Lectionary Bible Study - Background - Christian Eschatology

Christ comes to God's People

Christian Eschatology: Living in Hope for God’s Future

From time to time, I will use this blog to explore some of the larger biblical and theological themes that appear in our Sunday readings. Over the next few weeks, several of our lectionary texts will deal with Christian eschatology—the hope for God's future and the question of how God's people live while waiting for that future. Before we encounter those texts individually, I thought it might be helpful to step back and look at the larger biblical picture.

The word eschatology comes from the Greek eschatos, meaning “last” or “final.” Christian eschatology is therefore often described as the study of the “last things”: death, judgment, resurrection, the return of Christ, and the fulfillment of God's reign.

Unfortunately, popular Christianity has sometimes reduced eschatology to predictions about the end of the world—who will be saved, who will be condemned, and when Jesus will return. The biblical picture is considerably richer. Biblical eschatology is ultimately about hope: God's promise to bring creation toward justice, reconciliation, resurrection, and new life—and the call to live faithfully in light of that promise.

Hope in the Old Testament

The roots of Christian eschatology are deep in the Hebrew Scriptures. Israel's prophets looked at a world filled with violence, injustice, exile, poverty, and oppression and proclaimed that this brokenness would not have the final word.

Isaiah imagines a day when nations “shall beat their swords into plowshares” and “nation shall not lift up sword against nation” (Isaiah 2:4). Later, Isaiah pictures God's holy mountain as a place where former enemies live together in peace and “the earth will be full of the knowledge of God” (Isaiah 11:9). Amos looks toward a world in which “justice [rolls] down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24).

These are eschatological visions, but notice what they emphasize. They are not primarily descriptions of people escaping the earth for heaven. They envision God healing what is broken in the world God created.

This hope became particularly important during times of national catastrophe and exile. When Jerusalem was destroyed and the people were carried into Babylon, the prophets continued to insist that God had not abandoned God's people or God's creation. Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37) is a powerful example: what appears completely dead can live again because God's Spirit brings life.

Eventually this hope develops into an expectation of resurrection itself. Daniel speaks of those who “sleep in the dust of the earth” awakening (Daniel 12:2). The God who restores Israel can ultimately restore life itself.

Jesus and the Coming Reign of God

Jesus inherits this prophetic tradition. The center of Jesus' proclamation is the Kingdom, or Reign, of God. God's future is approaching, and because God's future is approaching, people are called to live differently now.

Matthew 25 provides particularly important background for understanding Jesus' eschatology. The chapter contains three teachings: the parable of the ten bridesmaids, the parable of the talents, and the judgment of the nations—the sheep and the goats.

All three lead us toward essentially the same question:

How shall we live while we wait?

The answer is not passive speculation. Stay awake. Use what God has entrusted to you. Feed the hungry. Give drink to the thirsty. Welcome the stranger. Clothe those who need clothing. Care for the sick. Visit those who are imprisoned.

The surprise of Matthew 25 is that people encounter Christ precisely in these acts: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these … you did it to me.”

Eschatology therefore becomes an ethical question. If we believe God's future belongs to justice, mercy, reconciliation, and love, then followers of Jesus are called to begin living that future now.

The Early Church: Waiting for Christ

The earliest Christians expected Jesus to return soon. Many apparently believed Christ would return within their own lifetimes. Paul's earliest letters reflect this expectation. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul speaks of Christ's coming as something the community eagerly awaits.

But Christians began to die, and Christ had not returned.

The church had to wrestle with an unexpected reality: the waiting was going to be longer than they thought.

The New Testament itself shows this developing understanding. Paul's teaching increasingly emphasizes faithful Christian living while awaiting God's future. The Gospels likewise preserve Jesus' warning that no one knows when the culmination will occur. Second Peter directly addresses the apparent delay: “with God one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day” (2 Peter 3:8).

Nearly two thousand years later, Christians still wait. Jesus has not returned as those first Christians expected. We should be willing to acknowledge that rather than explain it away.

But that does not make Christian hope meaningless. It makes the question of how we wait even more important.

Eschatology as Hope and Righteousness

Some expressions of Christianity have made eschatology primarily about separating the saved from the damned. Judgment certainly exists within the biblical tradition, and we should not simply erase difficult passages about accountability. But when judgment becomes the entire message, we can lose the larger biblical vision.

Jesus' eschatological teaching repeatedly turns our attention back toward the lives we are living.

Are we awake to God's presence? Are we using what God has entrusted to us? Are we practicing justice and mercy? Do we recognize Christ in the hungry, the stranger, the sick, the poor, and the imprisoned?

Perhaps that is one of the most important things to remember as we encounter these texts in the coming weeks. Christian eschatology is not primarily an invitation to calculate dates, identify who is “in” and who is “out,” or frighten people with descriptions of the end of the world.

It is a proclamation of hope.

We do not know when—or precisely how—God will bring creation to its fulfillment. Christians have waited for nearly two millennia, and generations may continue to wait. But our hope remains that death, injustice, hatred, violence, and suffering do not have the final word.

God does.

And while we wait for God's future, Jesus gives us something remarkably concrete to do:

Keep awake. Keep loving. Keep serving. Keep seeking justice. Keep offering mercy. Keep doing the work of God's Kingdom.

Perhaps Christian eschatology ultimately leaves us with a much more important question than “When will Jesus return?”

How shall we live while we wait?