Matthew 24:37-44

Deep within the gospel traditions are Jesus’ statements of the coming of the Son of Man. If you notice, this passage is framed by the phrase “the coming of the Son of Man” as the last phrase in the first sentence and a similar phrase in the last clause of the last sentence. What is the role of the believer in relationship to the “coming”? Do we bring the coming to pass? What are the conditions in which “the coming” occurs? What then is the responsibility of the believer to live in the face of the coming of the Son of Man?

Isaiah 2:1-5

Isaiah 2 gives an image of creation after the coming, or in its words, “in the days to come.” As Christians, we read the Jerusalem and temple images of the passage as the church, the new Jerusalem, a people made the “dwelling place of God” through God’s reconciliation of humanity in Jesus Christ. We see here both the “already” and the “still-to-come” nature of “the days to come”. Discuss the first two verses in light of our multicongregation and even our congregation, in terms of the “already” and the “still-to-come”.

In verses 3-4, the passage moves to judgment, the “coming of the Son of Man” in light of our Matthew reading. What happens as a result of the coming? What happens to the situation discussed in Matthew concerning the time of the coming? What is the difference in the imagery of what the judgment brings about?

Notice that the final verse calls Judah and Jerusalem now to walk in the ways of the Lord. This provides the framework for the Epistle text.

Romans 13:8-14

It seems to me that it is helpful to read the Romans passage in light of the “coming” spoken in Matthew as a witness to the end result spoken of in Isaiah – how to live for the “coming” in light of the already and the not-yet. Read Matthew 5:17 – 48 and Romans 14:8-10. How does Paul’s teaching relate to Jesus’? How does then Jesus’ teaching related to the “time it is” – what time is it? What is the “salvation” spoken of in v. 11?

Why, given this “time,” does Paul exhort avoidance of certain types of behavior and attitudes in vv. 12-13? The kicker, however, comes in v. 14 – what I’ll probably spend some time on this coming Sunday. What does the language, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” mean (help me out, I’m not sure!)? The last phrase is very important. The “flesh” in Paul is the way bodies are perceived as a result of living in this evil age, the desires encoded in us by the world that takes us from God. There is an asceticism endorsed in the passage, but it is a denial of the flesh to free the body, all bodies, not a denial of the body per se. Maybe, in light of the previous two Scriptures, you could talk about what it means to make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Desire itself is not wrong or evil; but for the Christian, all desires must be rightly ordered to find their end, their ultimate desire, in God. What happens when our desires become disconnected from their ultimate end in God? How does this help us live from the coming to the coming?

David Bentley Hart in the Beauty of the Infinite writes, “The kingdom of God, the Gospels assert . . . comes suddenly, like a thief in the night, and so fulfills no immanent process, consummates none of our grand projects. . . . Only thus does it complete all things. And in the light of an eschaton [the “end time”] that has already, in the resurrection of Christ, been made visible within history. . . the eschatological liberates time from the burden of history, allows time . . . an unnecessary, free, rhetorical graciousness; time is seen to be a declaration of divine glory, rather than a divine or human or ideal labor that achieves its end through an inevitable but ennobling . . . strife” (pp. 396-7). How does recognizing that the “burden of history” is lifted from us allow us to “make no provision for the flesh” but frees us to live fully in an affirmation of Life?

Have a wonderful evening!