Robert Kolb (PhD, University of Wisconsin) is mission professor of systematic theology emeritus at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books and articles.
Anticipation! The opening of a new school year, the first day on a new job, the first visit to a new vacation spot—countless are the situations we experience that build a sense of expectation of fresh vistas, different events, or strange places. A bit of intensifying excitement or mounting impatience often accompany our anticipation of what we have known was coming with the promise of adventure or enjoyment. Anticipation also can fill us with uneasiness, even fear, but even then, hope for alternative futures flash into our minds.
A certain excited anticipation always accompanies the approach of a new year. We may anticipate a difficult year ahead, or we may want to celebrate the chance for a new start, with resolutions for better times ahead along with partying or fireworks. New Year’s beginning encourages us to dedicate some effort to better times and better ways of living.
As years rush toward their end in the United States, moving from Thanksgiving with its sense of gratitude for all God has given us into Advent, the beginning of the new church year also brings to our minds Jesus’ coming as a baby in Bethlehem’s manger and his entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Advent also arouses our anticipation of blessings in the coming year, including the blessing of living in his promise of new life. Advent encourages anticipation of the Lord’s final return to liberate his people from the struggles of this life.
The shepherds had not been anticipating the heavens to explode that evening. As they were growing up, they probably had learned that they should anticipate the coming of the Messiah to deliver the Jewish people from Roman oppression and usher in a golden age. But their lives as shepherds in the fields had concentrated their attention on much more mundane matters. The angels’ message changed that. Without really knowing what to expect when they got to this manger in Bethlehem—apart from a baby who was Messiah and Lord—, the anticipation of something of angelic importance and magnitude added haste to their pace. Luke does not report that they were disappointed. This baby gave them reason to report to any and all whom they encountered what they had experienced, arousing wonder, and undoubtedly anticipation, even if the people had no idea of what kind of deliverance this Messiah would bring, what kind of lordship he would exercise. The reality of the majesty and glory that his suffering and shame would exercise from the cross and the empty tomb exceeded their anticipation more than their surprise and fright at the appearance of the angels.
He who came into human life as a baby in Bethlehem returns daily into our midst, individually, and on occasions of worship as the family of God. There he comes to us through his Word in oral, written, and sacramental forms. There is, unfortunately, for most of us a good deal less excited anticipation when the heavenly descends into our realm from the lectern and pulpit as the Holy Spirit arises out of the pages of Scripture to talk with us. Anticipation too often lags at the baptismal font that serves as the delivery table of the reborn child of God, the manger so to speak, for Jesus’ brothers and sisters. Parents and their friends and relatives may feel some sense of special anticipation at the baptism of a baby, but the entire congregation should get excited about a new member of Christ’s body, a freshly delivered child of the heavenly Father. Our excitement too often is muted at the altar in which we are given the blood and body of the baby of Bethlehem. There is every reason to get just as excited about Jesus’ coming to us in his special sacramental presence in the Lord’s Supper or with the gift of a new identity as a sibling in God’s family as there is about his comings in past and future.
Great indeed is the mystery that drew the shepherds through the dark to Bethlehem’s stable, but great are also those mysteries in which God demonstrates his power and presence among us in the pronouncement of the promise of life and salvation as it comes set in the baptismal water and wrapped in bread and wine that convey Jesus’ body and blood. For he has chosen to be present where and when his people speak and enjoy his message of deliverance and restoration through Christ’s death and resurrection, and certainly no less in the instances of his special presence in the sacraments. In the common places of human life, at the water and in the meal, the miracles of renewing life and equipping for a life of love and service take place.
Christians in all ages have anticipated the Lord’s return to judge and to liberate them at the conclusion to human history as we experience it. He was taken up into the clouds at his Ascension, and biblical writers describe his return as coming on the clouds. Throughout history believers have longed for the end of injustice and exploitation. Our forebears have yearned for the end of sin that breaks up God’s order and peace, suffering and pain of every kind. The people of God have always counted on the end of this earthly existence in the exchange that will bring his eternal kingdom to embrace and enfold the bodies that he will raise for each individual one of us. The trumpet sounding the approach of Jesus as judge and deliverer echoes the song of the angel, for its tone and tune will also rock all of creation with the acclamation of glory to God in the highest and the peace that passes all understanding to his people being gathered around his throne. The end of all evil will mark the presence of God and his triumph over every challenge to his lordship, every doubt of what he has said, and every crack in the vessel of life that he has molded for us.
Our anticipation of this day of the Lord will spill over from our Advent observance into the whole of the coming year. Our excitement should know no bounds as we celebrate the promise of the end of this time and space and of the gift of a new residence in the full presence of our Creator and Deliverer, the God who is sanctifying our lives daily through the forgiveness of sins.
For we know that he is bound and determined to transform our anticipation into the realization of his total goodness in his immediate presence forever.