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Get Busy and Wait!
Hold onto this thought: the Savior will come again.
By Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
December 29, 2021
Available languages: 한국어
From Action in Waiting
The Savior will come again! He is bound to complete his work, and it is our task simply to be servants until his return, to be in the service of him who is coming. We are, as it were, to represent by our lives the coming of Jesus Christ. We must not, therefore, be so concerned and active, or make such tremendous efforts, as though we were able to achieve the victory of good on this earth. This, of course, we are quite incapable of doing. Only Jesus can bring it about, he who came a first time and is going to come again a second time.
If we are loyally and firmly set upon this – “He will come again” – then the gospel of the kingdom will become personal and living to us. The coming of Jesus Christ is not only something in the future but a present reality in those who wait for it in their hearts.
Never let go of the thought: he will come again! For this makes you into a servant. His earthly life is by no means lost forever – no, his life on earth is being continued, and by directing our whole heart and all our senses to it, by waiting for him and receiving, we may become servants of his life on earth.
Now the servant’s task does not consist in merely waiting and doing nothing. Rather it is a matter of practicing stewardship. Good stewardship means looking after those who are in our care. And if only our hearts and minds were big enough, I would say that all the people on earth are entrusted to our care (Gal. 6:9–10). The servants of Christ are to stretch out their hands to each other and to all people as they look toward the coming of the Savior.
Many people think that Christ’s second coming means a dreadful judgment, when unbelievers will be cast into hell and believers will be saved. No, when Jesus comes, he wants to find his servants prepared to receive him as a Savior, a helper who comes into the world not in order to judge and condemn, but rather to redeem and to make whole, because this is what God created him for.
The servants of Christ are to stretch out their hands to each other and to all people as they look toward the coming of the Savior.
Ever since Jesus’ first coming, the whole world is embraced by the love of God. No one is excluded, not even the atheists. They are all embraced by God’s love, and, through us, they are God’s household. Woe to us, therefore, if we start to judge, if we condemn, if we abandon all hope for this world for which Jesus Christ has come, for which he suffered and died, for which he rose again, and for which he will truly come again.
So you must be a diligent steward, not a lazy servant who simply waits. There is much to be done. All around you there are lives entrusted to your care, people with whom you have been led together. They are perhaps still very worldly: your own family, maybe, or perhaps your next door neighbor. We need to see even nations as “households of God” and love them as the Father in heaven loves them. Our goodwill and good wishes must go out to them, just as the Father in heaven does nothing but good to all people. “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45).
Even if we have to wait for a long time, one day the doors will burst open. Hearts will be freed. And new peace and new joy will descend upon the earth.
Photograph by David Gavi
I am frequently saddened to hear and see how so many Christians cannot bring themselves to wish good to all people as they wish it for themselves. How few are filled with God’s gift of forgiveness! Instead most set themselves apart by setting themselves above others. But if we are awaiting the Savior, then we are awaiting the forgiveness of the world’s sins, not just our own (1 John 2:2).
Unless the urge to forgive, to want the Savior for all people, wells up in our hearts, we are not true servants. For if we do not stand fully in the love of God and in his forgiveness, if the eyes with which we look out into the world are not good and kind, if we cease to hold on to the others in love, then God will no longer hold on to us either, and we will find ourselves with the unbelievers, regardless of whether we have spoken pious words or not (Matt. 6:14–15).
God is not interested in words but reality. And the reality of a Christian life consists in forgiveness and in wishing the whole world well, however grim it may look. Even if war or bloodshed comes, God is greater. He carries out his will. In the end, sin will cease. In the end, justice and truth and the love of God will come to us.
I cannot live for one single hour without thinking: Come, Lord Jesus! And if all of us together can come to thinking that thought – even when there is trouble in your home and in your heart – then we shall be as one, and it will be granted us to go on experiencing the powers of God as a witness to the One who is coming.
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Bruce Hollenbach
"Many people think that Christ’s second coming means a dreadful judgment, when unbelievers will be cast into hell and believers will be saved. No, when Jesus comes, he wants to find his servants prepared to receive him as a Savior, a helper who comes into the world not in order to judge and condemn, but rather to redeem and to make whole, because this is what God created him for." -- Blumhardt Not liking to be picky, especially when it comes to someone like Blumhardt, I nevertheless must question what he means when he says, "because this is what God created him [Christ] for." Christian orthodoxy considers that Christ existed from the beginning, that there was never a time when he was not. Is there some place where Blumhardt elucidates his position on this question? Similarly, Blumhardt's position that Christ, when he returns, will come "not in order to judge and condemn, but rather to redeem and to make whole," strikes me as a possible example of the tendency among us all to err not so much in what we affirm as in what we deny. Does Blumhardt not believe that there is a final judgment and that Christ himself will be the judge? If he does not, I think there is an abundance of Scripture on the other side that he should at least have taken into account. Not that Blumhardt would find himself without sympathizers in this regard: Hans Urs Von Balthazar and George MacDonald come immediately to mind. Many of us are hoping that ultimately no one will be excluded from the kingdom. But how then will God achieve his eternal purposes for that kingdom? Perhaps by some miracle to occur at the end of time that is not occurring now? Surely we will all understand someday! In the meantime, we will do well to heed Blumhardt's exhortation. Thank you for publishing it.
Melchior J Fros
“Ever since Jesus’ first coming, the whole world is embraced by the love of God. No one is excluded, not even the atheists.” What about the Gnostic; the person who believes Creative Light resides in each human heart? As someone who is uncomfortable identifying as Christian, I never the less have warm feelings for Blumhardt, primarily because he believes the Light of Creative Mystery resides in every human heart. Christian or not, all humans belong to “God”. I take this to mean that despite our differing conceptualizations of That which lies beyond human ken, we hold Something in common. I define this Something loosely as Love; treating others as I would want them to treat me. I am not so sure that, as Blumhartd writes, “he (Jesus) will come again!” I much prefer to think *he has already come back*! By looking for Someone to come Christians risk losing sight of what we all can do here and now. Looking for his return, Christians risk pegging onto Jesus a burden that is theirs and not his. The kingdom of God is neither here nor there; it Is! It depends on us to make it happen every day! We are fully equipped with the necessary Light to make it happen right now. To make my point clear, consider “Democracy”. It is an ideal we strive for but never fully attain. Would you rather wait until Jesus shows us how to fully embrace this ideal, or shall we do our level best with the Light we now have to work towards this ideal? The wonder of it all is that even though we never, ever fully attain this ideal, any ideal, we can continue to bring it to reality according to the Light within each one of us. Should, as Christians believe, Jesus come back to earth, I would hope he can give us all pats on our backs and say, “Well done!” This is the kind of Jesus I can relate to. I think Blumhardt would agree.
Nicole Solomon
Thank you for these very deep and soul-searching words. I think what impacted me the most was that I must learn to forgive and love. I know in my own life that nothing has touched my heart or changed my life other than those two gifts of God's incredible grace. When we put down our petty feelings of self-righteous anger and hate towards others, it is only then that we can start gaining a glimpse into what eternity really is. I've had to really fight against this in my own life. It is so easy to hold a grudge--and to spread it self-righteously because after all, the other person or people definitely are wrong! And then I look at my own life in all its filth, mistakes, and evil, and know that if it were not for a savior who looked past all this and forgave me, I would never have an inkling of what true life is all about--a savior who is the only one with the right to accuse me of my deepest transgressions. To answer the question of what I can do to be a diligent servant rather than a lazy steward is pray. I must pray continuously that God empty my heart so that I can become less important and He can fill my heart with what is important. I can't do anything on my own. And I must turn to my brothers and sisters for help every time I fail so I can be picked up again and continue onward.