Jesus is Coming … Look Busy!
I used to laugh at this, and still do, but the surprising thing is there are two true statements here. Jesus IS coming, soon, and we SHOULD look busy, because we should BE busy. In Mark 13:32-27, Jesus himself warns us about his return:
But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.
In Matthew 24:45-51 he’s a bit more graphic:
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 will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, 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 cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
So, this raises two questions:
- If I haven’t been doing what I’m supposed to be doing, what’s the point now? It would just be superficial, right?
- If I’m already doing what I’m supposed to be doing, is there anything else?
I’ll address each in turn.
Regarding the first, imagine you’re the hiring manager for a big company. You need to get a new hire, and you’ve got two candidates coming to interview. Both candidates are roughly the same age, have similar resumes, and both are slackers. Both still live in their parents’ basements despite being in their late twenties and both have wasted too much time on video games and social media. One shows up to the interview with messy hair, a stained t-shirt and jeans. The other decides to step up his game a bit, show some last-minute ambition, and goes out and buys a suit, wearing it for the first time to the interview. Which one do you think is going to get the job?
Another example may help.
Let’s draw from Christ’s parable above. Let’s say my wife and I decide to go on a date night and leave the kids at home, giving them specific instructions on what to eat for dinner, chores to accomplish, and the bedtime routine that needs to be done. We go out, have a nice evening together and then arrive home to find the house a mess, pizza on the living room floor, no one ready for bed, and the kids don’t care; they don’t even look up from their phones when we walk in the front door.
How do you think we’d respond to that situation? A month-long sabbatical from all electronics would be the start.
Now, what if on our way home, we send a text message to the oldest child and say, “hey, just letting you know we left the movie early and we are on our way home.” Frantically, the child realizes that he’s done nothing that he was supposed to, so he shouts to his siblings to quickly clean up, get the pizza off the floor, brush teeth and get ready for bed. We arrive to find evidence of a list that wasn’t exactly complied with, and was clearly rushed in the last few minutes, but there was at least an attempt to follow the directions, albeit late.
How do you think we’ll respond to that situation?
In the first scenario the kids didn’t care. There was no respect or love shown. In the second scenario, clearly, the kids got bogged down, distracted, and maybe even disobedient, but when they realized what they’d done and that they were going to be a huge disappointment to their parents (and probably a big punishment), they quickly tried to remedy the situation. A good parent is likely to be merciful in the latter scenario, not the former.
I think that’s how many, if not most of us, are. We have gotten distracted, disobedient and haven’t been doing everything we should; maybe not anything we should. However, God is a merciful God. 2 Peter 3:9 confirms: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
Maybe we’ve wasted much of our lives and now the end is near. Should we continue to wallow in our sins and bad choices until the very end? Or should we make a frantic shoving of the pizza boxes into the closet, sweeping the floor, and showing God that we do love Him despite what we’ve done? Again, God just wants us to repent. When the prodigal son who squandered his father’s wealth came back, a huge lecture and punishment were definitely in order, but that’s not what the father did. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” Luke 15:20
God loves us as His children and His love has never turned from us despite all that we’ve done to screw up that relationship, so it’s never too late… until the end has been reached.
Jesus is coming – so even if you haven’t done anything you should have, God will be happy with your frantic change of heart.
And what about you people who are already doing what you should be doing? Well, imagine you are in a long-distance race. You’ve been keeping a good pace and you’re ahead of most of the other runners. What do you do when you see the finish line up ahead? Do you continue at your normal pace and jog on in? Or do you give it a last final push and sprint towards that finish line. You know what you need to do.
This is my final warning to everyone: Wake up. Look at the signs and what’s going on in the world around. “Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” Luke 21:31
God has sent His text message.
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