I know many people reading Matthew 24 and Matthew 28 together take it to mean that, when Matthew 28 is finished, the clouds will part, the trumpets will sound, and the Lord will return.

I suggest this reading might just be taking the passage too far and presuming a lot about Matthew 24.

When we take it ”too far” we say things like “we can usher in the end” or “bring Jesus back.”

Let’s flip 24 the other way: do we think that, by refusing to bring the Gospel to the ends of the Earth, we can keep Jesus away?

Let us not read into these passages any sense that we can cause Jesus to do anything–but rather see them for the prophecy and promise of hope that they simply are.