The Reason for our Watchfulness

With all the buzz created from the most recent End-of-the-World prediction, I'm glad the Giants and A's had the foresight to schedule an early start time to this afternoon's game.

First pitch is at 4:10,  so Tim Lincecum and Brett Anderson have a solid 1:50 to get through five innings and get a winner declared before the clock strikes 6 p.m. Billy Beane must have been behind that decision--Moneyball indeed...

It really has been interesting, and even thought-provoking to watch how today's world takes in an exact doomsday prediction, what with all the social media out there (including, but not limited to, the Official Site of Jay and Janelle Hobbs).

In the past few weeks, I've joined the Twitter-verse, and along with my theological/pastoral follows, I'm following several sportswriters (mainly Giants beat writers), along with one of my favorite comedians, Jim Gaffigan.

Jim has plenty to say about all the aforementioned buzz, for example:

• Dear God, Can I get extension on my Judgement Day? I was sick & distracted by Twitter. (btw follow back?)
• This Rapture stuff is silly. BTW how do I become a good person in 12 hrs? Anyone know what God’s favorite ice cream is?
• Anyone know if the shuttles to Hell will have Wifi? Asking for a friend.
• “I didn’t say Judgment Day. I said Judge MINT Day. Which is better Mentos or Tic Tacs? Hope there wasn’t any confussion.” - God 

Outside of recognizing these tweets for sheer comedic value, isn't this an enlightening window to see how our world--and if we're being honest--we tend to view the coming Judgement, that Day on which God will set everything to rights and separate the sheep from the goats?

The enlightening and convicting element to all of this is that, in response to a knucklehead on the radio who no doubt has a whacky timeline that includes some version of flannelgraph, we are treating the Judgement as something fictional.

What we need to realize--both Christians and non-Christians--is that the Day of the Lord is coming. It's as far from fictional as it gets.

And Jesus has plenty to say about that Day. In fact, he devotes two chapters-worth of solid teaching on the subject in Matthew 24-25, which begins with his disciples asking him for a precise date of his return and ends with Jesus reminding the Twelve that a different "Day" is right around the corner--the Day of his death.

A few things about the Day of the Lord (Judgement Day) to glean from these chapters:

• Birth Pains Precede Baby
• You can't miss it
• Ready or Not, Here I Come

Birth Pains Precede the Baby
For anyone who's been in or around a delivery room (or even a pregnant woman), you know that pain precedes delivery. This may seem like a fairly obvious point, but Jesus applies it to the signs of his coming.

He says that nation rising up against nation, kingdoms rising up against kingdoms, famines and earthquakes will precede his coming. Alright, we have all of those things happening now--in the past year, month, week, even days, not to mention the Israel border scuttlebutt in Washington--doesn't that mean that He is coming soon and very soon?

Well maybe. But birth pains don't start the same clock for everyone. They are valid signals that the process is underway, but some women are in labor for 24 or more hours, while others are in labor for just an hour or so. It's an inexact, non-precise metaphor, and you've gotta believe that Jesus understood that.

The folly of predicting the exact timing of the Lord's return is underscored repeatedly throughout these two chapters, as Jesus says things like, "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only."

Are we to believe that the angels and the very Son of God himself, Jesus who is at the Father's right hand, don't know the time, but some old dude in Oakland does? That is folly. 

The fact that all these things (wars, earthquakes, etc.) are happening and have been happening for 2,000 years is directly related to another statement of Jesus in Matthew 24: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."

The end is coming, and that means we Christians need to get about the work of worldwide evangelism. It means that I need to be bold with people I interact with on an everyday basis, and it means that I need to be willing to orient my life in such a way that people hear the gospel and have a chance to believe.

You Can't Miss It
Okay, so we can't know for sure when. Does that mean that we won't know when it actually is happening? Not at all, it's going to be the clearest event imaginable. You can't miss it.

Jesus uses at least three metaphors in these two chapters that all speak to the clarity of his coming:

• It's like lightning going from one end of the sky to the other--you can't miss it
• It's like when vultures gather, you know there's a corpse there--you won't be able to misinterpret it
• It's like when a seasonal tree that blooms only in the spring blooms, you know it's spring--again, no interpretation necessary, it's that obvious

He's saying these things in order to comfort his disciples--the Twelve and us. We're always afraid of not getting invited to the party, or showing up late to the dance, but what Jesus is saying is that it will be an absolute impossibility to miss his coming. When he comes, everyone will know it.

That means that when someone claims to have insider knowledge, we can and should reject what they are saying out of hand. By definition, nobody has insider knowledge. What has been whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the rooftops.

That's why its baffling and a clear work of the devil that so many are sucked in by claims to insider knowledge. Anyone who claims insider knowledge to the mind and work of God is a charlatan and a liar, and there's no grey area there. Jesus doesn't allow for it.

Ready or Not, Here I Come
Then what should our response be, as Christians who know we will be rescued on that great and unmistakeable Day of the Lord?

Jesus says that we need to get busy.

He uses several metaphors to point out the fact that we need to live in constant readiness and preparedness for his coming.

It's like the master of the house has gone out of town and we don't know when he's coming back. Our response, in that case, ought to be to live as if he's coming back today. To redeem the time and be a productive servant in his house.

It's like the 10 young ladies waiting for the bridegroom to come. Half of them are wise and bring extra oil for their lamps, because they don't know exactly when he's coming, while the other half are foolish and assume that they won't need extra oil. Guess what? The run out of oil and miss the wedding feast.

It's as if he has given us various gifts and wants us to make the best use of them possible. We may know that he requires much of us--i.e. all of who we are--but that is to be motivation for productivity and kingdom advancement, not a sanctifying of our laziness.

In each of these metaphors, the consequences for abusing our time are severe. The wicked servant is ordered to be chopped into pieces and thrown out where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, while the worthless, gift-wasting servant is likewise thrown out into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Maybe the most severely disappointing consequence comes to the unprepared virgins, who, in the words of Rocky Balboa, "Should have planned ahead." They have to make a last-minute run to the lamp-oil store, and when they return, they knock on the door only to hear the devastating words of the bridegroom:

"Truly I say to you, I do not know you."

As rightly terrifying as the other two consequences are, I'm struck even more by this statement. That is tragedy. To think you know the Heavenly Bridegroom and find out at the moment of truth that in fact, He doesn't know you.

What to Wear
I want more than anything else in the world to be known by Heaven's Bridegroom. So how do I prepare?

Here's how: I will trust in the Bridegroom and his sin-bearing death, and I will claim his resurrection as my own. Then, I will get active and live out his mission.

It won't do to short-circuit trust in the Bridegroom and just start working. No, he has done the work. He is the master of the house, the Bridegroom, and it would be the highest act of mistrust and treason if I were to just try and work my way toward preparedness.

He has done the work, yet I am called to fruitful, prepared kingdom living. That's the difference between a sheep and a goat. A sheep feeds the hungry, gives drink to the thirsty, clothes the naked, and visits both the sick and the prisoner.

The sheep does this because he himself was once hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and imprisoned, but the Shepherd-King, the Son of Man, gave him--gave me!--food, water, clothes, and visited the sick (dead), imprisoned sheep.

This is the heart of the gospel. King Jesus has visited us, and he himself has given us life, righteousness and joy. He is coming back some day soon to rescue his people, and I can't wait.

Lord, make me busy, useful and prepared in the meantime.