Jesus will be here soon. It says so in the Bible. Jesus himself says so in Revelation 22:7. But as it says in Matthew 24:36, “But concerning that day and hour [that Jesus will be here,] no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” The best thing to do is to be at your best when he shows up. He may show up tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, next decade, century or millennium, nobody knows.
There’s no taking for granted he will appear when a particular person is alive. That person may be settled in his grave or in God’s Kingdom before Jesus appears. But as it says in Matthew 24:40-41, “...two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left” when Jesus appears. The one who is taken is one who would have passed away before Jesus arrives, and the other one is someone who is around when Jesus appears. Two men who worked in the field, and two women grinding at the mill before one of each is taken.
That suggests that the ones who are left would be going about their business when, Surprise! Jesus appears. But the reality is there are billions of such people, some will have been “taken” and some who will be “left.” Not all may be in the same place as where he arrives, but word would get around in any event. But to simplify things, keeping it to two of each, what type of man in the field, so to speak, will Jesus come across? Will he come across a man who’s been living a moral life, and who asks for forgiveness when he invariably sins, or will he come across a man who just the other day spent his time off attending a hate rally against a hated group of his choice on a wholesale basis? And what of the woman who is grinding in the mill? Will she likewise be living a moral life and asking for forgiveness when she sins, or will he come across a woman who just the other day, as an elected official, would be more than happy to refer to all migrants to her country as “monsters?” Makes no difference to her, if she can get their vote. She may refer to herself as a Christian, but recall in Matthew 2:14-15 that when Jesus was under threat of being slain by King Herod, Joseph took him and Mary to Egypt and stayed there until many years later when it was safe to return to their country upon Herod’s death. Did anyone in Egypt refer to that family as ‘monsters’?
Or go further back to when Joseph found himself in Egypt and was brought to the attention of the Pharoah in Egypt at the time, did the Pharoah say ‘Get this “monster” out of here’? Alright, so the Pharoah after him wasn’t so kind to the Hebrews, and perhaps if he had his way, a big, beautiful wall would have been built around Egypt, preventing outsiders from coming in. But given that the Bible was written based of faith, it is difficult to read into the happenings in the Bible as one would any historical event that is found in secular history books. So let’s go closer to the present…the U.S. could have said ‘keep those monsters out,’ referring to the waves of immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries who were being processed at Ellis Island. But it didn’t, did it? Perhaps at the time, there were enough people who were level-headed enough to know that not everyone, IF anyone, who landed on America’s shores, were ‘monsters’.
So what if Jesus appears and he sees a ‘monster’-hater working in the field, or grinding in a mill? Would he take them up? Seems unlikely if they fail Jesus’ test set forth in Matthew 25:31-46. What would they say if Jesus says, ‘Take these to the Lake of Fire’? would they say ‘Had we known you were coming, we would have changed for your benefit’? Seems unlikely they would get a second chance, particularly when you consider the Parable of the Rich Fool, when God says to the Rich Fool who was planning his future, ‘Fool, your time has come NOW for judgement!’
As it implies in Matthew 24:44, you must be ready come day or night, for you won’t know when Jesus will appear. How many people now, who when faced with hordes of needy people and who are hell-bent to turning them away, will end up being turned away themselves by Jesus if he should hear what they say about the needy, and see how they treat the needy? Who is the real ‘monster’ here?
