Be ready
I often get asked if I think we are living in the end days. I think we are. I am not sure about times and dates – I have heard theories about Jesus coming back in the 2030s, but I can’t say that I am convinced by them.
But I do know this: I don’t want to be caught by surprise when he does come. And Jesus’ own words convince me that I need to be ready for him to come at any time. Listen to Jesus in Luke 12:35-40:
“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”” (Luke 12:35–40 NIV11)
Life's Wake-Up Call: Are You Ready?
Words like these cause me to look at my life and ask myself: will I be ready?
Growing up here in South Africa there was a show we used to love watching called MTN Gladiators. Friday night was Gladiators night! And the team of Gladiators practically became celebrities in our country, we all knew them and had our favourites, and we watched with glee as members of the public tried to beat them at various games.
The referee on MTN Gladiators was a retired cricket umpire named Cyril Mitchley, and he used to start each game by saying loudly:
“Contender, aaaaare you ready?!!
Gladiator, are you ready?!!
3… 2… 1…”
And he would blow his whistle and the game would begin.
I have a silly picture in my mind of God waking us up each morning and saying “My child, aaaaare you ready?!!”
Living Ready: Embracing a Life Clothed in Righteousness
It’s actually a serious question. Are you ready? If Jesus were to come today, are you ready? He said in that passage that those who are dressed ready for service with their lamps burning will find it good when he comes. What does it mean to be dressed ready? Well, it means to be clothed in righteousness. The New Testament often uses this picture of God putting away our clothes of sin and giving us pure, holy garments to wear as his children. This is just a picture – this doesn’t mean we have to dress in white when we go to church, like some groups do. It’s a picture of the lives of purity, free from sin’s stains, that God will enable us to live through the gracious filling of the Holy Spirit.
So, are you ready? Are you clothed in white and living for Him? Do you need to “put off” some sinful garments you are still hanging onto?
It will be so good if Jesus comes back and find us living holy, loving lives of Christian service, worshipping Him and adoring Him, and waiting with gladness for Him to return.
And it might be sooner that we all think.
