The parable of the ten maidens, from the beginning
of chapter 25 of Matthew’s gospel refers to the different treatment of the gentiles ( =
the wise maidens) and the Israelites ( = the foolish maidens) that will take
place with the coming of God’s Kingdom. But when will God’s Kingdom come? ‘The New Testament’s authors’, writes Jeffrey A. Gibbs,
‘thought and lived and wrote eschatologically, with their hope fully, firmly,
and fervently directed toward the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Such
beliefs are in both the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. ‘And he will come with
glory to judge both the living and the dead... ’ ‘From thence he will come to
judge the living and the dead... I believe in the resurrection of the body and
the life everlasting. Amen.’ We repeat it in almost every communion service in
the great acclamation: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come
again. But the fact that we repeat these affirmations of faith so frequently
does not necessarily mean that we take it as read that the Second Coming (Parousia)
will happen, let alone that it will happen in our lifetime.
We have therefore to go back to basics and ask
ourselves the question: when did people in the NT expect the Parousia to occur? There was an
expectation of imminence in the return of Christ, which was matched by
statements such as coming at an ‘unexpected hour’, or ‘like a thief in the night’.
The force of the command to be ready and to watch would be diminished if there
was reason to think that Christ was not to return soon. But the difference
between ‘soon’ and ‘when’ is critical. None of the Biblical texts state
explicitly when we are to expect Christ’s return. On the contrary, we are told
that ‘of that day or that hour no one knows’ (Mark 13:32).
There had
been a long tradition of Jewish apocalyptic writers who had written of the end
things, and whose hopes had not been fulfilled. Yet there is very little
evidence to suggest that disappointment of that
expectation discredited the apocalyptic hope or even diminished the sense of
imminence in later generations. This apparent delay belongs
to the purpose of God. It will not be ‘late’ according to the timescale which
God has determined. As the Qumran commentary on Habakkuk 2:3 puts it:
‘Interpreted, this concerns the men of truth who keep the Law, whose hands
shall not slacken in the service of the truth when the final age is prolonged.
For all the ages of God reach their appointed end as he determines for them in
the mysteries of his wisdom.’ The Jewish apocalyptic writers maintained the
tension between imminence and delay, and that tension remains a feature of Christian theology.
For example, did Paul
expect the Parousia within his lifetime, or after his death? It
would seem that in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, Paul
expected the Parousia to come
quickly, so quickly that it would take place before his death. However, in
Paul’s later epistles, it seems that he no longer expected to be alive at the
second coming of Christ, but rather to die before it took place. Absolute
certainty concerning whether he would live to, or die before the Parousia was something Paul would never
have claimed at any stage in his life. Paul was certain that Christ would
return, but a similar certainty concerning his own (or his contemporaries’)
survival to that time was something he would never have claimed.
Paul is thought to have died around 67 AD. The most
probable event associated with the Second Coming of Christ – the fall of Jerusalem
and the destruction of institutional Judaism based on the Temple – occurred in
the year 70 AD. Some of the prophecies from Jesus clearly allude to this event,
even though it occurred more than thirty years after his death. Chapter 54 of the compendium volume on Systematic Theology argues (p. 1105) that ‘it is spiritually
unhealthy for us to say that we know that these signs have not occurred, and it seems to stretch the bounds of credible
interpretation to say that we know that these signs have occurred. But it seems to fit exactly in the middle of the NT
approach towards Christ’s return to say that we do not know with certainty if these events have occurred.’
Yet in
other parts of the New Testament, there are clear indications of a delay in the
Parousia. The author of 2 Peter 3:9 offers
a positive understanding of the delay: ‘The Lord is not slow about his promise,
as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any
should perish, but that all should reach repentance.’ The manner of the victory which Christ has already won gives fresh meaning to the delay,
which now becomes the time of the church’s universal mission, characterized by
suffering witness in discipleship to the crucified Christ. For
Richard Bauckham, God delays the Parousia not simply in spite of his
people’s sufferings, but actually so that his people may suffer the
positive, creative suffering which falls to the followers of the cross
of Christ.
Revelation maintains the tension
of imminence and delay. The imminent expectation focuses on the Parousia of
the already victorious Christ: and the book ends with the promise, ‘I am coming soon’, and the church’s urgent response, ‘Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!’ (22:20). Surely that is the spur for us to work actively for God’s Kingdom here and now, a Kingdom characterized by justice and equity for all and a fair distribution of the world’s resources.
