When Jesus Calls- Don't Stay Behind! ~ Matthew 24:36-44 ~ First Sunday of Advent

Right after Elizabeth and I were married, our home was a tiny apartment in the town of Red Lion, Pennsylvania—about fifteen miles southeast of York…  This was home as we completed our one-year seminary internships.

The day we moved in, I noticed a box truck pull up, with a sign that read “A-Plus Piano Movers.”

The door opens, and out steps one of the largest men I’ve ever seen.  Easily seven feet tall, with arms the size of three trunks.  He’s so large, he crouches his neck and turns sideways—just to fit through the door.

Later that weekend, about 3 a.m. on Sunday morning, we’re awakened to what sounds like World War 2.  This neighbor and his friend are playing video games.  The game console was hooked up to a sound system that would’ve been better-suited for a stadium than an apartment.  Our apartment literally shook from the noise of explosions—and the roars of two men.

My first instinct was to go downstairs and tell them to turn the volume down.  But all I could think about was the sheer size of this man.  I certainly did not want to get on his bad side.  Therefore, we decided we had no choice but to suffer through the noise.

Maybe that was the wrong decision—but I was intimidated by this man and his sheer size.

And sometimes, God can be even more intimidating …

This is most especially true whenever Scripture speaks of God’s coming in judgment.  The God who is gracious and merciful becomes tremendously large and perhaps even frightening. 

Just hear Jesus’ words: “As it was in days of Noah, so it will be again…”  “Two persons will be in the field; one is taken and the other left…”  “Two women will be grinding meal together, one is taken and the other left.”

At least for me, these words instantly bring to mind the bestselling Left Behind novels and the movies—and their nightmarish stories of God’s elect disappearing from sight, leaving cars without drivers, planes without pilots, and a world gripped with terror. 

Hear Jesus words and you can’t help but ask: “Will I be left behind?”

But I urge you never to read the Bible’s end times passages as play-by-play guides for the end of the world.  Do this, and you’ll be hearing God’s Word only in terms of what could happen to you.  The truth is, we can never fully know or understand how God will bring the present age to an end.  That’s beyond our ability to comprehend—just as God is beyond our ability to comprehend.  We have no choice but to entrust the future and ourselves to God. 

Jesus speaks these words to describe what God will be doing.  Jesus will be coming into this world, to permanently establish God’s justice and righteousness in all the universe.  He will be making right everything that is wrong, and resurrecting everything that is dead.  This is good news.

So don’t be asking, “could I get left behind?”  Jesus is calling you to be his disciple today!  The question before you is, “will I stay behind, as Jesus calls me?  Will I stay behind as Jesus calls me to faith and to repentance?  Will I say no to doing justice, to loving kindness, and walking humbly with God?” 

We have just begun what is undoubtedly the busiest and most stressful time of the year.  There’s so much to buy and to do to prepare for Christmas, on top of all the other commitments and obligations that crowd our lives.   Therefore, when Jesus calls us as disciples, it’s easy to hear his call as burdensome—like it’s one more thing that we don’t have the time and the energy to do.  We don’t want to hand over control of what little remains of our time and energy and resources.  We don’t want to be bound up in any more demands.  So we detach from Christ and attach to that which brings us instant gratification: like buying and having cool stuff; of doing cool things; achieving success; and winning everyone’s approval. 

But discipleship is a gift—not a burden.  We become disciples for the sake of what God wants to do for us and for the world.  Jesus attaches us to himself so that we may become one with him in healing the world, doing justice, and establishing righteousness.  Attached to Christ, we witness resurrection—and to do his work of resurrection. 

Today you are called to be a disciple.  Jesus is not leaving you behind.  You are invited to surrender your life into God’s saving purposes for all the world.  This way, you won’t be caught off guard when Jesus comes again in glory.  You’ll be right there with him at the resurrection of all things.

Sometimes, the power of God lies just beyond those things for which we cannot bear to let go.  To be a disciple, we must to die to every attachment that is not Christ—and that can be a scary thing.  But in dying to these worldly attachments, we are reborn into the reality of God’s reality salvation.  We let go, and the power of God takes over. 

Advent is the season to prepare for the coming of Christ—and not just as a baby in a manger, but as a conquering king.  Now is the time to carefully examine our lives, and ask God, “what attachments exist in my life that tempt me to detach myself from Christ?”

 If we believe that he’s coming, and we trust that God knows what’s best for us, then let us follow Jesus in joy.  But do remember this: God is bigger than us—and God’s gracious will shall be done on earth as in heaven.  A human being can gain the whole world—but nothing can stand against God.  God’s will shall be done.  And there is no resurrection apart from God.