How Long Until Jesus Returns?
The average closing time on a house is a little longer than 40 days. For many buyers that can seem like a long time. You've picked out the perfect home for you and your family. You're already planning how you're going to decorate it. Your old house, which is just a little too small, feels even smaller compared to the "mansion" you're about to move into. You're eager. You're excited. You just can't wait.
The season of Lent is 40 days long. And maybe, when you're in the middle of it, it can feel like a long time. Easter seems so far away. You just want to sing those happy hymns, "I Know that My Redeemer Lives, "Jesus Christ is Risen Today," "Jesus Lives! The Victory's Won," and many more. But, before celebration comes preparation.
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, March 6th this year. On Ash Wednesday, we begin our preparation. We remember that "dust we are, and to dust we will return." Instead of happy hymns, we sing reflective songs, "What Wondrous Love is This," "A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth," "My Song is Love Unknown." We reflect on our sins. We prepare ourselves for our own death. We contemplate the death of Christ our Savior for us. To prepare for Christ's exaltation, we remember his humiliation. For there to be a resurrection from the dead, one must die.
Paul says in Ephesians 2, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient." We were spiritually dead. We could not love God because we did not know him. But, we have been resurrected. Paul continues, "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved." We have been raised from spiritual death through faith in Christ's bodily resurrection from the dead.
If 40 days seems like a long time, how about 40 years? Or 50? Or 80? Or 100? We have been made alive now, but we still have to wait. We wait for death when Christ will bring us to be with him in heaven forever. We wait for him to come again to raise our bodies from the grave to be reunited with our souls in glory. But, now we wait.
As we wait for that glorious Day, we continue to be prepared by the Holy Spirit. He continues to feed our faith with the gospel in the Word and Sacraments. In this season of Lenten preparation, we focus on our preparation all year round, and for the years to come, until we join our Savior God in joyous celebration for eternity.