Be on the Alert!

Reading: Matthew 24.36-44

The story is told about a housewife with a maid called Mary who would come in and help her from time to time. One day, food was put in a saucepan to boil and Mary was given strict instructions to watch it while the housewife went to do some shopping. On her return the smell of burnt food greeted her at the gate, and it grew stronger as she got closer to the house. Mary was still sitting in the kitchen, facing the stove. The element was still on and smoke was issuing from under the lid.

"Mary, whatever have you been doing?"

"You asked me to watch the saucepan, Missus, and I've been doing just that!""

In our reading we hear Jesus saying to his disciples - and to us all - "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come" (v. 42).

"Keep watch" - Jesus said that often towards the end of his earthly ministry. In the garden of Gethsemane we hear Jesus saying to his drowsy disciples, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the body is weak" (26.41).

We also find this word of entreaty in the New Testament epistles. In 1 Cor. 16.13 - "Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong." In 1 Thess. 5.5­6 - "You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self­controlled."

So it is an important word for us all. And its various translations enrich our understanding - keep watch, be on your guard, be alert...

Jesus had come into Jerusalem riding on the untamed colt - on what we call Palm Sunday (ch. 21). He had driven out the money­changers in the temple - the Father's house had been made a den of robbers". A fig tree is cursed - unfruitful. Jesus tells the parable of the two sons - one rebellious then obedient, the other verbally compliant but disobedient - I tell you the truth, Jesus tells his opponents, "the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you". He then goes on to tell the story of the wicked tenants who ill­treated the landowner's servants and finally killed his son - it was a story about the chief priests and Pharisees.

The story of the wedding banquet in ch. 22 has the same message - "The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come..." Then they bring their clever experts along to try to get him to say something incriminating until finally, still bristling with anger, "no one dared to ask him any more questions."

Then in ch. 23 he launches a full­scale attack on the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees - no longer speaking in a parable, but openly exposing their hypocrisy. "You snakes!" he says, "You brood of vipers: How will you escape being condemned to hell?"

That is some of the background of ch.24. The disciples of Jesus have been doing some sightseeing. The Temple was an impressive building, but Jesus says, "not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down."

That leads the disciples to ask two questions, "When will this happen? and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

We notice that the disciples were asking about two events which they themselves may well have thought identical. As we hear the answer of Jesus, some of what he says relates to the destruction of the Temple and some to his second coming. They are not the same event, though the teaching seems to move back and forth between the one and the other. In fact some of the signs of the end were partially fulfilled at the time of the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.

There were, for instance, a number of false prophets and false Christs around that time. It was a time of great national shock - and of high expectation. Surely the Lord will do something to rescue his chosen people. Is this the time for the Messiah to appear?

But the Messiah has already come - and they will soon nail him to a cross. We reflect on his words at the end of the previous chapter, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone the messengers God has sent you. How many times have I wanted to put my arms round all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me! And so your Temple will be abandoned and empty..." (23.37­38).

In the Apostles' Creed we affirm that Jesus "will come again to judge the living and the dead." The Nicene Creed affirms "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end."

The Second Coming is an important part of the faith of the Church. Sadly it has been the happy hunting ground of sensationalists who have established a definite historical programme of what will happen and provided the world with specific dates when it will all happen. Such people and groups have brought disrepute on the doctrine so that the Church has tended to be silent on the subject.

Jesus makes quite clear that his Second Coming is certain. This has implications for us.

  • This world order will not go on for ever. It is all so tangible, so real. It is where this physical life is lived. We see it as so permanent. Yet the Scriptures speak clearly that it will all come to an end. We hear Peter in his second letter warning about the complacency of some who assume that there will be no end - "everything is still the same as it was since the creation of the world." Peter reminds them that there has been one big catastrophe - the great flood in Noah's time, and warns, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that Day the heavens will disappear with a shrill noise, the heavenly bodies will bum up and be destroyed, and the earth with everything in it will vanish" (2 Pet. 3.4,10).
  • His second coming is sure. Unlike his first coming, it will be in glory and for the purpose of summing up all things in judgment.

These certainties have implications for us. Peter goes on to say, "Since all these things will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people should you be? Your lives should be holy and dedicated to God, as you wait for the Day of God... But we wait for what God has promised: new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will be at home" (vv. 10­13). We live as if this world is everything. We pay great attention to our possessions, our investments, our home... But they are not so permanent after all. We have to failed to live in this world with an awareness of the world to come.

There are implications too for the mission of the Church. Jesus told his disciples, "Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptise them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age." The words are often called "the Great Commission". What are we doing about it? Is it central to our thinking and action?

  • The Second Coming is at a time unknown. There was a wave of expectation and fear around 1000 ADthat the Lord would come then. Various individuals and groups have set dates. The Seventh Day Adventists were waiting in 1843, then on October 22nd 1844, and then... The Jehovah's Witnesses have a whole series of failed dates. Within the last few years we have had reports of groups who have gathered together, quite sure that the Lord was coming at the date they had set. But Jesus was quite clear, "No one knows when that day and hour will come - neither the angels in heaven nor the Son; the Father alone knows" (Mt.24.36).

In fact, we are not meant to know when and there are good reasons for this. It is for our good that the Enemy of the faith doesn't know either! Imagine the intensified attack on the Church at that critical time. But, more importantly, throughout the whole age of the Church in which we now live, we are meant to anticipate the imminent return of the Lord. We are meant to be always on the alert - sure of our own salvation and active in the work that he has given us to do. At no point can we say, "He's not coming yet! We have other things to do!"

It doesn't take much thought to realise that all is not well in this world. We are a mixture of great achievement and massive failure. We are, as General Omar Bradley once said, "nuclear giants, but ethical infants" - but in general we don't recognise it!

Sociologist and historian Carle Zimmerman, in his 1947 book Family and Civilisation, recorded his keen observations as he compared the disintegration of various cultures with the parallel decline of family life in those cultures. Eight specific patterns of domestic behaviour typified the downward spiral of each culture Zimmerman studied.

  • Marriage loses its sacredness and is frequently broken by divorce.
  • Traditional meaning of the marriage ceremony is lost.
  • Feminist movements abound.
  • Increased public disrespect for parents and authority in general.
  • Acceleration of juvenile delinquency, promiscuity, and rebellion.
  • Refusal of people with traditional marriages to accept family responsibilities.
  • Growing desire for and acceptance of adultery.
  • Increasing interest in and spread of sexual perversions and sex­-related crimes.

It is amazing that those comments were made back in 1947 - they seem more modern than that!

In every age people have seen events that have suggested that the Day of the Lord was near - and it can seem even more so in our own time. Talking about how we must live, Paul wrote to the Romans, "You must do this, because you know that the time has come for you to wake up from your sleep. For the moment when we will be saved is closer now than it was when we first believed. The night is nearly over, day is almost here. Let us stop doing the things that belong to the dark and let us take up weapons for fighting in the light. Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in the light of day - no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy. But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and satisfying its desires” (Rom. 13.11­-14).

What a prospect! It is not darkness up ahead, but light! It is not the night, but the day is about to dawn! Do not be troubled! But be on your guard!

Trust in Jesus Christ alone as your Saviour! Serve him as your Lord!

© Peter J. Blackburn, Buderim Uniting Church, 10 November 1996
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Good News Bible, © American Bible Society, 1992.

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