Matthew 24 - Part 6

 

Read Matthew 24

Christ is coming next Tuesday between 1 and 5 pm.  Great, it’s like waiting for the cable guy.  Guess, I will have to be sitting at home the whole time, just to get a call at 6 pm saying he can’t make it until tomorrow.

Christ is coming this Thursday. Let me see…  I think I can work him in just before noon.

Christ is coming late Saturday evening.  Great!  I spent all week preparing my messages, and now won’t even get to deliver them.

These are all tongue-in-cheek.  What would we do if we knew the day and the hour of Christ’s coming? 

Would we test the limits of grace until a month before his coming?  Would we see what we could get away with until a week before his arrival?

Better not cut it too close.  I don’t know if Jesus observes Daylight Saving Time or not.

We may know the season of his coming but not the day nor the hour.  That leaves us a simple dichotomy.  We are ready or we or not. 

Most of the world will just be living their lives like they would any other day.  Some will go to work.  Some will go to Walmart.  Some work at Walmart.

Only the Father in heaven knows the appointed time.  He didn’t share that with Jesus or the Angels, but they are ready to go at the Father’s commands.

When Jesus comes with his angels to claim those who love him, some will be ready and others not so much.  The text says one will be taken and the other left.  We typically don’t interpret this as only 50% make the cut, but we should realize that not everyone will have lived in such a way to meet the desire of God’s heart.

Some claimed and gathered up by the angels and some left behind.

We have a single option—be ready.  Keep watch.  Just like you would protect your family even though you don’t know when the intruder might come, so too we protect our family by being ready for the return of the Lord at all times.

Jesus used the analogy of the thief and of a servant left in charge.  This is a simple dichotomy.  The servant who takes care of his master’s business while he is away will be justly rewarded.  The one who abuses the trust will be punished.

We don’t know the hour.  We don’t know the day.  We can realize the season and most would agree we are in the season of the Lord’s return.  He is coming soon.  Will that be a week or a year or a century or two?  We don’t know, but we are called to be ready.

Amen.