Jesus said, “But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed. Watch — for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.
“Watch, therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, on in the morning. “Watch, lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. “And what I say to you I say to all: Watch.” Mark 13:32?37
The word Advent is derived from the Latin adventus, which means “the approach” or “the arrival.” The verb is advenio: “I arrive. I come. I am coming.”
Who is coming?
As a season of the Christian year, Advent is ancient. It goes back at least to the middle of the sixth century. Already then its observance defined not only the One who was coming, but also those who were faithfully and self-consciously waiting. It defined the peculiar people who looked forward to the coming of that One.
Who is coming? Who awaits him?
By the thirteenth century, the Church universal had recognized the season of Advent as the beginning of its year. Advent consisted of four Sundays, the first of which was New Year’s Day for Christians everywhere — and so it was that Advent also defined the times, endings and beginnings, the past and the present, as well as the future when the Blessed One would come.
Who is coming? Who awaits him? And when will he get here?
For nearly one thousand five hundred years Christians have spent the days of Advent not in passive inaction, but in activities strenuous and profitable: they have prepared themselves by scrubbing and cleaning their lives, by examining and repairing their souls — even as people generally prepare themselves body and home to receive a visitor of ineffable importance.
Who is coming? Who awaits him? When will he get here? And how shall the people prepare?
The Son of man, he is coming. Jesus. That one. Him.
And we are the people who await him. You and I. Since it was for us he died, we are the ones who wait in love. And since he ascended to heaven with promises to return, wewait in faith — for at the next and final Advent, Jesus will take us as friends, as brothers and sisters into his house forevermore.
And when will he get here? Like any New Year’s Day: at the end and the beginning.
But that Advent to come — the final arrival of Jesus in glory — will itself cause the end of this present age and the beginning of our eternal joy. When will that be? Ah, my friend, I do not know. No one knows its day or hour. Therefore Jesus commands us to “Watch. Stay awake. Get ready. Prepare, prepare — and watch!”
Finally, then, how shall we prepare? In these days, while yet there are days and time, by what activity should we make ourselves ready?
Why, by meditating on his first coming — for though the future may be hidden from us the past is not, and the one can teach us the other.
The story of the birth of Jesus is open before us. We have a spiritual and holy account of the time when God himself directed preparations for that first coming of his Son into the world. What God ordains is always good. Therefore, those preparations may be the perfect pattern for our own this year again, this year too.
Behold, I bring you good news of great joy! The people who heard the news of that first Advent were no less human than we. They moved through complex stages of response: doubt, fear, questioning, the obedience of love, the obedience of legalism, joy and song, despair and anger. There were groups of people, shepherds, the Magi, innocent children; there were individuals, Zachariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph, Simeon, Anna, Herod. Some concluded their preparations in faith. Some in fury. Any one of these might be you, my friend. Or me. But we have the advantage, now, of meditation: in quietness and confidence to choose the right response, and, by the grace of the present Spirit of Jesus, to practice the right preparation for the coming of the Lord in Glory.
So let us enter the story one more time. In this present season of Advent let us experience the infant’s Advent in the past and so make ourselves ready for the Advent of the Lord of Glory in the future.
O Lord, Stir up, we beg you, your power — and come. Come even now into this season of our meditations, that by your protection we may be rescued from our sins, and saved by your mighty deliverance in order to look forward to your final arrival with the joy that cannot be uttered. We pray in your name, O Lord, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
Adapted from Preparing For Jesus by Walter Wangerin.
Copyright © 2005 by Walter Wangerin, published by Zondervan, used with permission.
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