By: Curtis Baker
Over the last several months at the Hearts Together Church of Christ, we have been studying together on Sunday morning the subject of heaven and the afterlife. To me, this is a very fascinating kind of study because you get to talk about things that you know, as well things that you don’t know. This is different than studying history where you merely reconstruct things that have already happened; when talking about the afterlife, you are trying to speak of realities that have not taken place yet; at least, not among us who are living. But in many ways it is appropriate to discuss this subject during the Christmas season, because Christmas, when it is best understood, is the season that teaches us how to anticipate the second coming of Christ.
When it comes to anticipation, we can learn some things, both in the positive and negative sense, from Israel about what it means to await the Lord’s coming. For many hundreds of years Israel awaited the time when God would come and make himself king among them in the form of the Messiah. In places like Psalm 2 and Psalm 72, the scriptures envisioned for them a king who would come and bring vindication for Israel, as well as distribute justice among the nations. Israel got used to seeing themselves in the place of the victim, or as one oppressed, and had every expectation that the Messiah would set the world right when he arrived in all of his splendor. Israel was putting its trust in God, in the hope that God would one day do right by them. This is the positive sense of anticipation that we can learn from Israel. Our only hope is in God, and he is fully trustworthy. Only when God returns can everything be set right…and it will be.
Having said that, though, there is a negative lesson to learn from Israel’s example. This example consists in the error of trying to be too specific about what will happen when God finally does arrive on the scene a second time. Due to the pictures that had been painted for Israel throughout the Hebrew Bible, they developed a very detailed set of expectations of what would happen when the Messiah arrived. Because their imagination was limited by the circumstances of their own history, it was natural for them to build an expectation that fit their life experiences. If the Messiah was to be a king, obviously he would come with all of the trappings that associated one with royalty. If he was going to be king, surely he would do what kings do, which is to conquer and rule.
But these exact expectations ended up being the enemy of Israel. When the Messiah did come; not in royal splendor but earthly poverty; and when he did act, not in judgment against the nations, but in judgment on many of them; and when he did reign, not as a conquering king, but instead as a sacrificial servant, either one of two things happened: the people completely missed it without knowing they missed it (which was most), or they collapsed in despair when they realized their purpose was not God’s purpose (think Judas).
Because of the nature of the second coming of the Christ, I don’t think there will be any danger of anyone missing it for something else. One way or another, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord over all. But it does teach us a couple of lessons worth remembering in this season of anticipation. First, we must be careful in painting too detailed a picture of how his return will appear. Much ink has been spilled on this, and every new generation has new signs and wonders that prove that the coming is imminent in one’s own time. Jesus warned against those who would speak such things in his name (Matt 24:4-8). They are simply an unneeded distraction. But secondly, there is much to hope for. In this world of ours there is a great deal that has gone wrong, but the promise of God is that everything will be set right. However that turns out to happen, we can trust that God knows what he is doing. He will have the final word, and that word will mean healing and freedom for all who know him. It is this that we anticipate in yet another Christmas season.
Curtis Baker (curtisbaker@hotmail.com)
Write to: P. O. Box Slaton, TX 79364
