Well, this reading can feel a little jarring. Matthew 24—part of Jesus’ last major discourse before his death—doesn’t seem to fit with preparing for his birth. It doesn’t feel Christmasy at all.
And yet every Advent, the lectionary gives us, alongside Elizabeth and Zechariah, Mary and Joseph and John the Baptist at least one apocalyptic text—one reading about the return of Christ. Because as said last week Advent is not only about preparing for Christmas. Advent holds together three comings: Christ’s incarnation, Christ’s ongoing presence, and Christ’s return in glory. Advent invites us to reflect on all three.
Fleming Rutledge notes that, in this sense, Christians actually live in Advent all the time. We constantly inhabit the space between the first and second coming —between the brokenness and pain of the world as it is, and the hope of the world as it will be when, as Revelation promises,
The home of God will be among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and be their God; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”
Last week we looked back at the genealogy of Jesus that shows us that the incarnation didn’t just appear out of nowhere. God had been at work for generations. Jesus was the long-hoped-for, long-expected Messiah.
Today we look forward—not to his first coming, but to his second.
Now, this is a topic that is quite divisive in the Christian community. Some people talk about it constantly; others squirm at the thought. I imagine both groups are in this room. Let’s hold each other gently wherever we may be.
Like sex and money, this is one of those topics that was talked about a lot in the church. And often in ways that were deeply unhelpful even harmful. Some teachings like purity culture, the prosperity gospel and rapture theology needed to be rejected. But I fear in doing so many churches (perhaps this one included) have stopped talking about these things altogether. And that’s a shame, because the Christian faith has some really helpful and steadying things to say to a culture saturated by porn and hook up culture and drowning in inequality, anxiety, greed, and despair.
And so today, in this second week of Advent we are going to dive into the sticky topic of “end times”
But first let’s pray, Gracious God, this Advent open our hearts anew to your Word, awaken us to your presence, and ready us for the coming of Christ in all his fullness.
The lectionary this year focuses on Matthew. This reading sits within Jesus’ fifth and final major discourse. He has entered Jerusalem, cleansed the temple, confronted religious leaders and exposed their hypocrisy. He says to them,
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in you stop them.
The crowds were amazed but the Pharisees begin to plot his death.
Leaving the temple and heading to the Mount of Olives, the disciples admire the building. Jesus responds, “Not one stone will be left upon another.”
So they ask, “When will this be? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
What follows is a long discussion—including parables about faithful and unfaithful servants, wise and foolish bridesmaids, talents entrusted, and finally the judgment of the nations, when nations are judged according to their treatment of the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the sick and the imprisoned.
Christians have long debated when and how this will unfold. There are pre-millennials, post-millennials, a-millennials and dispensationalists. They all have their diagrams and timelines and proof texts that apparently make them unequivocally right.
Some believe Christ’s return will be initiated through the ever-expanding progress of the gospel. Whereas others believe the world will be getting markedly worse until Christ returns. Others believe in the so-called rapture, that is before Christ finally returns, he will come and take Christians up into heaven before a period of great tribulation. This belief has been given much prominence in books such as the late, great planet earth and the left behind series. But the Biblical basis for it is weak. This reading, one of the proof texts for the rapture says, “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.”
However, just before that Jesus compares the coming of the Son of Man with the coming of the flood. And at that time it was actually those who were left (Noah and his family and the animals in the ark) who were saved and those who were taken who were not. And so anti rapture books have also been written. One cheekily titled, “left behind and loving it.”
I have my beliefs on all this but mostly I think this speculation misses the point. Jesus says plainly, “About that day and hour no one knows—neither the angels, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
If Jesus didn’t know the timing, why do we assume we should?
Across Jesus’ teaching, one theme rings out: the time is unknown and unexpected. So the real question is not when or how, but what are these pretty weird and wild teachings for?
Jesus gives the answer in today’s reading: “Keep awake… be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
The image he uses—a thief in the night—is surprising. But the point is clear: be ready. But readiness is not about fear or frantic calculation. It is a posture of life.
And the parables that follow show us what this posture looks like.
- To Be Awake Is to Be Faithfully at Work
Being ready means being found faithfully doing the work of God’s kingdom—not to earn salvation, nor to force Christ’s return, nor to burn ourselves out. There is the whole thing about oil and not giving it all away that I have been really thinking about a lot. But it also says pretty clearly, “blessed is the slave, whom the master finds at work when he arrives.”
Christians have sometimes been accused of caring so much about the next life that they ignore life on earth. Perhaps some have. But history mostly shows the opposite: Christians have been at the forefront of movements for liberation, environmental justice, education, healthcare, and prison reform. Jesus’ own teaching here is clear: how we treat the hungry, the stranger, the prisoner, the sick has eternal meaning.
Hope in Christ’s final renewal doesn’t make us indifferent—it sustains us when the work feels impossible, giving us courage to do what is loving even when it’s risky and costly because we know this is not all there is.
- To Be Awake Is to Take Evil Seriously
Because Jesus certainly does. God will reckon with deception, injustice, unfaithfulness and those who cause great suffering. When I return Jesus says, do not let me find you beating up on those who are less powerful than you.
Being awake means acknowledging the reality of evil—both around us and within us. We are not naïve about the world’s darkness. We have the courage to look at it, name it, repent of it, resist it and refuse to be shaped by it.
- To Be Awake Is Also to Take Goodness Seriously
We take the darkness seriously, but we also believe in the light. Life is uncertain. Just like we do not know the time of the end of the age, we do not know what will happen tomorrow. And yet Christians are called to not be afraid, to be a non-anxious presence—to trust that the worst thing is never the last thing. People awake to Christ’s coming are people marked by peace, hope, love and joy.
- To Be Awake Is to Long for Christ’s Return
Finally, to be ready is to be waiting for, longing for Christ. His presence in our lives now but also his coming again. It is to be praying for the full coming of God’s kingdom, when all will be made new.
Maybe that longing feels distant for some. For those whom life is pretty good at the moment it might not feel urgent. Or it might just feel a bit weird. But for many people life is unbearable. They pray in earnest, “Come, Lord Jesus.”
We, are invited, we are urged to join them in that prayer—for the day when wars cease, when the sick are healed, when no one weeps in grief or cowers in fear, when all have a home and a table, and God’s love is known by every creature.
And so this Advent and in the year to come Let us live as people awake—faithful in love, honest about evil, anchored in hope, and longing for Christ in all his fullness.
Amen.
