“But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Mark 14:61-62 (NIV)
Jesus ignored many questions posed to Him by the various authorities of His day. He hardly said much to Herod or Pilate. When the high priest asked Him straight out “ Are you the Messiah?” Jesus simply answered
“I am”, and then He went on to describe His second coming in detail. He told the high priest that he would one day see Him coming in the clouds seated at the right hand of the Power.
It was an awesome and perplexing statement. That priest would be long dead and gone when Jesus returns, yet He told him he would “see Him” in the clouds on that day. He was indicating that both the dead and the living will see Him on the day of His second coming. Every gospel writer also wrote that all shall see Him on that day. That means even the blind and those in comas will look up and see Him, because all means all.
For now we don’t visually see Him, but our eyes of faith see Him working His will in our lives. If it’s so important to Jesus that all shall see Him when He returns, it’s equally important that we see Him with eyes of faith, working in our lives now and today. He seems to appear in our lives in glimpses, through a word that touches our heart, or through a clearly answered prayer, or an opened door of opportunity, or in receiving His peace and consolation during trials.
Signs from above that confirm His presence working for our good, are seen with our eyes of faith. Unless we receive a dream or a vision, we can only see by faith for now, but we are all being prepared for the day of His physical return.
Until the day He appears in the sky, in power and glory for all to see, we keep our eyes of faith open. By faith we have a foretaste of something better to come.
Jesus elaborated the details of His second coming in order to keep us looking for Him, here and now, in our everyday life, until that great day. Seeing with eyes of faith is what keeps us pressing forward during hardship and grief. We are looking forward to that day, when He says,
“Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”(Matthew 25:34)
Amen, come Lord Jesus, our eyes of faith are open. Show us how you have appeared to us in ways we did not recognize, and help us see you more clearly today and always, in every area of our lives. Amen