It never seems inappropriate to remind ourselves how wrong everyone was about the first coming of the Messiah. The Jews expected a conquering king, a vehement prophet, and a priest of unsurpassed holiness. Jesus was, in fact, all of those but he didn’t conquer with violence, nor was he acclaimed as a true prophet, nor did the religious authorities consider his holiness of any real worth. If they were that wrong, how can we expect our assumptions to be any more accurate? They studied the Scriptures with a devotion and a zeal that far surpasses ours, and yet were unable to predict the foxy ways of God. If the future was unavailable to them, how can we be so brash as to think we can “prophesy” about the future on a website or on satellite television?
We know next-to-nothing about Christ’s final coming, and never will until it happens and we look at one another exclaiming, “Oh…like that!”
Adapted from Why God Died