“So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him.” Matthew 24 verse 44.
A Call to Wake Up
There is a truth many believers acknowledge but rarely live as if it is real. Jesus is coming soon. Not eventually. Not at some distant point in the future. Soon.
And whether we feel ready or not, the day is approaching.
We do not know the hour, but we were never meant to wait passively. We were meant to be found faithful, awake, alert, and living with eternity in view.
We use the word soon so casually that it loses its weight. But when Jesus used it, He meant it as a summons. A call to urgency. A call to readiness. A call that should shape how you live this very day.
Many Christians believe in the return of Christ the way we believe in our own mortality. True in theory, distant in practice. We tuck eternity into the category of later and return to our routines, our ambitions, and our scrolling.
But Jesus never allowed His disciples to live with that kind of spiritual sleepiness.
A Servant Left in Charge
In Luke chapter twelve, Jesus describes servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet. Nothing dramatic. Just a house, some lamps, and responsibilities.
But the master’s absence is not a break. It is a test.
The faithful servants keep their lamps burning. They stay dressed for service. They live as though the knock could come at any moment. And when the master returns, he does the unthinkable. He serves them.
Then Jesus describes another servant. The one who quietly assumes, My master is delayed. Not rebellion. Just presumption. And in that assumption, he drifts. He mistreats others. He indulges himself. He stops expecting the knock.
His sin is not spectacular. It is the sin of comfort. The sin of delay. The sin of someone who forgot that soon actually means soon.
“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.”
Luke 12 verses 35 to 36
Jesus repeats a phrase with deliberate force. At an hour you do not expect.
Not to frighten us, but to free us from the lie that we have time to waste.
If we do not know the hour, we cannot choose when to start being ready.
Readiness is not a moment.
Readiness is a lifestyle.
Why We Stop Expecting
The early church lived with a holy urgency. They believed Jesus could return in their lifetime, and it shaped everything. Their generosity. Their courage. Their endurance. Their priorities.
Two thousand years later, urgency has quietly faded.
We build for comfort instead of eternity.
We postpone obedience.
We delay forgiveness.
We manage our discipleship instead of surrendering to it.
We become the servant who assumed the master was delayed. Respectable. Polite. And spiritually asleep.
The signs Jesus described in Matthew chapter twenty four were never meant to fuel panic or prediction. They were meant to wake us up.
They whisper, This world is not drifting. It is moving toward His return.
Readiness Is Not Anxiety. It Is Faithfulness
When Peter asks whether the parable is for everyone or just the disciples, Jesus intensifies the call. Readiness is not nervous sky watching. It is purposeful stewardship.
What has He placed in your hands
A family
A calling
A gift
A responsibility
A person you need to forgive
A habit you need to rebuild
A conversation you have avoided
Readiness is simply this.
Doing today what you would do if you knew He was coming tonight.
The Posture of a Ready Soul
To be ready for Jesus return is not to abandon your life. It is to live it with a different centre of gravity. To hold your possessions loosely. To love people deeply. To treat time as sacred. To let hope reshape your priorities.
The fig tree is budding.
The signs are visible.
The hour is nearer than it has ever been.
The question is not when He is coming.
The question is whether you will be found doing what He left you to do.