The End is Nigh – The Didache and the Apocalypse

For a month at the box office John Cusack has been working to save his family from the world wide apocalypse of 2012 rightly predicted by the end of the Mayan calendar and some New Age scholars. It certainly makes for a great movie trailer with Cusack driving his RV through Yellowstone as the whole place explodes as a super volcano. A number of world religions point to 2012 not only being the epic showdown between Palin and Obama (OK no religions actually predict that)  but also the end of civilization as we know it. At least that is what Hollywood wants you to believe. Real Mayan scholars dispute much of the hoopla regarding imminent apocalyptic doom just years away, especially if people are basing this prediction on the Mayan calendar. Watching the ridiculousness of Cusack as a hero trying to save his family when literally the whole world is turning against them and trying to link this to any religion is lunacy. It is at once both amusing and encouraging to realize that people outside the church have struggled with how to treat the apocalypse as much as the church has.

Ever since Jesus ascended from the earth and promised he would return the church has tried with frequent and miserable failure to walk the line between a proper attitude of expectant preparation and active searching for signs that Christ’s return is imminent. A quick browse through popular Christian bookstores or through the program guide of a Christian broadcast station will reveal that 2000 years later we are still trying, and still failing with frequency, to walk this line.

In the first and second century, apocalyptic literature was very popular. Tony Jones in The Teaching of the Twelve, his look at the ancient Christian document the Didache, points to the expansion of the apocalyptic genre from Daniel through the inter-testimental period, on through the Qumran community and John the Apostle. In the early church this genre was still very popular, especially since the teachings of Jesus himself seemed to indicate he would be right back. You can just imagine the young church sitting around and dreaming up the terror and beauty that would accompany the return of the Lord at any moment. Of course that can also be very distracting to simply living your life.

So it is with such encouragement and blessing that we read the words of instruction given to young Christians in the Didache. This document was most likely written to instruct catechumens in their daily walk. Here in this primitive Christian community that may have existed in this first generation of the church, this tension between waiting and watching was clearly understood. And the instructions given here may be the key to actually walking this line in the way Jesus intended.

At the end of the Didache we have a short but powerful passage about our call to understand the return of Christ in our daily lives. The text reads:

“Watch over your life, that your lamps are never quenched, and that your loins are never unloosed. Be ready, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”

The Didache goes on to further instruct the young Christians to watch out for false teachers, especially the “world deceiver” who will come and do iniquitous things that have not been done since the beginning of the world. The language sounds much like Jesus’ words to his disciples in Matthew 24-25 and Paul’s words to the Thessalonian church. There is evil at work in the world, it will bring with it destruction and suffering for the church, but your job is to be prepared for it and to remain true.

The real gem of beauty in this part of the Didache is the simple instruction to be ready. It is important for these young Christians to understand that indeed Christ will come again and at his coming there will be the resurrection of the dead and the judgment of all people and the praise of Jesus as Lord by all people. So make sure you are ready.

It would serve us well as the church to try and practice these simple words of eschatology more often in our instructions to our churches: be ready. Watch your lives, gird your loins, keep the lamps burning and be ready. There are no words of panic or predictions about how soon this will happen, there is just simple advice of what to watch for as these young Christians go about living out their faith.

At the end of the chapter, where Trucker Franks adds his two cents he says, ““These people weren’t sitting around
waiting for God to rapture them out of there,” Frank says. “They were doing everything they could to live in the faith
and make the world a better place. They weren’t concerned about when Jesus would come back.”

In the majority of books, TV shows, and sermons being offered in our current apocalyptic genre the message is seldom as simple and beautiful as Christ is coming back so be ready. You wonder what we could make room for on our bookshelves if we got rid of all of our apocalyptic writings that are filled with charts and graphs and replaced them with simple reminders to watch and be ready. In this concise and beautiful little instruction book we have indepth instruction about following the way of Christ, living as a sacramental community and worship. But here at the end when it comes to the end times the message is pretty simple and clear. “Be ready, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” Amen.