Avengers: End Game has arrived! I haven’t seen it yet, so please don’t tell me what happens. It involves a HUGE amount of money, big cast, and world-wide fame, capping off 22 movies and 11 years of story and saga. It represents planning and marketing and strategy and forward thinking on the part of writers and studios. It is an amazing feat of movie making and story crafting.
It makes me think about God’s “end game.” He is still telling and working out His story that He began centuries ago. It began with Him creating, and all was good and glorious. Sin and rebellion entered the world, though, and the curse was laid. He began His rescue plan, to gather a people onto Himself, for His worship and glory. The Pharisees asked Jesus about what would happen next in the story, “When will the kingdom of God come?” in Luke 17:20. Jesus then began to teach about what would happen next in His “end game.”
“First the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation,” He said in v. 25. This was where Jesus was heading and the next step in God’s unfolding plan. Jesus went to the cross, to suffer, bleed and die, to give His life as a ransom for many, to pay the price for their sin and rebellion that began “in the beginning.” But the story wouldn’t end in death. He arose, with a mighty triumph over His foes! He silenced the grave and won the victory for Him and His people. He appeared to over 500 over the next 40 days, then was taken up to sit at His Father’s side (Luke 24:50-53). What will the next chapter be?
Christ will return for His people. “As the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. Just as it was in the days of Noah and Lot, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People will be eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, buying and selling, planting and building, and then the Son of Man will be revealed.” His people will be taken up with Him, to life, and others will be left, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” Be ready. Will you be found with Him? You must be born again, of His Spirit.
Until He returns, we wait. In the midst of hardship and tragedy and struggle, we wait faithfully. We wait repentantly, dependently, obediently, thankfully, with love for God and love for others. We deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow Him, fighting the good fight of faith. We go and tell others to come and see what our God has done, we warn them of coming judgment when He returns – don’t be found outside the banquet hall, not allowed to come in! We wait urgently and expectantly and patiently. We wait peacefully. “Come quickly, Lord Jesus, finish your end game.”
As big as Avengers: End Game is, it’s small compared to God’s story and end game. He is the author of His story, and we are found in it. Where do you fit in? Where are you headed and what part do you play? “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.” Wait for His return, and desire His day will come soon.