Christ Will Come Again

Clergy Questions - Advent 2003

"Christ will come again." We say this every Sunday. I think it comes from the early church when they expected Christ to turn up at any moment to bring a new kingdom, replacing the oppression of the Romans. Is this still true today?
- Mike Frankton

This is an appropriate question by Mike for the season of Advent. Yes, he is right, every Sunday we do recite the creed and say, "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end." And, no doubt, we have in our minds those predictions of Jesus in which he is presumed to be talking about himself returning on the clouds of heaven, "Then they will see the Son of Man coming on clouds with great power and glory." (Mark 13: 26) In the season of Advent we concentrate more on this theme, don't we, as we prepare to celebrate Christmas. The wonderful collect for Advent Sunday has us pray, "…that on the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal…" And we sing of this hope of Christ returning, "Lo, he comes with clouds descending…"

What are we to make of it all?

Well, again Mike is right when he associates this with the hope of a new kingdom, and the overthrowing of worldly powers such as those of the Roman Empire. But also of significance is the concept of the last day that is closely related to the whole of this. Jesus entered a world stage, or more specifically a Jewish stage, on which there was a strong belief that God would put things right at the end of time, on the last day. This present age would come to an end and all that is wrong with it would be eliminated, thus allowing God's reign of righteousness and peace to be universal.

At first for the Jews, before the time of Jesus, this was very much about them having their own king back in Jerusalem. But as they became more desperate, their hope became more apocalyptic. That is to say, they came to believe that the only way that things would be put right was by God intervening directly in the affairs of the world from 'beyond' in dramatic, extraordinary ways. When Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid king, erected a statue of Zeus in the Jerusalem Temple in 167 BC, things had simply gone too far. (You can read all about it in the Books of the Maccabees in the Apocrypha.)

The author of the Book of Daniel, then, could write of his vision, "I saw one like a human being (or a son of man) coming with the clouds of heaven… To him was given dominion and glory and kingship." And at the end of the book of Daniel, we hear of St. Michael coming at the end of time, bringing in a period of anguish and testing - a time of trial, after which the forces of evil would be conquered and the righteous would be rewarded. Some would awaken to everlasting life and some to everlasting contempt - thus explaining why many Jews came to expect a final judgement and general resurrection of the dead at the end of time.

Now all of this is in the background when we consider Jesus and his ministry. Over the past month we have been stressing that Jesus understood his purpose in relation to the Kingdom of God. "The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." (Mk 1:15) The idea was that the end time (eschaton) had begun, the age of God's Kingdom was dawning. Evil was finally being conquered through Jesus; the blind received their sight, the lame walked and even the dead were raised to life again.

Despite the fact that the Kingdom of God was present in the life and ministry of Jesus, there was also the obvious fact that not everything was quite right, there was still much to be done. So, the faithful are taught to pray, Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And there still remains something of that expectation of a final time of trial immediately preceding God's final intervention. Jesus says, "For nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs." (Mk 13:8) The disciples are to be prepared for the trials that they themselves will encounter, "you will be beaten in synagogues and you will stand before governors and kings because of me…" And it gets worse, "when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains; someone on the house must not go down to or enter the house to take anything away; someone in the field must not turn back to get a coat. Woe to those who are pregnant…" (Mk. 13:14ff). It is going to be a most horrendous time, and only after that will the Son of Man be seen coming on the clouds of heaven, marking the start of God's universal reign. And all of this was to happen before the present generation had passed away (Lk 21:32).

Little wonder, then, that the early Christians expected the immediate, or very early, return (parousia) of Christ. And little wonder that they had to re-think as time went by. With St. Mark's Gospel, not completed until the 60's, there is still a definite sense of urgency and panic. By the time of Luke's Gospel in the 70's things have calmed down a touch and the immediate return of Christ is being played down a bit. For example, in the Lord's prayer the request for bread for today is changed to bread for each day, daily bread for each ongoing day. And still, two thousand years later there is no sign of Jesus descending from the clouds.

What are we to think then? Did Jesus get it wrong?

Well, as the centuries passed, people put less emphasis on all these expectations of the end time. In the 19th century, for example, the church and theologians stressed the need for good moral conduct to bring about God's reign on earth. Much emphasis was placed on the moral example provided by Christ, by 'gentle Jesus, meek and mild'. In the beginning of the 20th century, however, scholarship saw that this eschatological (End-time) dimension of Jesus' self-understanding was central, and could not be dismissed. So, people like Albert Schweitzer put much stress on the failure of Jesus' future predictions to be realised. Schweitzer concluded that Jesus was a failure, he had gone to Jerusalem to create a crisis, to bring in the End, and he had failed. The argument went on, the disciples were so distraught at the loss of their leader that they couldn't believe he had gone. Sensing his presence with them, they continued to do his work of serving God's will, and so the Church was born.

It should be said that one can acknowledge the future references in Jesus' teaching on the Kingdom without being as sceptical as Schweitzer chose to be. But to counter this emphasis on the future, other scholars, such as the Englishman C. H. Dodd, spent energy in reminding people about the realised aspects of Jesus eschatological teaching. In fact, they said that it was all about God's Kingdom already being present and active in the life and person of Jesus. The point was made, then, that eschatological hopes are already realised in the here and now for those who live in the power of the risen Christ and his Spirit.

We are talking, then, about something that has confused scholars for years. All the more confusing when considering that on at least one occasion, Jesus acknowledged that even he didn't know when the End would be. But perhaps this tension between the already and the not yet which apparently existed in Jesus' teaching reflects the reality of Christian experience. Jesus of Nazareth did make a difference. In his life and ministry the kingdom of God did come near. Perhaps, in his death and passion the time of final trial has taken place. The church helps the world to recognise signs of God's Kingdom already present - the fullness of life experienced with its joy and love and potential. And yet that is not yet universal for any individual or the world. Things are not yet perfect and something else still needs to happen.

The temptation, then, is to think with the Victorians that we must simply try harder. Perhaps, in part, we should. But to accept that as the final answer to the work of Christ is to fall into the mistaken abyss of humanism. To pray and long for the return of Christ is to acknowledge that ultimately individuals like ourselves, and the world we inhabit, can only be made whole by the work of God. Ultimately, our salvation is a gift, not yet worked out fully but already assured in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

I would hope that no one here still believes that the physical body of Jesus ascended up through the clouds like some satellite going into orbit. The work of 20th century theologians like Bultmann have helped us to keep the truth of the gospel message while removing some of the 1st century mythological imagery in which it was packaged.

So, to pray and hope for the return of Christ on the clouds of heaven is not to expect Jesus to come in to land at Heathrow. But it is to pray and hope for the day when Christ's work in us and his world will be complete, when he will be king and God's kingdom will be a universal reality.

This brings us on nicely to the next question.

"Lead us not into teptation." Why would he?
- Christine Bishop

To understand the Lord's Prayer, of which this quote is obviously a part, we have to take into account everything that we have been saying about the Kingdom of God over the last month, and about Jesus' eschatological (end-time) teaching.

To pray the Lord's prayer is to be utterly subversive. It is to pray that each one of us, and the world in which we live might be different. We are to be more like Christ, in whom God's kingdom became a present reality.

As we saw in Daniel and later in Christ, there was the expectation that before everything finally came right, there would be a period of intense anguish that would distinguish between the righteous and unrighteous. This is the temptation, or better, the time of trial, that we are praying about in the Lord's prayer. "Lead us not into temptation" means spare us that time of trial, when the final battle between good and evil will take place. Thus we also pray, "deliver us from evil."

In a real sense, in Gethsemane, Jesus prayed to be spared the time of trial. For him that was not possible. We might conclude that this spares us from engaging in the ultimate, decisive battle between good and evil. In the light of his death and resurrection, the final End is assured.

We have already acknowledged, though, that we live in an age of the already but the not yet. Already Christ has performed his saving work, not yet do we fully enjoy its fruits. So, we continue to pray, "lead us not into temptation." Not because God plays silly games of trying to catch us out and trip us up, but because evil is still a reality, and we still need the help of God to resist it. Again, to deny this reality is to fall into an abyss of folly such as that of humanism. To acknowledge it is to be forewarned and strengthened for the daily fight, sure in the knowledge that the final victory has already been won for us by Christ, for whose return and universal reign we long and pray with as much hope as faith can afford.

Yea, Amen, let all adore thee,
High on thine eternal throne;
Saviour, take the power and glory,
Claim the kingdom for thine own:
Alleluia!
Thou shalt reign, and thou alone. 

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