What If Jesus Isn't Coming Back?

These days my Facebook page is filled with memes declaring that we’re in the “last days” and that the ongoings of our world with …

A pandemic.

Riots.

Violent storms.

Etc.

… Are clear evidences that Jesus will soon return.

Along with those memes are strong words of warning to all the “unbelievers” that ya’ll better “be right with God” and “accept Jesus into your life” so that you won't be “left behind” when Jesus comes back to rapture away all the people who believe the right things about him, leaving the rest of the world behind to burn and be destroyed.

Judgement.

Wrath.

Revenge.

Anger.

Hopelessness.

I was raised under the umbrella of this theology and maybe you were too, but it always struck me as odd, as an “easy way out” of dealing with the world’s problems.

Right?

Because if Jesus is ultimately going to sweep me away from this world and leave it to burn and if the only things that really matter in the grand scheme of things are where I end up when I die OR making sure that Jesus takes me with him when he returns.

Well.

Then.

The problems of this world really aren’t my concern.

Right?

Like …

The environment doesn’t matter because it’s all going to burn up anyways.

Racism will burn away with it.

Viruses, too.

Evil people.

Rapists.

Child abusers.

Dirty politicians.

To be blunt about it: why should I concern myself with something that is going to be burned up and washed away after Jesus comes back to take his faithful with him and unleash God’s wrath and fury on all the evil and evil people he leaves behind?

Why should I fix something that God will ultimately destroy anyways?

And so lots of people today are making sweeping declarations that these crazy things going on in our world are signs that Jesus is soon to return, that the tribulation is about to start, that the apocalypse is knocking on our doors, and that what REALLY matters …

Isn’t eradicating racism.

Isn’t solving a pandemic.

Isn’t addressing police brutality.

BUT.

Saying the sinner’s prayer.

Getting right with Jesus.

Believing the right things about why he died.

What I’ve been wondering, though, is what if all of that isn’t true? Like, what if Jesus isn’t going to return? What if there is no second coming? What if all of that theology is misunderstood theology because what if Jesus has already returned?

After his resurrection Jesus said that he was going back to the Father and that he would send the Holy Spirit to dwell inside of us and that he (Jesus) would be “with us always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20, John 14, and more.)

“End of the age” … the prophets of the Bible foretold a day when this age of evil and brokenness would end and an age of peace and restoration would begin.

And so.

What if.

… What if Christ has already returned, what if he has already come back, not to take away a select few and leave the rest to burn, but so that his Spirit could take up residence within us and all around us so that he can work in us and through us and around us to bring about the new age?

Think about it: what if the idea isn’t to believe the right things so that we can escape this earth as it burns, but to live the right way so that we can (as a collective group of humans) bring about the Divine restoration and age of peace that the prophets of old foretold?

What if BELIEVE isn’t about mental constructs, but action?

What if the call is to BELIEVE not with our thoughts, but with our bodies?

What if BELIEF is best expressed not in a prayer, but in the ways in which we carry ourselves in the world?

What if Jesus isn’t coming back and what if the only reason this world ends up burning is because the church has neglected the call of Christ to be good stewards of creation, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to fight for justice, mercy, and inclusion?

To live as he lived?

To do as he did?

To love as he loved?

If the world ends up burning, what if it’s not a result of God’s wrath, but a result of our neglect and refusal to live the life that Jesus lived and modeled for us some 2000 years ago?

Something to chew on. We have work to do. The “new age” depends on us - you and me, right here and right now.

Much love,