Advent is a time of Great Expectations. Christians anticipate not only the Birth of the Messiah, but his return. We believe that the Christ who appeared for the first time on the plane of human history in humility and hiddenness, known only to a select few people of faith, must, of necessity, appear a second time in power and glory, known to faith and unbelief alike.
When I was in the 8th grade, we read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens as our class novel. We read it a chapter a day, aloud, and even my classmates who did not like to read eagerly welcomed our daily portion. Perhaps, because we, too, had great expectations.
The character known as Miss Habersham particularly fascinated me. We meet her through the book’s hero, with whom we identified, Pip. When Pip first meets Miss Habersham, he learns her life history in a moment, even before a single word has passed between them. He enters a darkened room. He will later learn that the light of day has not entered it since before his birth. It is a dressing room. Miss Habersham is sitting on a stool by a dressing table. She is dressed in yellowed-white silk, and on her head she is wearing a long veil of yellowed lace. Dried up and brittle bridal flowers cover the veil, and bright jewels sparkle at her neck and on her hands; but she is not completely dressed. She wears one yellowed shoe; but the other foot is covered with only a dirty stocking, ragged with wear. As Pip draws near to Miss Habersham, he sees that her watch is stopped at 9:20. As he looks around the room, he sees that her clock is set to the same hour. It is the hour of her betrayal. It is the hour that her false lover left her at the altar. Miss Habersham was waiting for, and looking for, a bridegroom who has never come. The whole scene is among the most descriptive in all of literature. It shouts, “Great Expectations—-forever dashed on the hard rocks of reality!”
Today, when I think of this scene, I am reminded of those generations of devout Jews who have searched the prophets, and waited for the Messiah.
The Jews of Jesus time expected the Messiah to be a conquering hero. They thought he would kick the Romans out of the Promised Land, set up a world government in Jerusalem from which and into which would flow the wealth and the gratitude of the nations. They believed in trickle-down economics. They would be the most blessed, but the blessing would trickle-down to the gentiles. Today Jews expect the Messiah to defeat the PLO, neutralize Iran, take-out the Taliban, restore the temple in Jerusalem, and set up a world government in that city from which and into which will flow the wealth and gratitude of the nations.
Devout Jews in every generation, then and now, have taken solace in the coming of the Messiah in the way that Christians have taken solace in “heaven” or in “the 2nd Advent of Christ.” Usually, the Messiah comes to correct some great wrong.
• People are hungry, and they say, “When the Messiah comes, there will be a banquet for all.”
• People are persecuted, and driven from their homes, and they say, “When the Messiah comes, all the world will welcome us, and bless us, for they will want the Messiah’s approval.”
• The rabbis have a saying: “When the Messiah comes, people will no longer choose between good and bad, but between what is good and what is better!”
Jews believe that “When the Messiah comes,” it will be fantastic!
And when will the Messiah come? That is the question about which Jewish scholars disagree.
• Some say the Messiah will come if all of Israel observes a single Sabbath properly.
• Some say the Messiah will come if all of Israel repents for a single day.
• Some say that the Messiah will come to a generation in which all children are totally disrespectful towards their parents and elders. Naturally, they believe the Messiah will vindicate the parents!
• Some say that the Messiah will come to a generation that loses all hope. At her darkest hour, Israel’s Messiah will come. (I am not a Jew, but I tremble to think that any hour could be darker for them than those of the Nazi Holocausts!)
At this juncture the important thing to most Jews is that the Messiah has not yet come. This has been a source of much sorrow and regret. They have not yet lost all hope, but at least some of them have ceased to look for him in every time of distress. This made them a very pragmatic people.
Perhaps you have seen the play “Fiddler on the Roof.” It is set in the time between the Communist Revolution and the 2nd World War. The Jews in Russia are being driven from their homes and communities. In one scene a young Jew speaks hopeful words to his spiritual mentor, a wise and world-worn rabbi, saying, “Rabbi, we’ve been waiting for the Messiah all our lives. Wouldn’t this be a good time for him to come?” The rabbi answers, “Certainly, my son, but we’ll have to wait for him someplace else. Meanwhile, let’s start packing.”
Today devout Jews around the world are still waiting for the Messiah to come, in the same way that Christians wait for Jesus to come back for his church. Yet there is this difference.
We are waiting for the Messiah’s “return;” for we believe that in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah did come. We believe that he came in humility and hiddenness, visible only to the eyes of faith. We believe he will return in power and glory, visible to faith and unbelief alike. Jews believed that the Messiah would set up a kingdom in Jerusalem. We know that Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world. But we know him to be a King, and more than a king. We believe he is the king of kings and the LORD of Lords. Even before Israel had a king, she waited for a messiah in the form of a prophet like Moses. We believe Jesus is a Prophet like Moses, but more than a prophet. We believe he was in Himself “the Word of God Made Flesh,” who became a human being to live among us and testify to God’s love for us and to our worth before God. The Jews believed that the Messiah would have a priestly function. We believe Jesus is a Priest, and not just any priest. We believe He is a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, the King of Salem who brought out bread and wine and blessed Abraham, the father of all who have faith. We believe he offered a single sacrifice for sin, then took his place at the Right Hand of the Majesty on High, from which he will come to judge the living and the dead. (Genesis 14, Hebrews 5, 6,7)
Of course, some have always doubted Jesus By the end of the first Christian century some people were asking, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (2nd Peter) Today even some Christians say that Jesus not really the son of God we believe him to be. Various members of the Jesus Seminar have suggested that Jesus was a Jewish Medicine man, or the last of the Cynic Philosophers, or the first stand-up comic.
We know differently. We believe that Jesus was the Messiah of God, and that Jesus knew he was the Messiah of God.
According to one of the Jewish prophets, a man by the name of Zechariah, the Messiah would enter Jerusalem “triumphant and victorious”, but also “humble.” He would enter the city not on a big white horse, but mounted on “a colt the foal of an ass.”
The New Testament teaches that Jesus intentionally excited the people of Jerusalem and forced them to a choice by acting out this very prophecy.
And you know what happened. His plan worked. People came out to meet him. Some of them took off their cloaks and strewed them in his path. Others cut palm branches and used them to carpet the road before him. Many of them cried out, “Hosanna in the Highest!”, and “Blessed is the kingdom of our father David which is coming. “ “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Of course, some were quickly deluded. Less than one week later, their dreams were dashed to pieces. Their king wore a crown of thorns. His throne was a cross. His only scepter was one of the rusty nails driven through his wrists or hands. Many devout Jews in Jerusalem had hoped that Jesus was the one to deliver Israel. But they could not conceive of a crucified Messiah. Had not Moses said, “Cursed be he who hangs on a tree.” (Gal. 3:13) (Footnote 1)
But not all of Israel continued in disbelief. There we some who insisted that they had seen things into which the great prophets had longed to look. They claimed that they had seen the Crucified One alive, risen from the dead. They believed that in his resurrection Jesus had been “designated Son of God in power through a Spirit of Holiness.” (Romans 1:4) They said that his cross was not the bad end of a good man, but a road traveled once, for all, by a victorious Savior. They said that the center of redemption past, was Christ on his cross dying for the sins of the world. They said that the center of redemption future, was Christ, coming again for his Church on earth. They said that the center of redemption present, was Christ, present through the power of the Holy Spirit, at work in and through his church.
Today many devout Jews are still waiting for God. Some still have great expectations. We are all looking for God. We look not just for the 2nd Advent of Christ in power and glory at the end of history. We look for God, now, in our lives, at work through the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Each time we offer up a prayer to God, we are looking for evidence of God’s response. Sometimes we get what we ask for. Sometimes we don’t, but I am not sure that this is always bad.
At present I am reading a fantastic anthology entitled, The Oxford Book of Prayer. It is a collection of some of the greatest prayers ever prayed. It contains the Lord’s Prayer, the Jesus Prayer of St. Francis, the Serenity Prayer, etc. Some of the prayers are well known, but some are not so well known, and they come from unlikely sources. One of my favorites was written out by an unknown Confederate soldier. It goes:
I asked for strength that I might achieve;
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy;
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I had asked for, but everything that I had hoped for.
Some years ago a young man on the horns of dilemma and unable to make a decision went to a counselor and poured out his soul. When he had finished, the counselor looked at him and said, “No wonder you can’t make a decision. You don’t know what you want.” They then prayed that the young man would receive what he needed.
We wait for God. We look for God. Sometimes we actually find God when we get not what we ask for, but what we need.
Footnote 1:
Devout Jews do not believe that Isaiah 53 applies to the Messiah. Christians do.
“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
(Isaiah 53:3–6 RSV)