to discover it and fulfill it. It will make Jesus happy to see us working faithfully like this when he comes back. This is how Jesus wants us to wait for him; this is what he means by being ready, being watchful, and being prepared.
May God bless all of you, Amen!
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