Has your home ever been broken into?
I’ve only had that experience once. It happened well over 30 years ago when I served my curacy (trainee vicar) on a tough housing estate on the outskirts of Bradford, my home city in the North of England.
I heard a noise upstairs — and for a while, I assumed it was my (then) wife clattering around in the spare bedroom. Eventually, I realised she was downstairs, so I hot-footed up the stairs to find a teenage boy who was obviously high on something.
I don’t know who was more surprised — him or me. He turned his tail and jumped out of the window through which he entered. I tried to grab him, but he shed his coat like a snake’s skin, leaving me grasping his dirty, wet anorak.
Of course, he was relying on the element of surprise.
Either he thought the house was empty, or he could slip in and out without anyone hearing him — presumably with some cash or items he could sell for money.
It wouldn’t make sense for him to phone ahead to tell me that he was coming, would it?
Cheeky blighter — he hobbled away with nothing — and minus his coat. I wonder how he explained that to his parents…
I always remember that episode when I see Matthew 24, verses 43–44.
If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
The Bible is really, REALLY clear that the date of the Second Coming of Jesus is unknown.
According to verse 36 — even Jesus himself doesn’t know the date.
So why would any earthly preacher, author or writer think they do?
But they do…
After 14 years of studying the Bible, a Baptist minister, Reverend William Miller, became convinced that Christ would return in 1843. In October 1842, he published a book titled “Evidence from Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ in the year 1843.”
Now there’s a book title that (doesn’t) roll off the tongue…
Despite the wordy title, the book became an immediate bestseller. Miller announced April 3rd as the day, and it had an instant impact…
Some gullible believers headed for the mountains, hoping for a head start to heaven.
Others gathered in graveyards, planning to ascend in reunion with their departed loved ones.
Philadelphia society ladies clustered together outside town to avoid entering God’s kingdom amid the common rabble.
When April 4 dawned as usual, the Millerites — as they came to be known — were disillusioned, but soon they took heart. Their leader had published a new edition of his book, this time predicting March 21, 1844.
The devout continued to make ready, but they were disappointed once again.
A third date — October 22, 1844 — was set but passed without incident.
William Miller died soon afterwards.
Strange that William Miller’s 14 years of bible study apparently didn’t include Matthew 24.36–44
This makes being ready for Jesus’ return tricky. We can’t do it by knowing the date and ensuring we’re prepared.
It’s not like Christmas. We know when Christmas comes, don’t we? I can assert with 100% confidence that Christmas Day will come on December 25th.
In fact, I’ll stick my neck out and GUARANTEE that December 25th will be Christmas Day. Thank me later!
We know how many days are left before the last posting date and how long we have to buy and wrap the presents. Even so, some of us get caught out.
But imagine if the system was different, and we didn’t know when Christmas would be.
If one day is picked randomly every year for Christmas Day…
And the actual day was a carefully guarded secret.
The first that anyone will find out is when we get up that morning — church bells are ringing, and all the news channels announce that TODAY is Christmas Day.
When we plan a wedding, you know how long you’ve got, and you steadily tick off the items on your “to-do list” during the months beforehand.
Or when a baby is due, even though we do not know the date that labour will begin, we know the earliest date it will likely happen.
And usually — but not always — there are warning signs that things could be imminent.
Even the fire drills at my old school were not exactly unexpected. They always tested the fire alarm at 11.00 on Tuesday mornings…
But one day — the bible says — Jesus will come back, and we’ll have no prior warning.
We’ll be in the middle of our typical duties like any other day. Someone will have put the kettle on to boil but not yet made their tea. Someone else will be servicing their car, and they’ll have drained the old oil but not put any fresh oil in.
We don’t know when Jesus will return, which makes it very hard to be ready.
But ready, we need to be.
We can’t get ready because the deadline is approaching — because we don’t have a
deadline to work towards.
So what are we to do? The only alternative is to be ready EVERY day.
Every day could be the day Jesus returns, so we need to be ready for that every
day.
Paul writes to the Corinthians:
We urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. God says, ‘In the time of my favour, I heard you, and in the day of salvation, I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour; now is the day of salvation. ((2 Corinthians 6.2).
I’ll be honest—I’m glad the Bible clarifies that the time of Jesus’ coming is unknown.
If we did somehow have a date, everyone would “work back” from that date in how they led their lives.
Some people think they can behave in the most appalling and self-centred way right up until
the time, then repent the day before in readiness.
I know that you, dear reader, wouldn’t take that view. You are far too motivated by kindness and love to behave in that way.
But we all know that many people would act in that way. It’s human nature.
I think we often have the opposite problem — many Christians have got to the point where they kinda think that Jesus is never coming back, so they don’t believe that getting ready matters.
It’s the other end of the spectrum from those who obsess over the Second Coming, searching desperately for any clue in the Book of Daniel or wherever.
Instead, we assume that since Jesus hasn’t returned in 2000 years, there’s no particular reason to think it will happen any time soon.
That’s not how the Christians in the Early Church saw things. They believed that Jesus was most likely coming back in their lifetimes. So they acted accordingly — sharing their faith, sitting light to wealth and possessions and devoting themselves to spiritual maturity.
They weren’t motivated by fear or worry, so much as they felt the time was short, and they wanted to maximise their spiritual impact in the short time they thought they had.
As we now know, they were wrong to think Jesus would come back within that period.
But when you consider how dynamic and alive the Christian community was in the first Century compared to today, one has to wonder if we’ve lost something important in how we live as Christians today.
So today, as we enter Advent, the question Jesus is asking is simple:
Are we ready for the day?
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