The 2 arrivals of Christ- 2 Peter 3:8-15
In our Gospel reading, John the Baptist cries out with the words of the prophet Isaiah on his lips-
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight”’ (Mark 1:2-3; Is 40:3).
He is telling the people to prepare for God who is coming to them. Not in the general way where God is with us all the time, but in a special way- a way that needs to be prepared for.
The second letter of Peter is again telling us to get ready, but this time for his second coming. Perhaps we can learn something about the second coming from the first.
There was a relatively set understanding regarding how the messiah was supposed to come the first time. He would be a king like David. He would remove the occupying Roman forces. He would purify the leadership of the Temple and establish true worship. In a sense, he would ‘make Israel great again’. He would restore them to a new golden era. … There was tremendous misunderstanding about the first coming of the Messiah. Jesus didn’t match the expectations that they had come to associate with the messiah. Jesus was up to defeating sin and death, not just the Romans. He wasn’t purifying the worship of the Temple. He was replacing the Temple as the place where earth and heaven overlapped. He wasn’t just about making Israel ‘great again’, he was interested in restoring the creation.
If the messiah was so misunderstood in his first coming, I wonder if he will be misunderstood in his second coming? The early Christians had an expectation that Christ would be back any minute. In Paul’s early letters he seemed to assume Jesus’ arrival was just around the corner. In the first chapter of Acts, just before the Ascension, the disciples ask Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (They are basically asking if Jesus is going to fulfil those expected roles of the messiah now that he is resurrected) to which Jesus replies, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority” (Acts 1:6-7). The misunderstanding about the second coming on the part of the disciples is preserved in the New Testament along with warnings against thinking you will be able to predict the moment. He will come like a thief in the night (Matt 24:43; Rev 16:15; 1 Thes 5:2,4; 2 Pet 3:10). The warning is repeated over and over in the New Testament. It may be that the early Christians understood their need for humility to modify their expectations.
Peter quotes Psalm 90:4, “For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night”. In our letter he says “that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.” He is basically saying that time is very relative to God. From a human perspective, to say “I am coming soon” means any minute. But, from God’s perspective, where a thousand years and a day are really not worth distinguishing, and where billions of years elapse as the creation expands and shapes, “I am coming soon” can mean anything from a human perspective. God has no need to be in a rush.
Our limited perspective and expectation can make us impatient. To us it looks like delay, like Jesus missed the train and is now late. To us it looks like delay, but to God it looks like patience. We read in Peter, “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” (2 Pet 3:9). That is an incredibly wide embrace. “not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance”. “All” doesn’t leave many out. … So why does God seem to delay? God is patient and loving, not wanting any to be lost. … I once heard a statistic that 99% of all human beings that have ever lived on earth have lived after Jesus was born. I don’t know how true that statistic is, but if it is true, then it would mean that God’s patience has allowed for the teachings of Jesus to spread across the world and become the largest religion in the world. The early Christians (gathered in their house churches in cities in the eastern Roman Empire) could have never imagined the teachings of Jesus sweeping across the world and changing whole cultures. God’s patience allowed for that to happen before the second coming. God’s patience has allowed for the teachings of Jesus to touch billions of lives. Of course, this doesn’t mean everything has become holy and full of justice. But, perhaps we are still in the early stages of human beings unfolding the teachings of Jesus and understanding what it means for society.
We hear the next part of Peter’s letter, about the elements being dissolved with fire, and everything that has been done on the earth being disclosed, and we can sometimes have a tendency to be too literal. Fire is very symbolic in the Bible. Fire can mean judgement, or purification. Fire is a symbol of the Holy Spirit- tongue of flame were said to rest on the disciples’ heads at Pentecost. Jesus was said to baptize people with the Spirit and with fire. There was fire on Mt. Sinai when Moses received the Law, and when God first spoke to Moses it was through a burning bush. A pilar of fire led the Hebrews out of slavery and through the wilderness. … Fire does not merely mean destruction. It seems more likely that this is a refiner’s fire. When a metal smith is refining ore, there are impurities that need to be removed. This is the process of smelting. The ore is placed in a very hot fire and that separates out the metals from the impurities. Maybe this is the kind of fire being spoken of. The elements being dissolved are the impurities in our souls- the hate that infects the earth. Peter relates this fire to a disclosing of deeds. All that has been hidden, all those impurities, will be revealed and dealt with by the refining fire of God.
Peter asks the question, while we are patiently waiting, what kind of people should we be? We read that it is assumed we will be waiting and leading lives of “holiness and godliness” (v11), striving to be found by God at peace, without spot or blemish (v14), waiting for a “new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home” (v13). If righteousness is at home there, and we want to be at home there, then we are to be people who live lives of “holiness and godliness”. … The saints didn’t see repentance as something that happened once in our life. It was a continuous process. The life of a Christian is a life of repentance. We are constantly learning to turn towards what is best. What seems like delay, allows for us to have a deeper repentance before the time comes.
It may be that who we become determines our level of enjoyment in that renewed and transfigured creation. When someone learns about classical music, they come to appreciate it in a way that someone who isn’t trained can’t (CS Lewis). Perhaps something similar happens with us. What if the deeper our repentance, the deeper our transformation, leads us to appreciate and enjoy that transfigured creation in a way that someone else can’t, who has had a shallower repentance? If that is the case then more time for a deeper repentance is a very precious thing.
I think this should lead us to be people who are patient as God is patient. God is patient with a purpose- that all would come to repentance. In this sense Christians are to regard the patience of our Lord as salvation (v15). God’s desire is that all would be transformed, that all would turn away from darkness and turn towards the light. How can we be a part of that purpose? Perhaps, as we follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we are to help facilitate the deeper transformation of others. Obviously not in a way that is judgmental and arrogant. But in a way that is humble and honest and that desires the best for those made in God’s image.
May God grant us patience as our souls are refined in repentance under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as we await the arrival of Christ who will transfigure creation in ways we can’t yet imagine. AMEN
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