The Second Coming is Now

2 December 2013 | First Sunday in Advent | Matthew 24:36-44

“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 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. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. 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. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” (Mathew 24:36-44)

Tonight we’re going to explore Jesus’ teaching about what is known as the Second Coming.

It’s a very important teaching in Christianity, but it is important to understand that it has always been an interpretation of what Jesus said.  Jesus didn’t actually say anything about his own Second Coming.  He did teach, as in tonight’s Gospel, about the coming of the Son of Man – an event predicted in the Book of Daniel, which was talked about in a lot of current popular literature in Jesus’ time.  The early Church decided that when Jesus talked about the Son of Man, he was really talking about himself.  This was the church’s conclusion after the experience of the resurrection of Jesus.  Therefore the Second Coming is a tenet of the faith stated by the Bishops, and ratified by the Emperor Constantine, at the Council of Nicaea not far from Istanbul in 325.  The creed says “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”

So what does this all mean?  It could be talking about an actual appearance on the physical earth by Jesus at some point.  Maybe so, maybe no.  I’m not sure that matters much, as I don’t think I will see it – and if I do, it will no doubt be exciting and change the entire paradigm of life.

It could be a teaching about a final day of judgment, when some will go to heaven and some to hell – this is certainly the frightening picture which seems to be suggested in some of Jesus’ teaching and has certainly been picked up by a significant element of Christianity.

But tonight I would like to talk about what I think are actually the three most important aspects of Jesus’ teaching about the Second Coming.

It is NOW. It is about the development of human judgment. It assumes the presence of the historical Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

 1. The Second Coming is NOW.

In tonight’s Gospel Jesus uses two examples of sudden change or catastrophe.  The first is the flood, in which he suggests everyone but Noah was surprised and had no escape plan.  Even with weather forecasts, major storm catastrophes like the typhoon in the Philippines or hurricanes like Sandy or Camille, stun and overwhelm the population.  You can imagine what it was like in Jesus’ time.  Remember what Hurricane Gaston did to Richmond.  Gaston was described as a minimal hurricane – it barely made the definition – but it wreaked horrible havoc in Richmond, and its influence is still being felt in the city proposals to build a flood-responsive ballpark in Shockoe Bottom.

Jesus’ second image is of a thief in the night.  He points out that a householder would obviously be alert if he knew what time a thief would arrive.

The point of both images is to suggest that alertness to what is important in life – to the kind of judgment that God wants us to have – must be a current thing. That is to say, we need to exercise good judgment NOW, not later.  Because later may be too late.

Jesus points out that you don’t have to believe in the actual sudden appearance of the Son of Man in human history to know that life must be lived now.  Natural catastrophes, or personal history, brings that home – the death or sickness of a loved one, accidents, disease, job loss, your own incapacity.  Anything can happen.

What Jesus is saying is that if you want to live life, you’d better get on with it.  He is addressing exactly that kind of religious thinking which puts everything off into some unknown future.  And to persons who are afraid of God’s judgment, he says, now is the time to get your affairs in order.  To all intents and purposes, the Second Coming is now.

 2. The Second Coming is about the development of human judgment.

In both of these images, as in other images about the Second Coming or the final judgment, Jesus departs significantly from the legalistic religion of his contemporaries.

Over and over again, he presents the situation that commands response, and leaves the response to his listeners.

Here he describes the situation of two women in a field, one of whom is taken up into the sky and the other left, — or two women grinding meal.  He talks about a thief coming suddenly.  In another parable he talks about ten bridesmaids who are not sure when the bridegroom will arrive.  He talks about people not being prepared for a flood.

He does not give a prescription of behavior.  Rather, his prescription seems to be that people need to use their heads, and be prepared and alert.  This kind of preparedness and alertness is not the same thing as being obedient to the Torah.  There is no Torah passage dealing with the coming of a flood, nor is there any provision related to the keeping of enough oil to light a lamp for a wedding, nor is there anything about making provision for protecting against thieves who may be coming.

In all of these cases, Jesus is talking about innovation, about using good judgment, about thinking in advance, and about doing what is important to you now rather than later.  He is talking about living life Now, rather than putting off the important things.

You have to develop your own judgment.

The most dramatic presentation of this idea is in his parable of the sheep and the goats.  In that picture of the Final Judgment, the Son of Man is dividing people into sheep and goats.  The criterion for the judgment is whether they recognized and responded to people they met when they were living their ordinary lives.  That is to say, for all intents and purposes, the Son of Man was present in each person they met day after day.  And how were they to respond?  With good judgment and true human compassion – something that varies from case to case, that is based on intention, that demands innovation and personal judgment.  There is no set of regulations which could fulfill the requirements of the final judgment as stated in the parable of the sheep and the goats.

The Son of Man is effectively present now, carrying the message of every human being of whom you are aware, and you are invited to respond to him with your best and most compassionate judgment.  That is the teaching of the parable of the sheep and the goats.

So let me say a word about what Jesus means by “final judgment.”  You could put it somewhere out in the future, but in these parables, Jesus is moving it into the present.  So “final judgment” means not some future courtroom, but rather something like the phrase “final answer” in a quiz show.  That is to say, when all is said and done today, we are asked to respond to the needs of our neighbors, whether in our personal behavior or in our contributions to the policy and governance of this city and society, as if each of them were a family member of the Son of Man.

For Jesus, the Second Coming is Now; and it is about the development of human judgment.

 3. The Second Coming assumes the presence of the historical Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus provides a model of the kind of judgment that he advocates.  He teaches about what is most important in his summary of the law – Love God and your neighbor as yourself.  And most important to us, he inspires us with a spirit which begins to make good judgment possible.  His teaching wouldn’t make much sense without this.  He is actually advocating that each human being seek to develop the mind of Christ, so that we may discern what is the will of God.  We wouldn’t even know where to begin if we did not see – and more important, if we did not feel – Jesus’ example in his life.  And we would not be able to find the right place to stand if there were not a living holy spirit to restore us to sanity.

St. Paul gives a wonderful presentation of this in his first letter to the Corinthians, when he compares Jesus to Adam, and encourages us to follow his example:

“The first man, Adam, became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. … The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.”  (1 Cor 15:45-49)

The Second Coming assumes the first coming of Jesus – the presentation of a new paradigm for human life, one which is full of grace and true judgment, inspired by the spirit of God’s truth.  So the Second Coming of Jesus is his coming in the spirit – his continual presence in the scriptures, in his stories and stories about him, in believers, and in the human heart.  You cannot be Jesus without being a life-giving spirit.  And as we come to bear his image, we become invested with his spirit.

The Second Coming is NOW. It is about the development of human judgment.

It assumes the presence of the historical Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

And finally, the Second Coming is about judgment – about the final judgment.  That is to say, there will never be any other judgment than the judgment of Jesus that we know now.  We are invited to absorb and ingest that judgment, so that the mind of Christ is in us.  This is not a test on which we must get 100%.  Show me any place in Jesus’ teaching or behavior where that is his criterion.  Rather it is a continual invitation to come to the stable, and kneel, and be a part today of the glorious kingdom of God.

AMEN.

The Rev. B. P. Campbell
Richmond Hill