In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind (John 1:4).
The Incarnation of the eternal Son is situated within human experience. In other words, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) means that God experienced the fulness of human experience, and humans might experience the fulness of God. Pathos is an expression of emotion, or passion. So, to speak of the pathos of Advent is to reflect on how the coming of Christ moves us towards faith in God. The pathos of Advent is illustrated in the candles of the Advent wreath. As we moved towards the celebration of Christmas, we light a candle and reflect.
From Despair to Hope. There is so much pain in the world. Pain and suffering provoke despair. When the Holy Spirit moved over the womb of Mary, the people of God were being oppressed by the Roman Empire. The children of Abraham suffered political, economic, and religious oppression for centuries. The despair of Israel is epitomized in the story of the slaughter of the boys of Bethlehem. Their mothers and fathers were powerless to intervene against the brutality of Herod’s soldiers. Matthew uses the words of Jeremiah to give voice to the lament of the mothers of Bethlehem.
A cry was heard in Ramah— weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead (Matthew 2:18 NLT).
This kind of emotional pain and suffering is enduring. Living with pain and suffering tempts us to despair. In our despair we are tempted to believe that God is powerless to intervene. Why didn’t God stop Herod’s soldiers from murdering those little boys in Bethlehem? Does God care? Has God abandoned us? Does God really exist? All of the questions are raised throughout the Bible.
My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help? Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night I lift my voice, but I find no relief (Psalm 22:1–2 NLT).
In the midst of our deepest despair, we discover glimmers of hope. We hope that God cares. We hope that God hears our cries. We hope that God will intervene. We hope that God will save us. In hope we remember God’s promises. In hope we look past the pain and suffering of the present and cry out for deliverance. Hope means that we trust God even in our despair, even when don’t understand. Advent offers us the opportunity to move past our despair and engage in hope. Our songs of lament give way to hopeful melodies that remind us of the promises of God. “O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.” The hope of Advent is found in the name of the child Mary:
Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means “God is with us” (Matthew 1:23 NLT).
From Conflict to Peace. Human civilizations are often built upon battlefields – upon the blood, sweat, and tears of the oppressed. We tend to celebrate our achievements as being won by heroic leaders. We build monuments to warriors. We entertain ourselves with games of battle. These conflicts allow us to experience both the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” (ABC Wild World of Sports Intro, 1961-1998). We seem to relish the conflict; we are intoxicated by the adrenalin of warfare. We dance over the broken bodies of our opponents; violence is a way of life.
Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of wrongdoing, devastation and destruction are in their paths. They do not know the way of peace, and there is no justice in their tracks… (Isaiah 59:7-8).
Human conflict is deeply personal. Humanity is in conflict with God, always trying to hide from the Divine presence. The judgement of sin means that humans, who were created to rule over the created order, are themselves at war with creation – storms, earthquakes, falling asteroids, and microscopic viruses and organisms – all bring destruction and death. The earth was created as a garden of life for humanity; but is now little more than a graveyard. Man and woman were created to rule together, to help one another, to bring pleasure to one another. But the judgement of sin has broken a relationship of mutual trust so that men seek to dominate women, women seek to manipulate men, and sex has become an expression of power. The Sacred Scripture tells of brother against brother, tribe against tribe, nation against nation.
Peace is the exception in the human experience, and is too often fleeting. We misunderstand the nature of peace. We are tempted to understand peace as the defeat of our enemy, or the absence of conflict. But peace is so much more. Peace is flourishing and well-being. Peace is reconciliation between God and humanity. Peace is the just resolution of conflict between brothers so that both can flourish. Peace is the recognition of mutual needs that allows man and woman to once again to embrace each other as helper. The promise of Advent is the coming of the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) who declares,
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me… Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor fearful” (John 14:1, 27).
From Sorrow to Joy. The despair and conflict we endure in this present age is expressed in our prayers and songs of lament. For centuries the Hebrews endured the bitterness of slavery in Egypt. The bitterness of life (Exodus 1:14) compels us to groan and cry out (Exodus 2:23). Grief cannot remain silent. We must groan, we must weep. In his sorrow Job declared, “I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul” (Job 7:11). As the prophet Jeremiah lamented the disaster facing Jerusalem, he cried out, “My sorrow is beyond healing, My heart is faint within me!” (Jeremiah 8:18). We must acknowledge that some tragedies are so horrific that we cannot simply “get over it.” Such tragedies leave us in stunned silence, paralyzed with anxiety, and traumatized beyond remedy. Even so, we look towards God and with great exasperation we ask, “How long am I to feel anxious in my soul, with grief in my heart all the day? …Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death… (Psalm 13:2-3). It sometimes seems that the rest of death is preferable to the trauma of life.
The candles of Advent are purple, or dark blue, which represent waiting, longing, and longsuffering. The single exception is the candle for the third week of Advent which is rose, or pink, and represents joy. This reminds us that joy remains possible in the midst of suffering, sorrow, and trauma. In fact, the sounds of joy – laughter, singing, and dancing – can lift our spirits and move us to hopefulness. Joy is possible because God has made his presence known. The presence of God changes the situation of life. God’s presence is the sole remedy for human sorrow. The psalmists sang out, “Hear, LORD, and be gracious to me; LORD, be my helper. You have turned my mourning into dancing for me… (Psalm 30:10-11).
In the Incarnation, God the Son took upon himself all the temptations, sinfulness, sufferings, and sorrows of humanity. The human condition was assumed into divinity. Therefore, even in the midst of “a great ordeal of affliction” there can be “an abundance of joy” (2 Corinthians 8:2). Because of Jesus Christ, sounds of joy can be heard in the midst of the wails of the suffering multitudes. The apostle Peter wrote,
“and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8).
From Alienation to Love. The tragedy of human sinfulness is the brokenness of relationships that lead to alienation and isolation. With the fall, humans, who were created in the image of God to walk with God, were exiled from the Garden and alienated from the presence of God (Genesis 1:26-27; 3:8, 23). The shared intimacy between the man and the woman was shattered and became a tense relationship of domination and subjection. In fact, stories of alienation and exile are all too common throughout the Bible. Cain is exiled and alienated because of the murder of Abel. Jacob and Esau are alienated due to greed and deceit. Joseph is alienated from his brothers because of envy. Generations of idolatry and wickedness provoked God to exile the people of Israel from the Promised Land (1 Chronicles 9:1), disown them as his children (Hosea 1:9), and divorce them as his bride (Jeremiah 3:8). We are warned that as love grows cold lawlessness will increase (Matthew 24:12), that hardened hearts result in divorce (Matthew 19:8). When alienation prevails, human civilization descends into anarchy. In the book of Revelation, we are warned that a church that has lost its first love is in danger of being separated from Christ (Revelation 2:5); a church that grows lukewarm makes Christ sick to his stomach so that he “will vomit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:16).
The message of Advent is that God’s love is longsuffering. We are reminded again and again that “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy” (Psalm 103:8; cf. Exodus 34:6; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 86:15; 145:8; Jonah 4:2; Joel 2:13; James 5:11).
To love is to know. The Hebrew word yada (know) has a range of meaning that includes understanding, recognition, and intimacy. God desires to know us, to recognize us as his children, and dwell with us. Likewise, we are created in God’s image that we might know God, understand God’s ways, and live with him. We are called to “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). This love heals the human heart (Ezekiel 11:19). The apostle Paul declared,
…the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Romans 5:5).
This sets our hearts aflame in love for God, and also in love toward one another – alien, stranger, opponent, and enemy (Matthew 5:44; 22:39). Peter exhorted, “Since you have purified your souls in obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brothers and sisters, fervently love one another from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22). This means that we must seek to extend forgiveness to those who have injured us, understand our opponents, offer mercy to our enemies, and “pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another” (Romans 14:19).
From Darkness to Light. There is a fifth candle on the Advent wreath, taller than the others and placed in the center of the wreath – the Christ candle. The climax of Advent is the lighting of the Christ candle.
This reminds us that in a world filled with despair, conflict, sorrow, and alienation only Jesus Christ can bring to humanity hope, peace, joy and love! The prophet Isaiah declared,
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you (Isaiah 60:1-2).
To walk in darkness is to walk in judgement and death (John 3:19; Jude 6, 13). Darkness is a metaphor for death. Job spoke of the grave as “the land of darkness and deep shadow, the land of utter gloom like darkness itself, of deep shadow without order” (Job 10:21-22). Because of sin, this present world is dominated by darkness and death. Sinful humans prefer darkness over light (John 3:19).
Even so, Christmas is a celebration of lights because Jesus Christ is the light of the world (John 8:12). The world may not understand the light, but the light of Christ “shines in the darkness” (John 1:5). The light of Jesus Christ enlightens and enlivens every person who believes (John 1:4, 9). Because of Christmas, the darkness of the grave is overcome by the light of eternal life!
In reference to the coming of God’s kingdom we often speak of “the already but not yet.” The “already” is the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The “not yet” is the despair, conflict, sorrow, alienation, and death that continues to prevail in this present world. The celebration of Advent always begins with a focus on the second coming of Jesus. Why? Because the ultimate purpose of the Incarnation, the reason for Christmas, is New Creation.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away… And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among the people, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away (Revelation 21:1-4).
This is why we sing, “Joy to the world! the Lord is come; Let earth receive her King!”
