Looking to Christ’s Return

Welcome to Things Unseen. There’s a tradition in the Christian Church that I think in many places has died out, but at this time of year, on the very first Sunday of Advent, celebrating Jesus’ first coming, Christians have paused to reflect on His second coming. And occasionally our Christmas hymns acknowledge that.

I wonder if in your church you sing W.Y. Fullerton’s hymn:

I cannot tell how He will win the nations,
How He will claim His earthly heritage,
How satisfy the needs and aspirations
Of east and west, of sinner and of sage.
But this I know, all flesh shall see His glory,
And He shall reap the harvest He has sown,
And some glad day His sun will shine in splendor
When He the Savior, Savior of the world, is known.

Why do you think this tradition became such a fixture in the old Christian calendar? I feel fairly sure it was because our spiritual forefathers knew that the incarnation actually intersects history, but it looks beyond the moment of the incarnation towards the end of history. The birth of Jesus is the beginning of something new. It’s not its consummation—that’s still to come. The humbling of the Son of God led to His humiliation on the cross, but it was the prelude to His exaltation and glorification, and then, ultimately, His return.

Think of it this way: at Christmastime, we’re reminded of a very small number of Jewish people who came to worship Jesus—people like the aged Simeon; and a few of them marginalized, the shepherds; and a handful of Gentile scholars from the East who came to kneel before Him. But the Scriptures teach us these were merely the firstfruits, the tiny shoots pressing through the soil of history as an indication of what one day will take place in the final harvest, when all the nations will see the glory of the Lord Jesus when He comes again and ushers in the final stage of His kingdom.

That’s the united testimony of the authors of the New Testament. They don’t all mention the details of His birth, although obviously, they were conscious of it. But Matthew and Mark, and Luke and John, and Paul and James, and Simon Peter and the author of Hebrews, they all write in the light of the fact that Jesus is going to return. And they tell us that when he does, it will be in majesty and glory. The New Testament authors point forward to this, and every New Testament Christian was expected to look forward eagerly to His coming. Indeed, they were so eager for it to take place that some of them mistakenly were giving up their day jobs because they wrongly imagined that He was going to come immediately.

I remember when I was a young student, an older friend told me about something he had learned as a student of early church history. He said to me, “In the early church, it was almost regarded as a sign of apostasy not to long daily for the return of the Lord Jesus.” I was almost going to say I’ve never forgotten that challenge, but I needed to stop myself, because probably like you, I have to confess, there are days in my Christian life when I’m not sure I give much thought to the fact that my Lord Jesus Christ is going to return.

So, I’m sure at the beginning of this Advent season, it’s spiritually healthy for us to remember that the Jesus who came at Bethlehem is going to return again in majesty and glory, and to pray that we’ll learn to say with the early church maranatha, our Lord come. And we’re going to think about that all this week.