“The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.”
Jesus spends a lot of time towards the end of the Gospels talking about the end times, the stuff between the resurrection and the second coming. And a lot of it is terrifying. And, it is true, there have been plenty of terrifying times for the Church, and there are places in the world where it is terrifying right now to be a Christian.
But there is another possibility that Jesus addresses about the End Times. It’s one we don’t address that much. The End Times might just be sort of boring where you are at. Not much excitement. No real threats of martyrdom or persecution. Let’s face it, compared to places where Christians are killed, our complaints of “they made fun of us on social media” are sort of lame.
So, what if the End Times, what if our lives are… boring? What if we never get to be the next Martin Luther, what if they never write about us in the ages to come? What if we don’t even get to see any wild and crazy miracles? What if our lives are just the same old same old of Church, of preaching and the Supper for the rest of our lives?
The temptation (and a deadly one) will be for you to just write that off. To get bored with Church, to be bored of the Gospel. To look elsewhere, to look for some sort of God-ish fervor anywhere and everywhere… except where God has promised to be. In His Word. In His Baptism. In His Supper. For you.
Salvation isn’t an action film with explosions or full of special effects done by Industrial Light and Magic. It’s not even our own heroic story. It is a gift given to you by Christ Jesus. It’s what He has done and given to you so you can have a peaceful, restful life, simply enjoying what He has done. Beware of boredom, that would try to steal that from you. Instead, rejoice, because Christ Jesus still comes to you and for you, week in and week out, whether things are simple or terrifying. He remains the same and constant for you.
