Matthew 24:36-44

“Therefore, you also should be prepared, because the Human One will come at a time you don’t know.” Matthew 24:44 CEB

I can predict with good certainty how the dying process will go with someone on the brink of death. It all comes down to the answer to one simple question.

“Are you ready?”

And I can usually tell when someone answers honestly. It’s the eyes. Fear, doubt, shame, can be seen there, but so can peace, deep faith, and great love.

Over the past century this passage has been the subject of lots of speculation about a rapture, where all the faithful will be taken from the earth and usher in an age of suffering. Books and movies have been made, as has millions of dollars generated from this theology. And so has a great deal of fear about the future.

Even recently there has been great speculation about the war in the Middle East that may usher in the end times…again.

What Jesus is telling us here (and in the surrounding passages in this last sermon) is about the condition of our daily faith matters.

Are we ready?

We see it every day. One day a loved one is with us, the next day they are not. Sometimes it’s a long journey through illness, cancer, age and other times it’s in the blink of an eye, an accident or a hidden medical condition. Death happens every day and regardless whether it is expected or not it is still tragic and painful.

We can never fully prepare for it, because we don’t know when it’s coming. But we can develop a consistent practice of faithfulness, service, and worship that engenders a peaceful spirit within us.

This is what Jesus is saying here. Be faithful…every day…and we’ll always be ready.

Peace ><>

Chris