“I shall return”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Wednesday, December 6, 2023

2 Peter 3: 1-10 (Forward, p. 38) CEV p. 1284

In some ways, Jesus reminds me of US General Douglas MacArthur who, when ordered to flee the Philippines for Australia due the immanent invasion of the Philippines by Japanese forces, declared, “I shall return.” In a sense, this was a strategic retreat, meaning that in the relative safety of Australia he could re-marshal and consolidate his forces for an eventual return.

This, in a sense, is what Jesus’ departure and eventual return is also about.

Once in heaven, Jesus could send the Holy Spirit to believers in order to teach them and empower them for His continued mission. And these empowered believers could spread His mission and ministry into the entire world, essentially multiplying it. They would thus be to carry it far beyond the limited scope that Jesus, as just one finite person, could have ever accomplished in His lifetime. Meanwhile, Jesus, from His ‘headquarters’ as it were, would continue in His work of interceding for us ‘down in the trenches’ here on earth.

Peter, in today’s passage, calls his readers to a hearty remembrance of these facts. Some people, apparently, have forgotten about this, even though it was announced both by the prophets and the apostles. Still others, seemingly, have decided that it ‘doesn’t matter’, and have decided to live their lives ‘any old way’, that is, catering to their own selfish desires.

And still others have begun to mock this doctrine, this teaching about our Lord’s return, saying, ‘hey, your first leaders have already died, and the world hasn’t changed even one bit for the better.’

All of these detractors have forgotten a couple of things—according to Peter. First off, God is the creator of all things and thus it is entirely in His power to effect change when and how He sees fit. So, just because you have ‘seen’ anything yet doesn’t mean a thing. And secondly, God is eternal, that is, above and beyond time. Our sense of time is completely irrelevant to Him. And, in case Jesus’ return seems delayed, according to our sense of time, it is for a good reason. It is in order to give people time to turn from sin and turn to Him. After all, it is His will and purpose that no one should be lost and so He gives humankind, each and every one of us, ample opportunity to come to Him and be saved. He will indeed return, but in the meantime, He’s giving us time—and opportunity. Thanks be to God.

Forward notes: “With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (verses 8-9).

“I have always struggled against clocks. One minute gazing out a window can feel like an hour. An hour wrestling words on a screen can seem like a minute. Anthropologist Edward T. Hall wrote that Americans manage time on rigid schedules and that people in many non-Western cultures go about many activities simultaneously, focusing on relationships instead of schedules.

“When I worked as an editor and reporter at a daily newspaper, time functioned on a fluid basis. An accident, fire, or election could change everyone’s plans in an instant. I thrived there, whether listening to the police scanner or standing in the ice night reporting a house fire. Emergencies offered me a glimpse of God’s wider meaning of time. I have to live in the settled world and follow its time constraints, but when I can get away from clocks, I can see that it is not my responsibility to predict what God’s time means.”

Moving Forward: “What is your relationship with time?”