Jesus is coming back ... Are you ready?

by Allison Wessel

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, in the seventh petition we ask God to deliver us from evil.  The Small Catechism explains that in this petition, we are asking God to deliver us not only from the evils of this world, but also to take us to heaven.  In part, it’s a prayer asking for the end of this world to arrive. 

So are you ready to exit this world?  Are you ready to leave behind the old familiar and enter the new and unfamiliar?  As you pray the Lord’s Prayer, do you ever catch yourself thinking: “Quickly come, Lord Jesus, but, please wait until after I graduate from college,” or, “Quickly come, but please, Lord, let me get married first.”  If we are honest with ourselves, sometimes we are tempted to place a greater value on the priorities of this world than on the perfect treasures of heaven.  We find ourselves yearning to have all of the great experiences that this world has to offer.  We think, “There are so many things I have yet to experience in this life, Lord.  Could you hold off your second coming just a little longer?”

As human beings, we struggle with the tension between time and eternity.  We sometimes feel that life is good, because it’s all we know.  We get caught up in all the good things of this life, and we forget that we have something much greater coming to us.  Or, when our faith is weak, we may even fear the coming of the Lord, fearing things that feel unknowable.  We will live forever – how can that be possible?  Our human logic can’t comprehend eternity, so, naturally, the thought of living forever may scare us.

Allow me to offer an odd analogy.  

If you’re familiar with the storyline of the movie, The Matrix, you know that the basic plot is that—some two hundred years into the future—all humanity is enslaved by robots.  The machines use the electricity produced by human bodies to create energy, since air pollution has gotten so bad that the sun’s rays are obscured from the earth’s view.  To enable the robots to use the humans without causing them to rise up against them, they create a false reality into which the humans have been “plugged.”  Those humans who are plugged into the matrix see and live in the world as they know it, which is only an illusion.  They lead a false life, and it’s only after they’ve been unplugged that they can know what the world is really like.

I use this analogy not only to show how much of a sci-fi geek I am, but to make a connection with life on this earth.  This earth’s life can be compared to life in the matrix, where everything we see and know is only a shadow or illusion.  The reality of a perfect life can only be known beyond the grave.  This analogy is flawed, I realize, because those of you who know The Matrix know that, once unplugged, the real world is horribly drearier and the living situation much worse than in the glamorous false world of the matrix.  But the point is that everything tangible in this life doesn’t last forever.  Sometimes, weakened in our faith, that great fear of the unknown will lead us to cling to the things of this life.  In The Matrix, even Neo, who is the savior-character, is reluctant to respond to the call he receives from the real world, urging him to come to grips with reality and wake up.  At first, he wants to go on living as he always has, in the world with which he is most familiar and most comfortable.  He would rather remain ignorant and blind to the truth.  But it’s after he’s been unpleasantly thrust into the real world that he discovers his full potential and becomes The One, the person destined to save the remnant of humans left on earth from the robots.   Again the analogy is flawed, but in a similar way, we are not really of this world and can’t possibly know all that we will become in our true home in heaven.  The Bible says that God "will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body" (Philippians 3:21).  Who knows what that entails?  But it can only mean good, of course.  The apostle John assured us, "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

We can’t begin to comprehend the wonders and the treasures that God has in store for us.  But we do know that the Lord’s coming will not be a day on which to tremble in fear, or a day that we wish would hold off for a little while longer.  The day of the Lord’s coming will be a day on which to rejoice, a day leading to something better than anything we have here on earth.  Isn’t that what being a Christian is all about, after all?  Our short, little lives on this earth are merely a prelude to the life of perfect bliss that awaits us in heaven. 

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.  You are all children of the light and children 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 awake and sober.  For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.  But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.  For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.  He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.  Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.