…waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ… Titus 2:13
Waiting can be hard. We saw last week how God describes personal preparation and eagerness as we await our beloved Bridegroom. But He gives us another model as well - the church diligently working together to prepare for His coming.
In early Roman times there was a celebration called a parousia. The Greek word refers to an official return visit. There were many reasons why an emperor would come back to an area, but such an honor would be publicly celebrated.
Nero had a parousia in Thessalonica. Emperor Domitian had one in Philadelphia. Ancient Philadelphia had been flattened by an earthquake, so Domitian invested a huge amount of money and instructed them to rebuild. But he let them know he would return to see how they had utilized his resources.
I can imagine the Philadelphians worked very hard, knowing that Domitian was going to come back and see what they had done. Those citizens wanted to be prepared to make their city ready for the king.
The Bible uses the same word for Jesus’ second coming. Listen to Paul, who uses the term parousia in the letter to Thessalonica:
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
We are awaiting the return of our King. He has come, invested His resources and empowered us by the Spirit. He has given us the privilege of joining with Him to be restorers and He will be returning one day to see what we have done on this earth. Let us not idly bide the time waiting, but diligently work to bring His kingdom, reflecting His glory. I want Him to find us in faithful readiness, eagerly about His work.
