The Return of Christ

The Thessalonians grieved for those among them who had died before the return of Christ, fearing they had missed that great day. Paul answers this sorrow with the hope of the resurrection.

A sorrow shot through with hope

The Christian weeps for his dead, but not as one who expects nothing more beyond the grave. Paul wants the Thessalonians to know the lot of their departed, so that their grief may keep its hope: “so that you may not grieve like the others, who have no hope.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13 Those who have died in Christ are not lost; they sleep, awaiting to be awakened.

The Lord will come down

Paul then describes the return of Christ. At his coming, the dead will rise first, far from being outstripped by the living: “at the voice of the archangel, at the sound of the trumpet of God, the Lord himself will come down from heaven, and those who have died in Christ will rise first.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16 Then the living will join them, and all together will go to meet him: “will be caught up together with them on the clouds, to meet the Lord, in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.” 1 Thessalonians 4:17 The departed lose nothing: dead and living are reunited in the same glory. “To meet the Lord” renders the Greek apantēsis (ἀπάντησις), the welcome a city gives its sovereign: they go out to meet him and escort him in his entry. The living and the risen thus go out to meet Christ as he comes, to accompany him in his coming in glory. His return is manifest and single, not the secret snatching-away of a few.

As a thief in the night

The moment of this return remains hidden. Paul names this coming “the day of the Lord,” taking up the phrase by which the prophets announced the day when God comes to judge and to save; that day awaited by Israel is now the return of Christ. It will come unlooked for, when least expected: “the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.” 1 Thessalonians 5:2 The right answer to this coming is therefore not to calculate its date, but to keep watch: children of the light, believers live awake and sober, ready at every instant to welcome their Lord.