“Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning, as though you were waiting for your master to return from the wedding feast. Then you will be ready to open the door and let him in the moment he arrives and knocks.” (Luke 12:35-36)
As a Christian, it was hard to watch and read the media coverage of the countdown to “Judgment Day,” May 21. Because it seemed so absurd to most of us, we ended up making jokes about it--not the fact that Christ will be coming back, but that the exact day had been “calculated” and people were actually putting up signs to that effect along roadsides. We jokingly advised, if your birthday was May 22 or any time after May 21, you'd better celebrate now and eat your cake early!
But on a serious level, it was sad thinking about the many people who had been led astray and truly believed this—believed this to the point of making major career and financial decisions. It was sad seeing Christianity represented this way. It was sad knowing the world had yet another means to mock Christianity.
I was not expecting Christ to return on May 21st, but I am expecting Him to return and will rejoice to welcome Him. I take seriously the promise Jesus made to return and this statement He made about the timing of his return: “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows” (Mark 13:32).
Nowhere did Jesus tell us to try and guess what “no one knows.” I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong for Christians to see how biblical prophecies of the end times fit with current events. This can be a fascinating exercise. But, according to Jesus, we are not to guess the time of his return, but rather to live in a state of consistent readiness. He said, “Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning, as though you were waiting for your master to return from the wedding feast. Then you will be ready to open the door and let him in the moment he arrives and knocks” (12:35-36). Our Master might return at any time, “but whenever he comes, he will reward the servants who are ready” (12:38).Even though the “Judgment Day” non-event cast a bad light on Christianity, it can serve as a reminder to us amidst our busy daily lives to remember that Jesus is coming back. We, as Christians, should ask ourselves these two questions:
1. What does it mean to live in readiness for the return of Christ?
2. Does the promise of Christ’s return make any difference to you in the way you live?
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