Are you ready?

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

"Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back--whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: `Watch!' " (Mark 13:32-37)

This Sunday is the last Sunday of the church year, the day we call the Sunday of the Fulfillment. The church year began last December with Advent, when we prepared for the first coming of our Lord Jesus as a baby in Bethlehem on Christmas. Since then, the church has devoted Sundays to Jesus’ baptism, ministry, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. The last few months have emphasized the work of the Holy Spirit as He has called people together into a Christian Church that looks forward to our Lord’s return on the Last Day. And now, we are at the end of the church year; we are at the Sunday that looks forward to the day when all of Jesus’ promises are finally, completely fulfilled with His Second Coming. This weekend we celebrate the Sunday of the Fulfillment.

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus shares one of the most important teachings about the Last Day—Jesus tells us that no one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For that reason, He warns us: Be on guard! Be alert!

We humans are by nature curious. We want to know what the future will bring. We hate being kept in the dark. Children want to know what they will get for Christmas. Adults want to know when they will get a raise. People who are sick wonder when they will get better. People who are single wonder when they will meet their soul mate.

We want the security of knowing what the future will bring. Some people turn to horoscopes for the answers. Some people try to find secret codes in the Bible that will reveal dates for 'the millenium'. Some people even go to spiritualists to try and speak with the dead. But such activities are displeasing to our Lord. Trying to foretell the future shows a lack of faith in God. After all, the reason that people want to know about the future is because they are afraid of it. We are by nature pessimistic—we assume that bad things are going to happen to us, so we want to have enough warning to try and prepare ourselves. When we act like this, we show that we do not trust God. God reassures us, Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). If we believe that God has the power to do anything, and if we believe that God loves us so much that He won’t let us be destroyed by tragedy, then we have no reason to worry about the future. We have no reason to consult horoscopes or to look for hidden codes in the Bible. Our future is safe, because it is in God’s hands.

This is why Jesus said that even He did not know when the Last Day was going to be. When Jesus walked among us in human flesh, He was living the perfect life that God expects from each of us. Jesus was perfectly obedient to God, where we are rebellious. Jesus trusted God perfectly, where we fear that God won’t take care of us in our every need. Jesus lived a perfect life on earth because He knew that we cannot—because each of us is infected with sin from birth, our entire lives are characterized by rebellion and distrust.

Jesus was perfectly obedient and perfectly trusting, so that He could offer His life to God the Father in place of ours. Jesus was perfect in life so that we need not be. But how do you show trust if you know what the future will bring? If Jesus knew everything that was coming in the future, even the date of the Final Judgment, how could He demonstrate to God His Father that He trusted Him with His very life?

This is why Jesus voluntarily gave up some knowledge of the future. Jesus came among us to be the perfect child of God, the one person who had complete trust in God the Father as caregiver and protector. Since Jesus chose not to know everything, He needed to trust in His Father’s power and love, just as we are expected to trust in Him. God hides the future from us so that we learn to trust in Him; God hides the future to build our faith.

But sin gets in the way of our having a relationship with God in other ways as well. Jesus warns us that we must be ready for His return, because He knows that sin works to distract us. Many Christians struggle with the problem of falling asleep—because of their sin, they are dozing off. They are no longer living each day as if it might be their last. For example, many people take their relationship with Jesus for granted; they don’t give much thought to Christianity now, because they figure that there will be plenty of time for religion when they are too old to enjoy partying anymore. Such people have forgotten that when Jesus calls them to stand before Him, they must have an active relationship with our Lord if they want to receive His hand of welcome. If Jesus calls them at a time when they have let this relationship lapse, the only greeting they will get is "I tell you the truth: I don’t know you." Jesus issues this warning in Matthew 25: The kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight the cry rang out: `Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, `Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.' `No,' they replied, `there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.' But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. `Sir! Sir!' they said. `Open the door for us!' But he replied, `I tell you the truth, I don't know you.' Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. In this parable, the foolish virgins who have no lamp oil represent those people who don’t come to church or read the Bible, and so the light of their faith goes out without having any fuel to keep it burning.

For some sleeping Christians, the problem is distractions: working two jobs, making sure the kids get to all their extra-curricular activities, finding time for all the little extras that fill up each week. Allowing distractions to clutter up their lives results in less time for God’s Word—less time to go to church, less time to read the Bible, less time to converse with God through prayer. Earthly activities can compete with God for our attention. We are reminded of what our priorities should be in Luke chapter 10: Jesus…came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

For other sleeping Christians, the problem is the weight of worry: the constant barrage of tragedies from 24 hour news channels, the problems their children face in school, the aggravations that they and their spouse have to deal with at work—all the bad news in their lives beats them down, numbs their minds, and leaves them so depressed that they give up and stop looking to God for the hope of relief. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked the disciples to support Him while He prayed, but Luke tells us when he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. Allowing worry and fear to turn into sorrow and despair can very easily deaden us to the hope that God will rescue us. At such times we need to be reminded of King David’s words in Psalm 56: in God I trust; I will not be afraid.

Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task. In these verses, Jesus tells that we are to stay sharp, because we don’t know when we will meet Him unexpectedly, face to face. But there is more—Jesus also tells us that we each have an assigned task, something that we are to be doing while we await His return. It is not enough that we merely stay awake—we are to be about our Master’s business. And what is it that we are to be doing while we wait for Him? Jesus has told us. In John chapter 6, He says "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." First and foremost, we are to believe what Jesus has told us. We are to believe Jesus when He says I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). We are to believe Jesus when He tells us I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die (John 11:25-26). We are to trust in the truth of Jesus’ words The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations (Luke 24:46-47).

In addition, we have something else to do: Jesus also said, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20). We are Christ’s ambassadors; God makes His appeal to unbelievers through us (2 Corinthians 5:20). It is we who have been burdened with heavy guilt over the people that we’ve hurt. It is we who were astonished that Jesus would offer to be punished for our guilt on the cross, in our place. It is we who are overjoyed that Jesus rose from the dead, proving that His love for us is greater than our ability to mess up our lives. It is we who have the joy of knowing that the mistakes of our past can be forgotten, so long as we turn that past over to Christ in exchange for a new start. It is we who can live each day in service to God, without concern about tomorrow, because the God who took away our sin and defeated death forever is in charge of every moment of our lives. The Good News of Jesus is personal—it changes your life, and it can change the lives of others, when they see how your life has been remade by God’s Word.

Jesus said, Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back. This is a warning, but it is also Good News. Our Lord did not go away forever; He has not abandoned our world to the forces of darkness. Jesus has promised to return. All that bad news that you see on CNN or read about in the paper will come to an end. All the troubles that you and your family face at school, at work and at home will finally be resolved. Jesus promises that one day, perhaps very soon, there will be no reason to fret about the future because when He returns, every evil impulse, every tragic event will be banished from our lives forever. Then the dwelling of God will be with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away (Revelation 21:3-4).

It will be a most wonderful day! Do not let Him find you sleeping.