everlasting-gospels.gif The Alternative To Date Setting-1
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April 10 - The Alternative To Date Setting-1

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His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master." Matt. 25:21, RSV.

Matthew 24, 25 is a strange sermon!

It finds the disciples inquiring of Christ about the destruction of the Temple and asking for a sign regarding His return and the end of the age. To put it bluntly, Jesus' answer must have been frustrating. For one thing, He provided a list of "signs" that occur in every age, such as wars, earthquakes, and famines, and then goes on to say that "the end is not yet," that "all this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs"(Matt. 24:6, 8, RSV).

Beyond that, Jesus mixed together events related to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and the Second Advent. And if that wasn't enough, He told them that no one except God knows the time of the event(verse 36). Jesus concludes His presentation on the request for a sign with the admonition to "watch therefore: for ye know not what hour you Lord doth come"(verse 42). He might as well have said, "Don't worry about the time."

At that point in His sermon, Jesus moves beyond signs to what He most needed to tell His end-as-soon-as-possible desiring disciples. Beginning in verse 43 Jesus sets forth five parables that move progressively toward what they most need to hear, rather than what they most want to hear(i.e., how near the end is).

The first parable (verses 43, 44) merely tells them to watch since they don't know the timing of the Second Advent. The second (verses 45-51) tells them that they have duties while they are watching and waiting, and that time will last longer than expected. The third (Matt. 25:1-3) continues that theme of a delayed coming, but stresses the need to prepare for the event. The fourth parable (verses 14-30) emphasizes how they are to prepare. They are to develop and faithfully unilize their talents And the climactic parable-the one about the sheep and the goats (verses 31-46)-explicitly states the essential nature of their working while they are waiting and watching.

In other words, Jesus directs the whole discussion away from the excitement over time and toward "PRESENT duty." John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, causht Jesus' point. When someone asked him what he would do today if he knew for sure that Jesus would come tomorrow, he replied that he would do just what he had planned.

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Lord, help us to realize that being ready is not excitement, but the responsible doing of Your will as we live in this world.
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