Did Jesus say he would return before now?

Jesus’ prophecies about the future sometimes bother Christians. That’s because one of them seems like it might not have come true. But what if it already has?

Matthew 24 records that “the disciples came to [Jesus] privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?'” (3 ESV). Jesus answers them by speaking of wars, etc., that would follow. He then says that the nations “will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (30), and he tells them that “this generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (34).

Jesus says that some of his hearers would not die before they saw this (compare Matt 16:28, where he speaks of “coming in his kingdom”). So it would seem that either he was wrong about that, or it already happened.

These are definitely confusing passages, and I don’t claim to be certain of my interpretation of them. However, I’ll suggest some principles that will help.

First, we need to remember that Jesus and Scripture have been shown to be trustworthy in other ways. So we shouldn’t assume this to be a contradiction, as long as there is any reasonable doubt. Think about someone you trust implicitly. If they say something that appears to contradict itself, what should you do? What you should do, before assuming that they are lying or mistaken, is assume that they didn’t mean it how you heard it from them. You should give them the benefit of the doubt and see whether there’s a way to understand what they said differently.

So let’s see if there’s another way of understanding what Jesus said. If we look closely at Jesus’ eschatological passages, not just at the apparent problem verses, we see that they seem to have elements both of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the end of the world. We know that the destruction of Jerusalem already happened. Is it possible that this event  could be described as showing that the Son of Man is “coming on the clouds” or “coming in his kingdom”?

I think yes. The destruction of Jerusalem vindicated Jesus’ claim to prophecy, because it occurred as he foretold. It’s true that not one stone of the Temple was left standing on another when the destruction was complete (Matt 24:2).

Furthermore, this event, with its destruction of the temple, also showed that a new system of worship had been put in place for God’s people. Now, as Jesus foretold, we do not worship at the temple, but we worship in spirit and in truth (John 4). So, in one sense, Jesus’ kingdom was seen with that event.

However, Jesus’ whole prophecy doesn’t seem to have been fulfilled yet. Or at least, it appears to have implications for the end of the age, which is why we wait for Jesus’ second coming. We are in the last hour (1 John 2:18), even though it is quite a long hour, and we can’t know that Jesus will be here shortly. However, for all of us, our lives could end at any moment, so we always need to be prepared to meet our Lord.