The Joyous Second Coming

At Christmas we celebrate the First Coming of Jesus and this is a joyous event.

The promised Second Coming has too often been described in terms of fear and terror; the ‘fire and brimstone’ approach of previous eras. The humour of one such minister shouting at the congregation that ‘there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’ and an old lady saying she had no teeth. “Teeth, madam, will be provided!” These are times gone by. We condemn the sin, not the sinner.

In the November 2014 edition of the Uniting Church Insights Ben Myers (a lecturer of systematic theology) describes a joyous Second Coming in which the ‘separation of the wheat and the chaff’ will not be between good and bad people, but the separation of the good and bad within us. We will enter as mud and emerge as gold.

“The judgement that Christ brings, moreover, is not just a division between persons. When Christ’s light shines into our lives, it creates a division within ourselves. None of us is entirely good or entirely bad. All of us are a mixture. The bad grows up in our lives like weeds among the wheat, and the two are so closely entwined that we can hardly tell the difference. Sometimes our worst mistakes turn out to produce good fruit. Sometimes we discover that our virtues have produced unforeseen collateral damage.

Our lives are not transparent to ourselves. We cannot easily tell where the good ends and the bad begins.

The Second Coming will be filled with joy.

So it is a great comfort to know that one day someone else will come and lovingly separate the good from the bad in our lives. The confession that Christ will come as judge is not an expression of terror and doom. It is a part of the good news of the gospel. It is a joy to know that there is someone who understands all the complexities and ambiguities of our lives. It is a joy to know that this one – the only one who is competent to judge – is ‘full of grace and truth’. He comes to restore, not to destroy.

Christ’s judgement will be the best thing that ever happens to us and to our world. On that day, all the weeds will be removed at last, and for the first time we will be able to see the truth of our lives – and to know that, in spite of everything, we are loved.”

A joyous Second Coming that will separate the good and bad within us.

The Second Coming will be the best thing that has ever happened to us. Jesus will lovingly separate the good from the bad from within us.