It is coming...

Imagine the scene:

Houses were empty.
A certain book had disappeared off of the bookshelves in shops and online inventories.
Sales of certain illicit substances and content had plummeted forcing companies to close.

Where had all the people gone? What with these mysteries?

Imagine they had all flocked to local faithful Gospel churches! Why? Because they’d heard that Jesus was coming. What began as possibly even a fear of judgement, turned to a genuine fear of the Lord and remorse for their sins, and through faith in the Gospel, their mourning had turned to an eternal joy, and they waited.

Matthew 24:44 says, “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Not to trivialize our present crisis, but it is ironic that there is a far greater crisis that is pending—the Second Coming of Jesus Christ—and yet people shrug it off. Yet, tell the world that Covid-19 is coming and people rush to get supplies and self-isolate and close borders so that they are ready if/when it comes.

During a plague in Cyprian’s day (c.252, Bishop of Carthage) he thought Jesus’ return was imminent.[1] Plagues have come and plagues have gone and so it would be hasty to say that our present disease was any different than those of the past as a signal of the Lord’s return, however, it ought to be a reminder to us to be ready, that there is an even greater arrival to be ready for and it is not Covid-19 (as ready as we need to be for that), but the coming of Christ from glory to “judge the living and the dead.”


[1] Cyprian, On Mortality, Treatise VII.2.