What’s Advent? Who needs it? Isn’t it just time to get ready for Christmas? We would do that anyway, even if there weren’t an Advent season.
Advent is the time to prepare for Christmas, but it’s more than that. It’s the time when we concentrate on Jesus’ coming return, when He will judge the world and establish justice and peace forevermore. It’s a dreadful and a wonderful prospect.
“But who can endure the day of His coming?
And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner’s fire
And like launderers’ soap.”
(Mal. 3:2)
Dreadful for those outside His kingdom, who have not yet repented and submitted to His Kingship. Wonderful for those inside, who daily face the long hard road marked by sin, pain, fear, oppression, sickness, trouble, and death.
Advent is for those who are acquainted with grief, because they will find it difficult to believe that these sorrows can come untrue. Those who grieve know that evil is real, that death is here and holds power over us still, and Jesus’ return can seem like wishful thinking. It is easy to lose heart. It is hard to believe He will ever return. It sounds like a fairy tale. Advent is for these people, because in Advent we are told in no uncertain terms, over and over again, “Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.” We are told because we need to be told. Advent is for those who desire His coming so much, they start to disbelieve it will ever happen. To them, it is said: “Emmanuel shall come to thee.”
But is life not also a road paved with hope, blessings, comfort, and joy? Yes, those too. Advent is for those who know joy and comfort, too. It is for them, because Advent reminds us that however full and good life may seem now, it is not as it should be. When we are happy and comforted, the world still groans. The earth still needs Jesus’ return. We still need Him to return. “Emmanuel shall come to thee,” is a refrain that both reminds and remonstrates, as it tells us however full we may feel, we are not full as we should be, and we must not be as Israel who forgot God in her fullness. Emmanuel shall come, and that means we must remember Him. Advent is for those whose fullness may tempt them not to desire His coming, for it teaches us to desire it much. To them, too, it is said: “Emmanuel shall come to thee.”
I need Advent. You need Advent. People next to you in the pew. Or across your street. We need to be told , “Emmanuel shall come.” We need to hear it, we need to say it, we need to sing it, we need to pray it. We need Advent because we need Jesus to come. We need to be wakeful and watchful and pray. We need to make ourselves ready. We need to live the kind of lives that conform to His coming Kingdom of justice and peace.
We need to say, “Come, Lord Jesus,” and mean it. That’s what Advent is for.<>
