The Day Christ Came Back

A Preface

Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote a murder mystery and called it THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV. What sets his murder mystery apart from all other murder mysteries is this: It contains a story told by one of the brothers, Ivan, about the return of Christ. In this story Ivan says that Christ did come back to His Church, but he was turned away at the door by the Priest who said to him in effect: 'You had your chance and you blew it when you turned down Satan's offer. But we were wiser than You. We accepted. Now we have everything under control here. We don't need You. You would only be in the way here. Go back where you came from.'

This is impressive theology for a murder mystery! And impressive judgment on the Church! But what if??????

What? He Comes?

Yes, what if the Christ were to come back to His Church? What if He did, and His Church did not recognize Him? That is the question which gives rise to this story, a myth, for whenever God and Man meet on the plane of human history, it ceases to be mere history and becomes mythic history.

The time of this story is the second half of the twentieth century, but because of the mythical nature of the story it ceases to be merely the history of that period; it becomes myth time. For the Return, or the Second Coming of Christ, is the last and the most enduring of all the New Testament myths. This is how it came to be.

The hope, the dream which gave rise to the myth of The Second coming, came about because the followers of Jesus failed to see that He had accomplished what He had come to do. They thought He had failed because, instead of being proclaimed Emperor of the world, He was crucified as a criminal bent on insurrection and disturbance of the Roman Peace, and overthrow of the Jewish religion.

But, they temporized, He was still alive and well and, if the Church would wait a little while, He would marshal His angelic hosts and He would come back trailing clouds of glory. He would overcome the world, bottle up the Devil, topple thrones, and set Himself up in supreme power.

So the more rabid among His followers turn out whenever the charts seem to add up right, and they watch for His appearing in the sky. There will be a great and decisive battle for ultimate control, but He, and they, will win. But what if?????

And what if He did come back. but not the way the apocalyptic enthusiasts expect Him to do it? What if, instead, He came back in the same way He did two thousand years earlier, and nobody recognized Him? Nobody except a few intimates on whom the light dawned three days afterwards?

Would His reception be different today? Would He appear different from the people on our streets? And what would He do to get our attention? What if? What if?

And would we do to Him what they did to Him two thousand years ago? Indeed, would we good Southern Baptists say He got just what He deserved because of what He did to upset people and to disturb the status quo and to threaten the power structure within which we have flourished, proving that we are doing it right and so have grown numerous, prosperous and influential?

And considering His station in life, coming the way He did and going the way He did, would we in retrospect have a Question about Him, that is whether He really was Who some said He was?

Well, but I have not yet told you who it is we are asking all these questions about.

I mean Charles.