Introduction:
The season of Advent is about remembering and expecting the Lord’s coming. As we walk through the season together our Scripture readings will focus on preparing the way for Christmas by highlighting God’s promises to come and deliver his people. If you follow a Jesse Tree reading plan in your home, you will notice how many of the readings are devoted to tracing this theme: God visits his people with promises of a coming redeemer who will put all things right and finally save them from their enemies for good. This is the hope of the ages and also why we love Christmas so much: Standing this side of the Incarnation it is a profound comfort to hear the “good tidings of great joy” because we know how the story is connected to the rest of the calendar, to the light of epiphany, to the trials and agony of Lent and Good Friday, and finally to the triumph of the resurrection and the glory of Ascension and Pentecost. But Advent is also a season of expectation, reminding us that just as the Lord came to deliver, so he will come again “with glory to judge the living and the dead.” He came and He is coming. This means that all of us who are disciples of Jesus live into what is still not yet. We too await his coming. God hasn’t done everything yet, He is still making, visiting, and changing us so that, as John says, when he comes “we will be like Him because we shall see him just like He is” (1 John 3:2). This is good news of course, but just as it was for the Saints of old, it is also unsettling news.
Unexpected Coming
Think of John the Baptist. He was the herald of the promised Messiah. Luke said that he was
the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke, proclaiming: “Make ready the paths of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every ravine shall be filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall become straight, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” That’s an exciting message, but it wasn’t long before John was in jail and he sent two disciples to Jesus with a penetrating question: “Are you the Expected One, or should we look for someone else.” Jesus’ advent in John’s life hadn’t looked like he had expected. Turns out, this is a familiar report: God’s coming, though promised and looked for, is always unsettling and unexpected.
- Isaiah 64:1-4: “Thou didst awesome things which we did not expect…Who acts on behalf of the one who waits for Him.”
- This is the story of the heroes of the faith:
- Noah: Spent 50ish years of his life building a boat for a flood the likes of which no one had ever seen.
- Abraham: Was a stranger in a new land, waiting for a son in his old age, and, when he finally arrived was asked to sacrifice him on a mountain.
- Jacob: Spent 20 years in exile being cheated by his father-in-law.
- Moses: Went from being the prince of Egypt, to 40 years in the desert, to 40 more leading Israel through the wilderness.
- David: Anointed king (15 years old) and then spent 8 years running from Saul in the wilderness.
- Mary: “Favored one!” = bear a child out of wedlock which will ruin your reputation and threaten your marriage prospects.
- Saul the zealous Pharisee met a Savior he never knew on the road to Damascus. “I will show him how much he must suffer for my sake.” (Acts 9:16)
Salvation Made Strange
Why does God’s coming look like this? Isaiah 64:5-7 says it’s because God always comes to save us from darkness that we cannot escape on our own. The first message of Advent is that the world is a dark place because we have made it so. The original darkness covered the world because our first parents tried to use good things to save themselves. Since that time, we have tried in vain to find a cure for evil and suffering in our own goodness. That can’t be done, because our hearts love evil. That’s why Isaiah says that our good deeds are like filthy rags. Religious people are not immune from this darkness. The older son (Luke 15:25-32) had constructed a word in which his heroic obedience had blinded his eyes to the grace and forgiveness of his Father. If the darkness of our sin is to be dispelled, the light must come from outside of us. That’s why when God comes to save His people, His coming brings trouble.
Calvin says that God brings trouble to His children for two reasons: “adversity is either the rod with which he corrects our sins, or the test of our faith and patience.” In either case, the purpose is to turn you toward Him. Notice how the writer of Hebrews puts this: “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.” The reason our Father’s discipline/training is disturbing is because He comes to change us into something that we couldn’t imagine for ourselves.
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” – C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Walking with a Limp
Let’s be honest, have you ever felt ready for the trouble God has brought your way? Of course not. That’s the point. It’s lovingly designed to bring you up short and turn you to Himself. God loves you so much and has such grand designs for your life that he won’t leave you alone. Paul says it is these marks of “Divine disruption,” revealed in the cracks of our earthen vessels, that show “the surpassing greatness of the power [is] of God and not from ourselves” (2 Cor. 4:7).
- James says that trials faithfully received work in us. “For you know that the testing of your faith works/produces And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” This means that the trials we see produce in us things we cannot see, which is why we are called to rejoice.
When Jesus comes to wrestle with you, He comes in blessing because you are His beloved child. But remember that God’s blessings are not automatic, they require faith and repentance to receive. It is possible to be just like the Israelites who perished in the wilderness in unbelief (1 Cor. 10:1-5) though they had seen the saving acts of God. When God brings trouble to you, turn to Him, open your heart to His discipline, confess your sins and cling to His grace and mercy. Ask Him for the strength to wrestle with Him faithfully. Refuse to let Him go until He blesses you.