The Second Coming of Christ
Introduction
“Advent” means coming, and Advent time celebrates the
coming of Christ.
During
the Advent season, the Christian churches through the ages have always spoken
of two comings of Christ.
The
Christian Ecumenical Creed, which is
accepted and affirmed by all Christian churches, speaks about the two comings of Christ.
This
is what the creed – summarising the biblical message - says about his first coming:
“For
us all and for our salvation
he –
Jesus Christ - came down from the heavens:
and became incarnate
from the holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,
and became human.”
Today I want to speak about the second coming of Christ. The Christian
Ecumenical Creed summarizes the biblical message this way:
“He - Jesus Christ - will come
again in glory
to judge
the living and the dead,
and his
kingdom will have no end.”
I invite you to think about that confession today. What
does it mean? Why have the churches to the present day recited and thereby
confessed that
“Jesus Christ will come again in glory
to judge the
living and the dead, . . .”?
An interesting anecdote
Allow
me to convey to you an interesting anecdote.
Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (1912-2007) was one of
He was very aware of
the fact that it was scientists like him who discovered not only the wonders of nuclear technology but also
the horror of the nuclear bomb – and
he refused to blame politicians or the military for
Reviewing his life on
his 70th birthday, he speaks about an encounter with the Swiss
theologian Karl Barth. It was in the
early 1950’s, after the 2nd World War; after
The Karl Barth
said this to him: “Herr von Weizsäcker, if you believe what all Christians confess and what hardly anyone believes, that Jesus Christ will come again, then you
should continue your beloved science; if you do not believe that Jesus Christ
will come again, then you should stop doing science.”[1]
Why did this great scientist and philosopher not
question that reply when it was given – and indeed affirm it at the time of his
retirement?
What does it mean to believe in the Second Coming of Christ, and what is its
relevance for us today?
Let me suggest a few thoughts for your consideration.
Life in the presence of God
What
von Weizsäcker meant – I think! – and
the first thing I want to say to you, is that our whole life is lived in the presence of God - and to God we are responsible for what we do
with our lives.
In God we live and
move and have our being. To God we are ultimately responsible. To worship God
with our life and to be a free and
responsible human beings, that is the human
destiny that we are all invited to fulfil.
That is the first
point I want to make. Believing in the second
coming of Jesus Christ means that we live our life in the presence of God,
that we recognise God’s mystery in the world and that we are responsible to God
for all that we think and do. We shall have to give account for what we have
done with our life.
The victory of love
The
second point that I want to make is
that the second coming of Christ
stands for the ultimate victory of love.
The 1st coming of Christ proclaims God’s
unconditional and powerful YES to us!
Although humanity rebelled against their creator, the “creator of heaven and
earth” has not forsaken his creation. On the contrary, when humanity refused to
let God be God, when humanity refused to be “creation”, when humans sought to
cut themselves off from the source of life and take life into their own hands,
God remained faithful to God’s promises.
God’s YES
was not just a breath of air, an idea, a theory, but a personal, a costly YES, bound to Jesus’ life, death and
resurrection.
God’s YES in
Christ is the central content of the Christian message. The apostle Paul
summarises this biblical emphasis well, when he says to the Christians in
. . . the Son of God,
Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, ..., was not ‘Yes and No’;
but in him it is always ‘Yes.’
For in him every one of God’s promises is a ‘Yes.’
(2 Cor 1:19f.)
“Always YES”! “... in him every one of
God’s promises is a ‘Yes’.” God, the “creator of heaven and earth”, has spoken
into history, and what he has said corresponds to his nature: “God is love”
(1 John 4). Therefore, God has not only created the world, but God loves
the world (John 3:16), and God has reconciled the world
with himself (2 Cor 5:17-21). Indeed, it is God’s declared and passionate
desire for “everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the
truth” (1 Tim 2:4).
From that affirmation we must not retreat! By raising
the crucified Jesus from the dead, God has given
. . . him the name
that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
(Phil 2:9-11)
Those
who believe in the 2nd Coming
of Christ believe – often against all odds! – in the ultimate victory of Jesus Christ and therefore in the ultimate victory of
love.
The triumph of Justice
If
love is to triumph ultimately, what about those who have been sidelined? What about them? What about the victims of Hitler
and Stalin and Pol Pot? What about the infants born into a loveless world - and
their mothers who have no milk to feed them? Tossed about in a cruel world. What
about the shadows that we have cast around us?
Shall the oppressor ultimately triumph over his innocent
victim? What about the murderer and the torturer and the warier and the drug
dealer and the rapist - and their victims? Shall the victims be victimised again by letting
their perpetrators go free? What about the injustice that you and I have dealt
out, and the injustice that you and I have experienced?
Is history
its own judge, or is there a judge of history?
If history is its own judge, then love cannot and will
not triumph and there will be no ultimate justice for the wretched of the
earth, for the innocent children who never had the chance to develop their
promise, for those legions of victims who have been thrown on the rubbish heap
of history.
Those with sensitive hearts and inquiring
minds have always deeply felt that problem. They therefore spoke of the “day of
God”, the “day of Christ”, the “coming of the Son of Man” and the “last judgment”.
They felt that love has structure and passion,
and that the structure and passion of love is justice. The injustices of the “now” were to be set right “then”. If
God is, and if God is just, then, ultimately,
the victims will come to their right. God’s ways will be established. Ultimately
the rapist will not triumph over his innocent victim!
“He - Jesus Christ - will come again in glory
to judge
the living and the dead,
and his
kingdom will have no end.”
That is what we mean when we speak about
judgment. Judgment means the ultimate
affirmation of love and the ultimate establishing
of justice.
The last judgment will establish what is right. It
will make visible God’s will. God will be God! It will cleanse! It will bring to light.
It will show that what we have believed
and hoped for is true. No one will be forgotten. Everyone will be called by
their name and recognised for their unique dignity.
Jesus Christ – God’s parable of love and justice - will
be revealed as the Lord over the living and the dead: “For to this end Christ
died and lived again, so that he might be Lord
of both the dead and the living”(Rom 14:9).
Jesus Christ will be revealed for who he is:
Come to me, all you
that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
(Matthew 11:28-30)
That is the meaning
of the second coming of Christ and of the
last judgement. Ambiguity will be brought to light. Hidden motives will be
revealed for what they are. Those who have allowed the Spirit of God to purify
their hearts will see God!
Now,
my friends, since we often associate judgment
with fear, it is important to remember
and not to forget, indeed have it deeply written into our being, that it is Jesus Christ who will come again to
judge the living and the dead.
The judge,
therefore, is none other than the saviour,
the friend of humanity! The judge is none other than the shepherd who
leaves the 99 who are safe, and goes out to seek the one who has got lost in
the stony desert of life. The coming of
Christ and the last judgment is the climax and the fulfilment of Jesus’ mission
of love and justice.
It may be helpful –it is one of the insights of the
Reformation - to distinguish between persons
and their works. Judgment means that the works will be made known before
God and then will be purified just as a carefully planned fire can cleanse and
rejuvenate the bush, and prepare for new growth. That is what Paul meant:
“If the work is burned
up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as
through fire.” (1 Cor 3:15)
And is not this our only hope? If our standing before
God would depend on our works, where would we be? In moments of humility and insight
I realise how great the gulf is between what I confess and what I practise. How
mixed my motives are, even for the best of my deeds. There is much to be burned
away before the beauty of God’s relationship to me can shine into eternity.
At this Advent season 2011, Let us join Christians
around the world and through the ages, confessing with joy and gratitude:
“Jesus Christ will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his
kingdom will have no end.”
TL,
[1] Adapted from Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Wahrnehmung der Neuzeit (Zürich: Ex
Libris, 1985), 355f.