Thursday, December 15
Matthew 25:1-13
Maranatha has been a kind of mantra for Christians ever since they encountered Lord Jesus on earth. It even puts a seal to the Christian scriptures (Revelation 22:20). It’s intriguing that each year as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we also pray for his coming again. It’s interesting to note that more than half of the human population who follow the Abrahamic faiths harbor this expectation. The Jews of course, are still awaiting their ‘Messiah.’ The Muslims expect him to preside at the seat of judgment at the end of times. And Christians await him to lead them to God’s ultimate embrace.
It’s important to note that God’s first entry into the human situation was purely God’s own initiative, without any human pleading. It was the compulsion of God’s divine nature expressed through love. It launched the Messianic age and gave us a foretaste of things to come. The second coming is the fulfillment for which we all need to prepare, not like the foolish virgins but like the wise ones, so that we can join the celebration. Now Jesus is inviting us and making it incumbent upon us to prepare the way for his coming again so that we become one with him.
PRAYER
Come, Lord Jesus, help us prepare the way of your second coming. Please make us instruments of peace and reconciliation in places of conflict, deprivation and affluence; especially in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine/Israel, Somalia, Pakistan and the United States. Amen.
Benita Rumalshah, principal, Kinnaird Academy Lahore (Presbyterian Church Pakistan) and Bishop Mano Rumalshah, Bishop Emeritus of Peshawar (Church of Pakistan), International Peacemakers 2010
Lahore, Pakistan