Wait, why do we celebrate advent?
Remember the excitement you had for Christmas as a child? How we all couldn’t sleep and tried to get up as early as humanly possible so that we could open our gifts Christmas morning?
The anticipation for Christmas is most evident in the hearts of small children. Unfortunately, when we grow up we tend to forget about how exciting Christmas used to be for us, and are somewhat surprised and annoyed when we realize it’s time to start looking for gifts in the midst of all the other things we have to do.
While it’s not a bad thing to stop incessantly asking for a certain gift from an imaginary man with a beard, I actually think that the kids got this one right—there should be a sense of anticipation as we enter the Christmas season. This time of year where children struggle to wait is actually a biblical concept—we call it advent.
Advent is more than something you do to get to Christmas or a reason for companies to sell more calendars. In fact, without advent, Christmas doesn’t actually have much meaning.
Christmas celebrates the birth of our savior, but advent is a lived-out retelling of the story behind Christ’s birth and a reminder of the promises of God.
What is advent?
Advent is the period of anticipation that points to the coming messiah. The word is a version of the latin word for “coming.” For Christians (at least those in US evangelical protestant traditions), the advent season begins on the 4th Sunday before Christmas.
For my church, advent means the lighting of 5 candles each Sunday and Christmas eve for one month. Each candle signifies a different part of the Christmas story. For other traditions, advent may include special daily prayers or even fasting in preparation for Christmas.
The important part of advent is not exactly what you do, but that you are reflecting on the importance and reasons for the coming Messiah, preparing your heart to receive him on Christmas day.
What does advent signify?
Advent represents two separate periods of waiting: We’ll start with the Israelites.
In the Old Testament (OT), God continually weaves together the story of his people with the promise of a coming messiah to save the people from their sins. This promise first appears in Genesis 3, directly after the fall when God promises Adam and Eve that one of their offspring would “bruise [the serpent’s] head.” The serpent had tempted Eve to sin, therefore he would be judged with a coming “serpent crusher.” As God continues to make promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and Solomon, this hero figure continues to be mentioned as the ultimate fulfillment of each promise—a king from the line of David, yet greater than David.
Then, the Israelites get conquered by the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. The Davidic line is lost. The temple is destroyed. The people are spread through all the lands. Yet the promises of God do not fade. Throughout the prophets that speak to Israel during this dark time, the promises of a new King that will liberate his people continue to appear and develop. He will come from Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). He will be called a Nazarene (Isaiah 11). He would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7). He would be the son of God (Psalm 2). He would do healing signs (Isaiah 35). He would be pierced for our transgressions (Isaiah 52). He would bring a new covenant for all people (Jeremiah 31).
Imagine the anticipation for the Israelites as they waited for hundreds of years in exile for the coming of new and greater king to vindicate them. They didn’t wait just 4 Sundays for Christmas, they waited over 400 years. It makes us understand why the Angels announced the news to the shepherds, and they ran to praise the newborn king, why Simeon in the temple said he could die now that he had seen the promises of God fulfilled in baby Jesus (Luke 2), and why every single OT passage that Jesus told the jews was about himself caused a scandal in Jerusalem.
Jesus was everything that they had waited for.
The world received it’s Messiah once, but the story isn’t over yet. The second part of advent is just as crucial. The second period of waiting in anticipation for the Messiah is now. We are waiting for the return of the king. We are waiting for a new heaven and new earth—the fulfillment of the promises of God. Advent isn’t just about the past, it’s also a reminder that we are currently waiting (as the Israelites did), and that the Messiah will come (just as we celebrate on Christmas).
Advent is a reminder that because God fulfilled his promises to the Israelites through Jesus Christ, so will he fulfill his promises to us through Christ’s second-coming.
Think about it: Joy to the World isn’t a Christmas song at all, and neither is O Come O Come Emmanuel. They are both advent songs. O Come O Come relays the emotion of waiting for the liberation of the Messiah for a people in exile. It awaits Jesus’ coming. And Joy to the World? It’s theme is not the birth of Jesus, but rather the second-coming! Advent does remember the past, which helps us to celebrate Christmas in all it’s weighty glory, but it is also a reminder of what is to come. It encourages us to wait.
Joy to the world The Lord has come Let earth receive her King Let every heart prepare Him room And heaven and nature sing And heaven and nature sing And heaven and heaven and nature sing
-31Women (Beth)
This post is part of the #waitwhy series. You can find more posts like this here.
Information used on OT prophecies in this post can be found here.
