In the midst of this pandemic, with the death count climbing daily, Christians are asking hard questions: Why aren’t prayers moving Jesus to act? What is Jesus doing in heaven right now? Will this pandemic cause him to return to Earth as he said he would?
While no one can answer these questions with any degree of certainty, I think it’s helpful to review Jesus’ plan:
Throughout the Synoptics—Mark, Matthew, and Luke—we read of the Jewish expectation that a Kingdom would we established and ruled by one from the line of David. Old Testament prophets said this kingdom would be the most powerful kingdom on earth.
Jesus told his followers that he was the Messiah who would rule this kingdom, but he gave them a timeline of things that must happen prior to the kingdom:
- He must die as a ransom and be resurrected and exalted to the right hand of God.
- Unfaithful Israel would go through a tribulation more severe than they had ever experienced.
- He would be seen returning in the clouds (an allusion to Daniel’s prophecy).
The tribulation would end when Jesus returned from heaven to establish God’s kingdom, and he would reign with his disciples. (Some of them would still be living when he returned, and those who had died would be resurrected.)
There was also an expectation that shortly after the kingdom was established, the rest of the world would be judged and all unrighteous people would be destroyed.
So after Jesus’ resurrection, his disciples continued spreading Jesus’ message throughout the Jewish world: Those who repented would be saved from the coming judgment and enter the kingdom, but those who did not repent would be destroyed.
Now for a quick history lesson:
After almost 20 years elapsed since Jesus’ death and resurrection, and still no return, the apostle Paul and a few companions began to take the gospel to the Greek world (AD 47-48). Paul wrote that believing Gentiles would cause the Jews to become jealous and repent and be saved. He held to the view that when enough Gentiles accepted Jesus as the risen Messiah, a partial “hardening” would be removed from the Jews, and at that time, the nation of Israel would accept Jesus as Lord, and Christ would return to earth to reign in the messianic kingdom (Romans 11:11-28).
Now that we’ve reviewed Jesus’ plan, and had a quick history lesson, let’s take a stab at answering the question Christians have been wrestling with for almost 2000 years: Why didn’t Jesus return to establish his kingdom?
The most common way to deal with this question is to say that Jesus must have been talking about a spiritual kingdom, not an earthly kingdom. I believe we see this idea first in the Gospel of John (GoJ). This was the latest of the four Gospels (written about 65 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection), and it seems the writer has given up on the idea of Jesus returning to rule. Unlike the three earlier Gospels, which constantly talk about the kingdom, the GoJ only mentions the kingdom three times, and one of those times, the writer tells us Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”
It’s understandable that Christians through the ages have latched onto this later idea from the GoJ, but to accept this idea means to reject what the writers of Mark, Matthew, and Luke had to say about Jesus’ imminent return and the establishment of God’s kingdom. In those three Gospels, Jesus tells his disciples that some of them will still be living when he returns. He also tells them that they will sit on 12 thrones next to him (most likely signifying a regathering of the 12 tribes of Israel) and rule over a reborn Israel.
Referring to Mark 13:30, which concludes a prediction by Jesus of Jerusalem’s destruction and his imminent return, C.S. Lewis wrote in “The World’s Last Night” that this was the most embarrassing verse in the Bible; however, Lewis was confident that this was simply an error made by the human Jesus, and he was confident Jesus would return some day.
So is this the best way to handle this problem? Maybe. The truth is, no one knows why Jesus didn’t come back like he said he would. And no one knows when or if he will come back.
So now that we’ve established that we have more questions than answers, let’s take another look at the 3 questions from the beginning of this post:
Why aren’t prayers moving Jesus to act? What is Jesus doing in heaven right now? Will this pandemic cause him to return to Earth as he said he would?
- I’d say the answer to the 1st question is, We don’t know.
- Regarding the 2nd question, New Testament writers said Jesus was sitting or standing at the right hand of God interceding for believers. So he may still be doing that.
- And the answer to the 3rd question is, We don’t know.
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Related posts:
The Bible, and what’s missing
Was Jesus a Failed Prophet?
Kingdom of God–Where?
Why is the Gospel of John so Different?
Muddling Through the Universe 