Signs of Jesus' ReturnChikamu

Clinging to “Normal” in the Throes of Abnormality 

When the disciples asked Jesus what the signs of His return would be, He didn’t just warn them of systemic meltdowns across the globe, He also cautioned that normality would essentially be a sign in and of itself. While He foretold of intensifying wars, rumors of new wars, nation rising against nation, earthquakes, famines, and all the rest, He stressed that He would return to a world where life would appear to be normal — not abnormal. 

Jesus painted a disturbing picture of the days drifting into each other as usual in the midst of a world unravelling. He described people across the globe marrying, eating, drinking, sleeping, or working amid intensifying earthquakes, wars, diseases, famines, and more, all tightening like a noose around corporate mankind’s throat. His point was that all these things would go on right up to the day of His coming, just as they have to this day.  

But what does this mean for us? Life on our planet will proceed as usual even as iniquity abounds and these signs develop a terrifying traction. Jesus made the humdrum routine of everyday people a sign of His return when He explained: “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:37-39).

Similarly, the Lord compared these last days with the last days of Sodom and Gomorrah declaring: “Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:28-30).

As the sun goes down on the day of grace and the night comes when no one can work, (John 9:4), the blind will continue to lead the blind. Conditions across the globe will grow historically extreme, yet mankind will double down and strive to lead ordinary lives through extraordinary times. And all things will continue as they were from the beginning even as the day of the Lord undeniably begins to dawn.