Seeing Jesus While Waiting for Jesus
In Advent, we express our longing for Jesus to come again. But do we see him in the here and now?
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Luke 4:16-19
“Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” has been on repeat for me this Advent season. Different arrangements, renditions, and artists have turned the song into an instrument of grace, a means of giving voice to a longing within my spirit for the kingdom of God to come in the fullness of its love, grace, and beauty. This is the spirit of Advent - waiting in longing and hope for the Messiah to come, to rescue, to redeem. But even as the cry of this song has resonated with the prayer of my heart, it has also been a spark of challenge and conviction. Looking toward the coming of God’s kingdom should never blind me to the inbreaking of that kingdom here and now. Waiting in hope for the return of the Messiah should not veil the face of Jesus already present in the world. As citizens of a kingdom that is “already and not yet,” we need the Spirit-led vision to see the one while waiting in hope for the other.
In Nazareth, Jesus stood before the synagogue and read the words of Isaiah, claiming them as his mission statement and a declaration of his kingdom’s character. His reign is one of good news for the poor and freedom for the prisoner. In the overflow of the Lord’s favor, the blind are given sight and the oppressed set free. This is a kingdom of grand reversals, where the first become last and the last become first, where the poor, meek, mourning, and persecuted are blessed. And this is what we long for, a day when all is finally set right and redeemed by the just, loving, and merciful grace of our God. Advent acknowledges that we do not see it in all of its fullness at the moment, but we wait in hope, knowing that Christ reigns and his kingdom of good news will come in all of its glory.
But as we wait, we are not without signposts and glimpses of what lies ahead. The One who came as a crying, dependent infant in Bethlehem, through his birth, life, death, and resurrection has made this kingdom a reality. The door has been opened and, even now, the leaven of New Creation is working its way through the bread that is our world. And Jesus has called us to share in this redeeming work, to live as his body, serving out of love for God and neighbor to bring the broken things into the healing light of His perfect reign. Yes, we wait. And yes, God is present and working in the world right now. I cannot help but wonder, though, if our vision has become clouded, so that despite our claims to be the body of Christ, we do not see Jesus present and working around us, calling us to share in his faithful presence and mission.
If we actually saw Jesus in the world as we should, it seems we would grieve and long even more deeply for the justice of his kingdom to be realized. We would not justify it when groups of people, created in the image of God, are dehumanized and dismissed as garbage. Our hearts would break for those fleeing violence in search of safety for their family, and we would demand their just and humane treatment. We would not defend the cause of the powerful and wealthy while celebrating systems and policies that harm the poor. We would not see the prisoner simply through the lens of the worst thing they had done, but rather through the lens of what they could be by the redeeming power of God’s grace. Violence, hatred, and coercive power would not be excused as a necessary means to a good end but rejected as a violation of God’s heart and intentions for us. Jesus said my kingdom is good news for people like this - the prisoner, the poor, the oppressed. If we cannot see Jesus in the faces of the least of these, do we actually know what Jesus looks like?
There is a deep dissonance - even hypocrisy - in singing “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” while refusing to see Jesus in the prisoner left without hope, the immigrant who lives in fear, and the poor seeking to feed their children. We cannot genuinely long for a kingdom of justice and peace if we have no present concern for those values. Our story is compromised when we prepare to celebrate the birth of a Savior who came in humility while grasping for power and self-interest. And no, this is not about partisan political agendas and parties. It’s about what we are called to be in this world as the people of Jesus. Even as we cry out for the reign of God to come in its fullness, we are to embody that reign here and now. We carry the light into dark places and call the broken things into alignment with God’s justice and peace. So, let this Advent be a time of more than just singing “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.” May it be a season of seeing Jesus in the world and being Jesus for the world.