Jesus gives us two images to help us understand His return: the days of Noah and a thief breaking in during the night. One is a historical event woven deeply into Israel’s memory; the other is an everyday reality. One came with warnings and time to get ready. The other is unexpected, disruptive, unplanned. Both exist to teach one thing:
Be ready. Stay awake. Don’t drift into spiritual autopilot.
But what does readiness look like?
A Return That Feels Ordinary
Last week at Thanksgiving, and my granddaughter walked up to me and said, “It feels like a Sunday.”
I knew exactly what she meant.
WE have this internal rhythm that holidays throw off. We know what day it is, but it feels like it should be a different day. We become aware of how much of life we live unconsciously on rails.
But in the Noah example, Jesus says His coming won’t even feel off.
If He comes on a Tuesday, it will feel like any other Tuesday.
People will eat, drink, work, make plans, get married, laugh, worry, argue, sweep the floor, post to SM, check emails.
Life will look normal, ordinary, predictable.
And then…everything changes.
The Flood Wasn’t Just Destruction — It Was Restoration
We often think of the flood as judgment, and it was, but judgment in Scripture is never solely punishment. Judgment is also setting things right. A clearing away or renewing.
The flood didn’t destroy the earth;
it cleansed it.
It removed what was corrupt so that what was good could remain, even though that good was still imperfect and vulnerable to corruption.
And, corruption returned quickly. Noah himself carried it. Humanity carried it. The flood cleaned the world, but didn’t reach the hearts of people.
Which is why Jesus’ return will not merely sweep things away, it will transform them!
A Flood of Presence, Not Water
Peter quotes Joel in Acts 2:
“I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.”
That’s flooding language.
You can almost imagine Jesus’ return as another global deluge—
not of water this time, but of God’s presence.
The world covered in Christ.
Every injustice swallowed up and every wound washed.
Every distortion burned away, Christ in everything, fully revealed.
Love is the global currency.
A world so saturated with the goodness of God that evil finally has nowhere left to hide and nothing left to cling to.
The Thief: A Warning About Attention
The second image is not about fear, it’s about alertness.
A thief comes when you aren’t watching.
When locking the door only serves to make us complacent.
Routine feels safer than growth and new understanding.
“If the owner had known, he would have stayed awake.”
So perhaps Jesus isn’t telling us to predict his coming as much as he is telling us not to be come complacent. Being ready looks like striving to learn. It looks like seeing where we are falling short, admitting our failures and rethinking our understanding of Christianity. The pattern of construction-deconstruction-re-contruction. A line that is continuing to blur between
- Sacred and secular
- Holy and common
- Christ and neighbor
- Priest and lay person
So How Do We Get There?
It will take more than:
- attending church,
- reading the Bible,
- praying occasionally,
- or behaving well.
Not because those are unimportant but because they are meant to be means of transformation, not spiritual performance.
Readiness is not checking religious boxes so that when Jesus comes back He’ll find us doing something “appropriate.”
Readiness is living in such a way that:
- your heart is being reshaped,
- your desires are being purified,
- your love is being deepened,
- and your life is already aligned with the coming Kingdom.
Practices are not readiness.
Becoming like Jesus is readiness.
Living Awake
When we live as though Jesus is truly returning, not as a distant theological idea, but a real future, we live differently.
We start paying attention to:
- the subtle creep of pride
- the slow drift of apathy
- the numbing comfort of distraction
- the cooling of love
- the shrinking of compassion
- the loss of wonder
We live not to escape this world,
but to prepare for its renewal.
We train our hearts now
to love what He loves,
want what He wants,
and reflect the world He is bringing.
We prepare now for the flood, the flood of His presence.
The Point
I don’t believe Jesus wants us calculating dates or decoding signs.
I think He wants us awake and alive.
He wants us becoming the kind of people who belong in the world He is bringing. And reflecting that world while we are living in this one.
Because in the end, the question is not:
“When will He come?”
but:
“Who am I becoming while I wait?”