If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. 1 Corinthians 16:22
During an exploration mission to Antarctica, Sir Ernest Shackleton had to leave a small group of his men on Elephant Island, promising to come and get them as soon as possible. Shackleton’s return was delayed by huge icebergs that blocked the island. At one point, a small lane of open ice made it possible for the explorer to reach the island, quickly load the waiting men, and dash back out to the open sea just before the icebergs crashed back in again. Shackleton remarked that it was good that the men were ready when he arrived. The men replied, ‘We never gave up hope. Whenever the sea was clear of ice, we rolled up our sleeping bags and reminded each other, ‘The boss may come today.’ The wonderful word Maranatha is our reminder that our Lord may come today.
The word Maranatha is unique, occurring only once in our Bible. For whatever reason, the translators of the Bible decided not to translate this word, but to transliterate it into an English word, the same as they did with the word baptize. Although it occurs only once, the meaning of Maranatha is found throughout the New Testament. The Lord Jesus often reminded his disciples that He would come again for them, as did the angels at His assention to Heaven. The epistles have many references to His return, and the second-to-last verse in the Bible contains both a promise and a prayer concerning His return. This great truth is an encouragement to us today.
We are told that this word was a common form of greeting for Christians during the early years of Christianity. Things were hard for the saints back then, with deep persecutions and great hardships for them. A reminder of the Lord’s coming was a welcome sound when the Christians met. They lived in the good of that hope, as millions of Christians have in the centuries that followed. Maranatha still rings out today as a reminder to us of the need to focus on eternal things rather than the short-term affairs and trappings of time. We need this reminder, because the truth of the Rapture is slowly being eroded around us, and the fact that our Lord could come today is often forgotten or ignored. Life is good for us here, we feel, with all the comforts and security we enjoy. The spirit of Laodicea makes the Rapture a nice concept for the future but of no real importance for the present. We fail to see the deep wickedness all around us, becoming too much like Lot’s sojourn in the cursed city of Sodom.
Never was there a day in which we needed the truth of Maranatha more. Let us lift up this great watchword in rejoicing and expectation. -Jim MacIntosh