A Twilight Musing

In partaking of the Lord’s Supper each week, we are proclaiming the Lord's death "until He comes" (I Cor. 1; 26).   There has always been much speculation about how and when that will happen, and about what will happen between that appearing and the creation of "a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (II Pet. 3:13).  Two things we do know, however:   First, that Jesus' coming again will have been preceded by centuries of testimony to His death and resurrection, so that as many as possible can participate in the wonderful consummation of being "caught up . . . in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" to "be with the Lord forever" (I Thess. 4:17).

The public response to the film "The Passion of the Christ" has brought the horrors of Jesus' death once more to the fore for many people; and, indeed, we need to be aware of the enormity of what He suffered.  But at the same time, we need to realize that no suffering is an end within itself, and that Jesus invites us to share in the joy of being brought through suffering to the completeness of redemption which will be experienced at His coming again in all His glory, when He will fulfill His promise to receive His disciples unto Himself (John 14:3). 

The coming of the Lord will end the need for Christ's disciples to celebrate His death, because when Jesus comes again, the object of that death will have been fully accomplished.  Just as Jesus's death was swallowed up in the victory of His glorious resurrection, so will ours.

Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.