Waiting can be challenging when it involves other people, events, or
programs. Does it sometimes seem like an eternity when we must patiently wait
for something to arrive, start or end? We wait for someone to return from an
errand, for the service to start, for the class to end, and perhaps for your
pizza to arrive hot and on time.
Waiting can be tolerable if we know, from experience, that everything
normally works out in the end. The UPS truck eventually brings the delivery,
the curtain opens and the movie starts, the class lecture finally ends, and our pizza arrives before
we starve to death.
However, there is a waiting process that really doesnāt involve literal waiting around. It involves us living our lives actively engaged, hopeful and watchful that what we are waiting for is
already underway and could come at any moment. We are talking about the second advent of Jesus Christ.
Many of us are familiar with the first
advent when Jesus entered the world in the flesh as a newborn baby. He
arrived as the Christ-child. The Messiah. The Savior. As we read in John 1:14, āThe Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have
seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the
Father, full of grace and truth.ā This event was foretold. The world
waited. He arrived. All was fulfilled.
Advent. The season is more than just about
the Christmas story or the beginning of the Church liturgical year. The word is
Latin (Adventus) and means ācomingā or āarrival.ā This same Latin
word is also translated into the Greek with the word āParousiaā that Paul uses in 1
Thessalonians 2:19. The point is clear: Jesus is coming back again.
As we anticipate
the return of Christ and find ourselves āwaiting on Jesusā to come back, I
believe there is one important lesson to learn about this āsecond advent.ā The
lesson is from the Apostle Paul in 1
Thessalonians 5:2 when he warns us that āā¦the
day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.ā
The
astonishing thing to note is that this verse is written in āpresent tenseā meaning it can be
translated āThe day of the Lord is
coming like a thiefā¦ā Paul, writing in āpresent tense,ā doesnāt mean that
the return of Jesus is this one-time event that will eventually happen āway out
thereā in the distant future. By no means!
Paul is
literally saying that the events surrounding the return of Jesus are already under way. The process has
already started. The plan is underway. That is why we need to be not only
waiting, but watchingā¦.not only watching, but staying alert and spiritually
awake. Since this event is āalready under wayā it could literally happen todayā¦.perhaps
even before we are finished reading this article!
I think,
perhaps, it would be in our best interest to stop thinking of the second advent as nothing more than a
long period of time where we are āwaiting on Jesusā to come back hundreds of
years from now. As if we should just āgo back to what we were doingā because
Jesus probably wonāt return in our lifetime.
Rather, with
joy and excitement, we can change our attitudes and hearts to live our lives
like we are expecting Jesus āany moment now!ā If we take that perspective, we
may find that we live with greater urgency and a higher state of readiness, anticipation,
and eagerness that it could be right now!
Are you readyā¦awakeā¦watching for the fulfillment
of 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, āFor the Lord himself will come down from
heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with
the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After
that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the
Lord forever.ā
I am no
longer just āwaitingā on Jesus to return. Iām doing something about it. Iām living
like I am expecting Him anytime now! How about you? You may not be waiting much
longer! I think Gabriel may be starting to warm up his trumpet!