If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. 1 Corinthians 16:22
When you got up this morning, whose face were you the most anxious to see? Was it a spouse, one of your children, or perhaps a parent? After a break of even one night, we find ourselves anxious to see the faces of those we love the dearest. Nothing else matters, until we see those faces, and everything else falls into place, because the ones who matter the most to us are within our view. I think Paul must have had something like that in mind when he penned the word Maranatha. At the coming of the Lord he would see again the face of the one who became so precious to him on the Damascus Road.
Do you know what a transliteration is? Simply put, it’s a word in one language that is placed in another language without being translated. A prime example is ‘baptism’. Bible translators took the Greek word, which means ‘immerse’ or ‘submerge’ and made an English word out of it, because they didn’t want to offend religious leaders and a king who preferred the unscriptural sprinkling approach to the ordinance. Here in today’s text is another transliteration, although not nearly so well known. But it should be.
Maranatha is an Aramaic word that means ‘The Lord is coming’. For some reason, it was not translated into English by those who assembled the King James Version of our Bible. But that’s OK, it means we have this beautiful word, and we can enjoy it and use it, knowing it is both a promise and a prayer. Much of its meaning is contained in the prayer of the Apostle John in the last chapter of our Bible: Even so, come Lord Jesus. Those Christians who have drawn the closest to the Lord have learned the meaning of Maranatha.
Why is the coming of the Lord so important to those who are closest to Him? Because they have learned that nothing else is anywhere near as important. They have learned that the cares and affairs of this life are for today and will be gone tomorrow. They have learned that the burdens and trials that come our way are only for this life and with the coming of the Lord will be forever banished. They have learned that at His coming, the frailties of the flesh, the disappointments of this life, and the stumblings and strayings of our humanity fade from view forever.
Maranatha means closing the door to this life, and welcoming the presence of our Saviour. If it be by the rapture, how glorious that day will be! If it be by death, how sweet to awake in the arms of Jesus!
Maranatha, dear brothers and sisters, the Lord IS coming! -Jim MacIntosh