Has The Bus Come Yet?

As believers we are told to watch and pray.  Some people refer to this as waiting.  Not really the same.

Watching includes a level of active expectation.  This expectation can at times seem foolish to nonbelievers.  Those that are not watching will likely ridicule the watchers particularly since the watching has been going on for thousands of years without a perceived answer. For this same reason watching involves a significant level of faith.  “If it has not happened over the last 2,000 years what makes you think it’s going to happen now?”  Faith is the only answer.  As the non-watcher will be quick to point out, “It must be faith because it can’t be based on intelligence.”  Watch - be expectant, look for it, be prepared.  

Pray refers to active participation.  Pray.  For what?  That which you are watching.  Pray for that which all believers have prayed for over the past thousands of years.  But how to pray, what do we pray?  As the example given by Jesus:

Our heavenly Father, holy is Your name.  Let Your kingdom come and Your will be done, here where we are, on earth, as it is done in heaven.  Give me today what I need and forgive me for what I have done against You and other people, as I forgive other people for what they have done against me.  Don’t let me fall in temptation but deliver me from the evil of sin.  For You are the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and for all eternity.  Amen.

To a non-watcher it appears that the believer is waiting for the return of the Lord Jesus.  In essence they see this act of waiting in the same light as a person waiting for a bus at a bus stop.  There is a schedule and the bus is to show up at a certain time.  Did you get to the stop on time?  Is the bus on time?  Is it a holiday and the buses aren’t running?  Did the bus breakdown in route?  Or did any of the other of the millions of factors that could affect this waiting happen?

To the believer who is watching and praying it’s not at all like that.  First of all, the believer is not standing looking down the road to see if their Lord is arriving yet.  Actively participating in the world, faithfully raising families and working to improve their community, the believer understands that, unlike the bus, their returning Savior will pick them up from wherever they may be.

Then there is the idea that any bus will do.  If one bus is out of service, they can just substitute another.  The waiting riders don’t care as long as it gets them to where they want to go.  To the believer there is only one Savior that will return.  If Jesus isn’t coming back, ain’t nobody coming back.  There is one way, one truth and one life.

With the believer’s Lord there is no breaking down - no million factors to prevent His return.  There is the truth of His return or there is absolute loss of hope.  It is important to understand that whether the believer experiences what we have named the rapture or whether they have died while watching and praying the result is the same.  Their Savior has returned.  They see Him face to face and they are in fact with Him.  As Paul puts it, to be absent from this body is to be present with God.

So the believer watches and prays and their faith is fulfilled.

One last point - another difference between waiting on the bus vs. watching and praying for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, the destination is a whole lot better with Jesus Christ.  This is not a reference to Heaven.  It is a reference to being in Him, in His love and in His hope, in His peace and in His power.  Living in Him forever and ever.  The understanding of the true destination of the believer makes even the bus’ destination better.