Jesus and the End-Time

The Imminence of the End-Time
 The Need to Watch

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of man. Then two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. Two women will be grinding at the mill' one is taken and one is left. Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect" Matthew 24:36-44
The world of the end-time is a careless world. The image that comes to my mind is of a shortstop on a hot afternoon. Nothing has been hit his way, it is the top of the ninth, and his team is leading, 2-0. He begins to daydream. His pitcher walks a man. The batter who is up has not even touched the ball with his bat all day. Then, somewhere far off, the shortstop hears the sound of a bat and someone yelling at him; the grounder reaches him before he really sees it, his timing is off, and it goes past him. The left-fielder scrambles for the ball, but it's too late; the runner on first has made it home, and the tying run is on base. What might have been a double play is chalked up as the shortstop's error. The other team is very much in the game now because of it.

It wouldn't happen, a baseball fan might protest, in the big-leagues-not even most baseball. At the point where most of us live, the moral holds. You might have the skill to make the play. Maybe you can catch and throw, and you've "got the moves." But it doesn't make much difference unless you stay in the game.

The parable of the shortstop illustrates the carelessness of the world in the end-time. Life in this world is more like baseball than basketball, for in basketball the action is continuous. But in baseball you never know when the big play will break or what your responsibility will be when it does. A good ball player keeps alert. So it is with those who watch and wait for the coming of the Lord; they always need to be ready.

Jesus makes it clear that the world into which he will come at the close of the age will not be characterized by watching. Rather, it will be as it was in the days of Noah; men and women went about their ordinary business right up until the end. Then Noah entered the ark and left the world to its doom.

Business as usual in the days of Noah was not worth doing. "Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth" (Genesis 6:11,12. In Jesus' view the end-time was more similar to the days of Noah than to the days of Jonah. In the days of Noah the people did not repent and in the days of Jonah they did, as Jesus cites in another connection: "The men of Nineveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here" (Matthew 12:41).

The end-time is characterized not only by lack of repentance but also by lack of knowledge. In the days of Noah, Jesus said, "They did not know until the flood came and swept them all away." That is somewhat late to find knowledge.

So the world of the end-time is a careless world, wasting itself in corrupt "business as usual." It is a world marked by ignorance of its responsibility and of its destiny. Upon such a world the end will come as a complete surprise.

The end will come as judgment. In the days of Noah judgment was expressed in the flood which swept everything away except the family of Noah and the living creatures he kept with him in the ark. The judgment at the close of the age will be expressed in the gathering of the elect from the four corners of the earth, as Jesus described it earlier in his discourse: "And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 24:331). Sometimes this event is called the rapture and you may call it that if you wish, though it is not a biblical word. Our concern now is the judgment implied by this act of God. "Then two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left" (vss. 40,41).

It is utter catastrophe to be left behind, just as it was to be left out of the ark of Noah when the flood came. To be taken is to be saved; to be left is to be lost.

Christians are not to share the carelessness of the world toward the end-time. They are commanded to watch for the close of the age and so be ready. Unlike our friend the shortstop. Their destiny is to share the salvation, not the judgment, of the end.

Jesus gives two examples of how we are to wait for his coming. In one respect we are to be like stewards; in another, like watchmen.

The Christian can be faithful to his responsibilities now. "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions" (Matthew 24:45-47. Such a servant will not be dismayed at the coming of the Lord, for the highest form of watching is to do what the Lord commands.

In this sense watching consists of doing. We do not watch for the coming of the Lord by writing and reading books about it but by going about our proper business as the servants of the Lord, aware always of the imminence of his coming. The alternative is dismaying. "But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed,' and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with the drunken, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him, and put him with the hypocrites; there men will weep and gnash their teeth" (Matthew 24:48-51).

Most Christians know that they are to do their duty: "Moreover it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy" (1 Corinthians 4:2). But often one gets the impression from them that doing their duty (that is, the will of God) is one thing and watching for the coming of the Lord is quite another. The point Jesus makes is that they are the same thing. We are to do our duty in the Knowledge that we are living in the end-time.

The knowledge that he is living in the end-time turns a Christian into a watchman. Jesus said that a man who watches faithfully is like a householder who keeps his eyes open for burglars.

Since most of us cannot stay up all night in the chance that a thief might break into our homes, those who feel a particular threat often acquire watchdogs to act for them. It is the business of a watchdog to sound the warning; perhaps an update of the parable might be in order: Christians are to be, as part of their duty, watchdogs to sound the warning. Since we do not have any foolproof sign to show that the Lord is coming in the next hour, or the next week, or at any given time, all we can do is proclaim that he will come, certainly, and with no more warning than our proclamation. To a careless world, that would be more notice than it is now receiving.

And there is nothing foolproof even about a watchdog. Perhaps you reading your newspaper the story of the bribed watchdog. The burglars, after entering the house the dog was supposed to be guarding, took some ham and cheese out of the refrigerator and with it coaxed the dog to the bathroom and locked him in. As the dog ate happily, the burglars looted the house.

The parallel with the Church is funny and frightening. We can be so taken up with our own welfare, happily caring four ourselves and letting others care for us, that we never bother to share with our neighbors the message that the world is under judgment and is coming to an end. The Old Testament tells the story of a king who had a similar problem. His name was Hezekiah, and we are told of him that he "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord." Hezekiah restored the worship of God to his people after it had fallen into disrepute; he stood with courage and faith against the king of Assyria, and though he was afraid he trusted God. In all, he had a fine record-so good, in fact, that we are told "there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him." But Hezekiah had a problem with shortsightedness. He was warned well in advance that his nation was headed for disaster. "Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the Lord." Hezekiah learned along with the prophecy that it would not be fulfilled in his own time but in that of his descendants. His reaction? "Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, 'The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good.' For he though, 'Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?' (2 Kings 18-20, emphasis mine).

Why not? Well, we do have a responsibility to the world; if the world continues, it is the world of our neighbors and the world of our children too. It may not sound like good news to tell your neighbor that the world is under judgment and is coming to an end or to put these thought in the minds of your children. But as Wesley Nelson points out, "The preacher is the messenger who comes to the prison announcing that the doors have been opened and the prisoners are free. This is Good News. He is also the rider who dashes through the valley shouting, 'The dam is broken; run for your lives!' This also is Good News for it makes it possible to escape from the coming destruction."1

I said that watching for the coming of the Lord is something like a baseball game. On a hot day you may wonder if the game you are playing is ever going to end, but all games do and in the meanti9me you can at least find out what inning it is. In those terms, the game we call history is in the bottom of the ninth, the winning run was scored long ago, and we now have the responsibility of keeping alert so we can be in on the play that ends the game.

1 Wesley Nelson, "Practical Guidelines for Sermon Preparation," The Covenant Quarterly, February, 1974, p. 25.

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