Matthew 24:1-28 - Honey, I Think It's Time ...

We've all seen it played out many times to peals of laughter. The young wife appears in the doorway and announces to her neophyte husband that their firstborn is about to arrive. Instantly he is a frantic dervish without a brain. He is running into walls. Wearing one untied shoe he grabs an armful of pre-packed bags and throws them and himself into the family car. He is down the block before he realizes he has left his contracting bride at home.

Sometimes I observe a bit of the same high anxiety when I hear some believers talk about the "last days" or the "end times." It is true that on more than one occasion the final days of history and the return of Jesus Christ is described as "birth pains." But Christians don't have to respond to this reality of our faith like the father-to-be in the aforementioned comic scenes. In the paragraph before Paul's writing to the Thessalonians about the Second Coming, he urges them to "aspire to live quiet lives." There is no need to become panicky or alarmist as end time signs begin to appear. Here are some of the signs Jesus lists in today's passage:

• The destruction of the temple in Jerusalem
  (accomplished A.D. 70; Titus and the Romans)
• Deceivers claiming to be the Messiah
• Wars and rumors of wars ("don't be alarmed," Jesus adds)
• Famines and earthquakes ("just the beginning," Jesus indicates)
• Hatred and murderous persecution of believers
• Many will betray Jesus and turn from the faith
• Wickedness will increase and love will grow cold
• Daniel's prophecy of the "abomination of desolation" will be fulfilled
• The greatest distress the world has ever seen will take place
• False messiahs and prophets will perform amazing wonders
• The gospel of the Kingdom will be preached to all the nations

In the anticipation of all this, can we heed the words of Jesus to 'not be alarmed?' Can we live "quiet lives" in the face of the approaching crisis? Jesus' last comment at the end of this passage seems at first cryptic. "Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather." But maybe it is very straight forward. Vultures tear up the dead, not the living. As long as I am alive in Christ, I don't have to panic. The vultures will come for the deceivers and the warmongers and those who abandon the faith, for the cold-hearted persecuters and the cockamamie messiahs, but they won't come for me. I am alive in Christ.

Jesus Himself says He doesn't know the day or the hour of His return and the moment of it is described as a flash of lightning and a thief's arrival under cloak of night. If it is to be sudden and unexpected, then I ought to be doing today and tomorrow what I hope to be doing when He shows up. I believe that is a calm and unalarmed discipleship that participates in the preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom to all the nations. Yes, make Christ known in word and deed, steady as she goes, until the Groom says to His Bride, "Honey, I think it's time."

Pray: God, you have made known to us the end from the beginning. You are life and life eternal; You are fullness of joy forever. We have all this guaranteed to us by Your grace through faith. Heaven is our inheritance, and no wordly distress of any magnitude can strip us of it. Glory to You, true Prophet, Messiah and King!