Why would Martin Luther choose to plant a tree if he knew the Lord was returning the next day?

Jeffrey D. Johnson explores this intriguing perspective, drawing from Martin Luther's reputed response about planting a tree even when the Lord's return seems imminent. The act of planting a tree symbolizes looking beyond immediate gratification, focusing on the long-term and future generations. It reflects a mindset that balances readiness for the Lord's return with the responsibility to occupy and invest in the world we inhabit, understanding that the timing of the Lord's return remains unknown.

Johnson emphasizes the dual perspective Christians must maintain—being prepared for Christ's return at any moment while actively engaging in the world. This involves raising families, building businesses, and contributing to the preservation of the church and God's kingdom. Christians are called to live with both eternal and temporal perspectives, ensuring their actions in this world are aligned with their heavenly hope. By doing so, they can lay up treasures in heaven, honoring God's commission through their daily lives.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NKJV): "He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end."

Martin Luther was asked, what would you do if you knew the Lord was coming back tomorrow? And his response is, I'd go plant a tree. And it seems odd that he would plant a tree knowing that there would be no fruit ever produced because the tree would have no purpose the next day. So you plant trees for tomorrow, you plant trees for generations to come. So when you plant a tree you're not doing it for the immediate benefit, you're thinking long-term.

And Martin Luther said something is so odd, the Lord's coming back tomorrow potentially and I'm gonna plant a tree. Well the thing is, we don't know when the Lord's coming back. It could become today, it could be tomorrow, but we're commissioned to plant trees. We're commissioned to occupy. We're commissioned to have both perspectives.

We're to hasten the day of the coming. We're to be looking, anticipating, Lord come today, even so Lord come Jesus. We want Lord come tomorrow, tonight. We're ready. We're ready to go.

So we're always ready. We have the oil in our lamp. We're ready for the Lord to come back. But we also know that He didn't tell us for a reason. So we also have that other perspective that we're going to occupy.

We're going to stay here, And we're going to put down our roots, if you would, and we're going to raise our children and raise our children, raise the next generation of children, because this is the method that God has given us, the commission that God has given us for the preservation of the church, the preservation of the kingdom of God, is to work well. And we're... Another illustration of this to break up my thoughts here, I think the Lord is wise in giving us 70 to 80 years to live. I've thought about this. We don't live to be 500 years, no telling what evil would take place if we lived that long.

Not just Christians, but I mean, I'm talking about unbelievers. But if we only lived 20 years, Nobody would do anything. You know, if we're dead in 20 years, no one's gonna build anything because there's no fruit. There's no fruit in just saying, hey, what's the point? We're dead.

You know, but we live long enough to build businesses. You know, we live long enough to go, the work that I'm doing, I'm going to receive it in seven years to 14 years. It's not immediate gratification, but I'm going to live long enough to get the fruit from the tree. It's not just for my children, but it'll be for myself. But yet, we don't live long enough to put all of our hope in this life because we're going to be dead.

We have to live for the life to come. So here's that tension that we have in scriptures. We're pilgrims and strangers in this world, but we're in this world. God didn't take us out of this world. And so we have an eternal perspective, a temporal perspective, and these things come together in the Christian life.

We have a kingdom of God, the kingdom of this world, we're in both. And they come together in our Christian ethic. And so they're not contrary to one another, that I can serve God and lay up treasures in heaven by planting trees and building businesses and raising a family. Thanks for watching!