The current COVID-19 pandemic is spawning predictions of the imminent return of Jesus. Some view this as the focus of Christian hope. But predictions of the imminent return of Jesus have proven false for centuries and there is little reason to think that they have any more credibility today, given the fact that they are based on spurious and arbitrary combinations of biblical texts. The Bible is not a deck of tarot cards that can be used to satisfy our curiosity about the future. Our hope should not be reduced to a speculative timetable of events.
Having said this, however, we do need to think about the nature of Christian hope. What is it that Christians hope for? What is the basis of our hope? Is our hope grounded on anything more than wishful thinking? These are important questions that should be answered, even if we don't buy into the doomsday predictions of the purveyors of end-time mania.
Christian hope is grounded in the affirmation that while God is at work in the world--and we believe that He is--his divine work awaits completion at some time in the future. With the coming of Jesus and his proclamation that, "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near..." (Mark 1:15; NRSV), a new era in God's unfolding plan for the world began. In effect, the long-awaited future had begun. In effect, the long-awaited future had begun. The Kingdom of God was not present, not in its fullness, but in seed. This is the consistent message of many of the Kingdom parables of Jesus (for example, see Mark 4:26-32).
Further, after the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Kingdom sprouted in new ways, through the Holy Spirit. But alongside this emphasis on the presence of the Kingdom, the Church quickly realized that we await the full establishment of God's rule and the completion of God's purposes in the world. In the concrete world of reality, where sin, strife and discord often seem to rule, it is only by faith that we see evidence of God's rule breaking in. Therefore, while the Kingdom is present now, its full establishment has not yet been realized. This contrast between the now and the not yet, between what God has already done and what God has yet to do, is a fundamental tension in which we live and it shapes every aspect of our Christian hope. The space between the inauguration of the Kingdom with the coming of Jesus and the completion of the Kingdom when God's work in the world will be completed, creates room for hope. We hope for--indeed we long for--the fullness of God's reign.
In the Bible there are three different dimensions of Christian hope that require exploration. First, there is the hope that is focused on individuals and our destiny with God. Second, there is a corporate hope for the establishment of a faithful human community, usually referred to as the Kingdom of God. Third, there is hope for the transformation and restoration of all creation. While enumerated separately for the sake of analysis, these three sides of our Christian hope cannot be separated without seriously distorting God's mission in the world. But taken together they provide depth to our Christian faith that is obscured when we narrow the scope of hope to a particular, highly speculative calendar of events that is focused only on the return of Jesus and the end of the world.
So, Christian hope which sometimes is reduced to a fascination with the end of the world and the return of Jesus, is actually much broader and deeper than this. In coming posts, we shall consider the scope of Christian hope in more detail.
TO BE CONTINUED...