First
Thessalonians 4.13-18 reads:
But
we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that
you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him
those who have fallen asleep. 15 For
this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who
are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen
asleep. 16 For
the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice
of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in
Christ will rise first. 17 Then
we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the
Lord. 18 Therefore
encourage one another with these words.
Encouraging believers about those who have died, Paul tells them that the Christian dead will be raised first and then those still alive when Christ returns will be caught up with them for a meeting in the air. The verb ‘to meet’ in certain English translations of v. 17, such as in the ESV, is actually ‘for a meeting’ in Greek—a preposition plus a noun (eis apantēsin). Paul’s main point is that believers need not worry about those who have died. They will be resurrected. They will meet the Lord when He comes with those alive at the time. In fact, they will precede them. Yet what are we to make of being caught up in the clouds for a meeting when Christ returns?
‘For a meeting’
is a common expression and not a technical phrase. The interpretation of what Paul means comes
from the cultural practice of leaving a city or place to welcome an honoured
person (or people) and accompany him back.
The expression is used in Jesus’ parable of the bridegroom and ten
virgins. At midnight, someone called out
that the bridegroom was coming and the virgins should come out ‘to meet’ him
(Matthew 25.6). Similarly, when Paul
arrived in Italy, Christians came out of Rome to meet him (Acts 28.15). In both cases, the same phrase is used as in
1 Thessalonians 4.17, and the idea is going out to meet someone to welcome and
accompany him back into the city. When
Jesus came to Bethany because Lazarus had died, Martha went and met (hypēntēsen) Him (John 11.20). Similarly, when Jesus came to Jerusalem, a
crowd accompanied Him into Jerusalem.
They received Him by spreading their cloaks and leafy branches on the
road, shouting ‘Hosanna’. They received
Him as the one bringing the kingdom of David (Mark 11.8-10). When the father of the prodigal son sees his
son returning in the distance, he runs out to him, embraces him, and kisses him
(Luke 15.20).
Some other
examples of this practice of going out of a city ‘for a meeting’ to welcome a dignitary
are instructive. Plutarch says,
But when he [Sulla] learned the truth, and perceived that everybody
was sallying forth to welcome Pompey and accompany him home with marks of
goodwill, he was eager to outdo them. So he went out and met him [proelthōn apēntēsen autōi], and
after giving him the warmest welcome, saluted him in a loud voice as ‘Magnus,’
or The Great, and ordered those who were by to give him this surname’ (Plutarch, Pompey 13.4).[1]
Livy, writing in Latin, offers another example:
... and as they drew near Capua, the whole
senate and people going forth to meet them used towards them all the rites of
hospitality and every public and private courtesy (The History of Rome 9.6.7).[2]
Josephus says,
Plutarch also records the
practice: ‘... people were going out to meet
Caesar on his return from Spain’ (Antony
13.1). Tacitus describes Nero’s return
to Rome after having his mother, Agrippina, killed. He was worried that he would not be received
well, but ‘all the vilest courtiers’ assured him that Agrippina was hated and
he would be welcomed instead. As he
proceeded,
They found greater enthusiasm than they had promised, the tribes coming forth to meet [inveniunt] him, the Senate in holiday attire, troops of their children and wives arranged according to sex and age, tiers of seats raised for the spectacle, where he was to pass, as a triumph is witnessed’ (Annals 14.13).[4]
As a final example of the practice of going out to meet someone and so
demonstrate welcoming him, Ammianus Marcellinus, says that Constantius’
approach and entrance to Rome with his troops was accompanied with a show of
great honours, and he was escorted by troops (Rerum Gestarum 16.10.4). Others joined the procession to welcome him: ‘And
when he was nearing the city... he thought, not...that a throng of kings was
assembled together, but that the sanctuary of the whole world was present
before him’ 16.10.5).
With this cultural practice in mind of going out to meet a dignitary,
especially a military figure or political ruler, Paul applies it to Jesus’
Second Coming. The return of Jesus on
the clouds has its roots in Daniel 7:
and
behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
14 And
to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed (Daniel
7.13-14).
Paul interprets the universal rule of the Son of Man pastorally for the
battered Thessalonian believers. When He
comes, those who have died would rise first, and then we who are alive will
join them to meet Christ in the clouds of the air on which Jesus descends. The custom of going out ‘for a meeting’
explains why this meeting does not take place at the point of Jesus’
destination, the earth. The particular
custom of showing a welcome to a coming general by going out to meet him and to
meet his army also fits the understanding of Jesus’ return. By going out to meet Christ in the air shows
that we are on His side and not the enemies He is coming to fight. Second Thessalonians says of this appearing
of Christ that, when He ‘is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in
flaming fire’, He will inflict ‘vengeance on those who do not know God and on
those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus’ (2.7-8). That He will come in the same way He departed,
on the clouds, explains why this meeting takes place in the air (cf. Acts
1.9-11).
A most peculiar notion arose in the 1800s that this meeting in the air
was so that Christians could then return with Jesus to heaven to wait out
tribulation on the earth. This is a classic
example of reading one’s own interpretation into a text (eisegesis) rather than
leading the meaning out of the text (exegesis).
The joy is not in escaping tribulation but in welcoming the Lord and in seeing
our deceased fellow-believers who have been resurrected from the dead. It is in being on the Lord’s side.
For Christians, this is a celebratory occasion. The coming Judge and King will bring them
salvation, not condemnation. They will
go out to welcome Him in the air just as a city’s population might go out of
the city to meet and welcome a general or Caesar. People had welcomed Jesus in this way when He
came to Jerusalem—the Triumphal Entry.
Yet Jesus was rejected and finally crucified. After condemning the scribes and the
Pharisees in Jerusalem, Jesus stated, ‘For I tell you,
you will not see me again, until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord”’ (Matthew 23.39). Paul’s
statement to the Thessalonians is that they, with all Christians, are those who
await the coming of the Lord so that they can go out to meet and welcome
Him. Gentile Christians had learned the
one word Aramaic prayer, ‘Maranatha’
‘Our Lord, come’ (1 Corinthians 16.22).
As Jesus had taught, believers should be ready and waiting as the
virgins awaiting the bridegroom, with lanterns lit at midnight (Matthew
25.1-13).
Our grief at the
death of a loved one is understandable, for it is sorrowful. Yet mourning turns to gladness in the hope we
have in the One who overcame the grave: hope that the Christian who dies is
with the Lord, hope in the resurrection of the body when Jesus returns, hope
that we will go up to meet the Lord in the air as He comes on the clouds, and
hope that we will always be with the Lord.
[1] Plutarch, Plutarch's Lives,
trans. Bernadotte Perrin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1917).
[2] Livy, The History of
Rome, Books VIII-X (Cambridge: Harvard University Press; London, William
Heinemann, Ltd. 1926).
[3] Flavius Josephus, The
Works of Flavius Josephus, trans. William Whiston (public domain).
[4] Tacitus, Complete Works of Tacitus, trans. Alfred John Church (New York: Random House, Inc., 1942).
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