In Parts II and III of my House of David in Middle Earth posts, I will explore more deeply how Tolkien is telling the story of the return of king. There are 24 times throughout the New Testament where the Greek word “parousia” is used, but perhaps the most important reference is from 1 Corinthians 15:23 where Paul says, “But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.” The English word “comes” is translated from the Greek “parousia” which has wider (and better) translations such as “appearance,” “coming,” and even “presence.”  No one in ancient Israel expected anyone to be raised from the dead until the end of history, which the Jews refer to as the “ha-olam-ha-ba,” or the “age to come.” This brings me to another well-quoted passage, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Here, the phrase “eternal life” is interesting. The Greek word for “eternal” is “aionios” and doesn’t just mean outside of our space and time, but also inside. It doesn’t mean that we get it after we die, but it also refers to the quality of the age which it describes. It isn’t just futuristic, but it is very much of the present tense. In other words, it is something we presently possess. According to the scholar N.T. Wright, “eternal life” is better translated as “life in the age to come.” It is very much something we can begin experiencing now and will only fully experience at some unknown point in the future as well. A different age does not mean a different world or place–quite the opposite, in fact. An age is like a period of history. According to John 3:16, then, we are currently–already–experiencing the “life of the age to come” that we will–yet–know more fully. This is something which Jesus himself also makes quite clear in Luke 17:21: “Nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” We are living between two moments. We are living between two “ages.” The Jews believe we are living in the “ha-olam-hazeh,” or the “present age,” which is also an age of great good and terrible evil. But as Paul continues on in 1 Corinthians 15:24-28:

“Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.”

We are living between the present and future consummation of the “kingdom of heaven” which Jesus spoke so much about, a kingdom of “already, but not yet.” What does J.R.R. Tolkien have to do about this? I believe that his great sweeping story is telling a parable, not an allegory, of the return of the king. And what do parables do? They restore sight to those who have been spiritually blind to all that is happening around them.