Advent – hope despite the ruins

The peo­p­le of Isra­el lived in exi­le in Baby­lon – an extre­me­ly bleak time for the indi­vi­du­al Jews as well as for the enti­re nati­on. But then a mes­sa­ge of joy arri­ves through the pro­phet Isai­ah. Alt­hough Zion and Jeru­sa­lem lie in ruins, new hope ger­mi­na­tes. The same gos­pel (= good news) rea­ches us in this Advent sea­son – a simi­lar­ly chal­len­ging time.

It was the cold win­ter of 1944 and a rab­bi and his son were in hiding in Sile­sia. Their future was com­ple­te­ly uncer­tain. They were star­ving. One evening, the father pul­led out an ear­then pot and began to light a wick that had been sunk into the last mar­ga­ri­ne rati­on. It was the evening of Hanuk­kah, the fes­ti­val of lights to com­me­mo­ra­te the rede­di­ca­ti­on of the temp­le, he explai­ned to his son. But the boy pro­tes­ted vehe­men­t­ly against the was­te. The father loo­ked at his son for a long time and final­ly said: «You and I have seen that it is pos­si­ble to sur­vi­ve for three weeks wit­hout food. Once we lived wit­hout water for three days. But you can’t live three minu­tes wit­hout hope!» The two sur­vi­ved. Wit­hout hope, our life is a meanin­g­less loss. Hope is the nega­ti­on of nega­ti­on. Bishop Cypri­an of Car­tha­ge said: «We want to stand upright in the midst of the ruins of the world and not lie on the ground like tho­se who have no hope.» Advent is a spe­cial time of year when we want to find new hope amidst the ruins.

The hopelessness

For a long time, the peo­p­le of Isra­el pre­fer­red to wor­ship hand­ma­de idols rather than Yah­weh, the living God. They sin­ned. The Greek. word for Sin says Miss­ing the tar­get. The task of man is to repre­sent God in crea­ti­on and to return the prai­se of all crea­ti­on to the Crea­tor. Becau­se God’s coven­ant peo­p­le fai­led to achie­ve this goal, Isra­el was depor­ted into cap­ti­vi­ty in Baby­lon in 597 BC. The temp­le and the city walls of Jeru­sa­lem were razed to the ground. Now the Jews sit by the waters of Baby­lon, sin­ging their laments and sin­king into hopelessness.

In the midst of this rub­ble, a cheer breaks out: «Zion, bea­rer of good news, ascend a high moun­tain! Speak with a loud voice, Jeru­sa­lem, mes­sen­ger of joy, speak aloud and do not be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah: «Behold, here is your God!» (Isai­ah 40:9 NLB). The three names addres­sed here «Zion», «Jeru­sa­lem» and «the cities of Judah» out­line a world of hope­l­ess­ness. The Cast­le of David on Zion wit­hout a king­dom, Jeru­sa­lem wit­hout a temp­le, the cities of Judah wit­hout a peo­p­le – that was the result of the breach of faith.

Zion and Jeru­sa­lem, of all places, which are affec­ted by deso­la­ti­on, are to beco­me mes­sen­gers of joy. The good news is so sen­sa­tio­nal and urgent that Mount Zion should go up on a high moun­tain and call out to Jeru­sa­lem with a loud voice.

We live in a simi­lar­ly hope­l­ess world today. The­re is gre­at uncer­tain­ty and the sym­bols of Chris­tia­ni­ty are on the ground. We are tal­king about secu­la­ri­sa­ti­on. Peo­p­le are lea­ving the churches and the emp­ty places of wor­ship are being repur­po­sed. God’s cho­sen peo­p­le, the Jews, are invol­ved in war­fa­re. The who­le world is las­hing out at them. The sce­na­rio of a third world war is open­ly discussed.

It is against this back­drop that we are curr­ent­ly expe­ri­en­cing the sea­son of Advent. We remem­ber the best of all mes­sa­ges, name­ly that God is omni­po­tent and still has the reins in His hands. At that time, He led His peo­p­le back to Jeru­sa­lem and the cities of Judah, a few hundred years later He was born into this world in the per­son of Jesus as a defen­ce­l­ess child and at some point He will come again and crea­te a new hea­ven and a new earth.

The gospel

The Greek word for the mes­sa­ge of joy is Gos­pel. The con­tent of Isai­ah is divi­ded into three See explained:

«[…] Tell the cities of Judah: «SeeThe­re is your God! SeeThe LORD your ruler comes with power. He reig­ns for his bene­fit. Take a look: He brings a reward and leads his reac­qui­red peo­p­le befo­re him» (Isai­ah 40:9–10 NLB).

The tri­ple repe­ti­ti­on of «See» tears apart the den­se clouds of sad­ness and reve­als the con­tent of the mes­sa­ge of joy:

• Look, the­re is your God! The exi­led Jews in Baby­lon were deep­ly depres­sed and assu­med that God had rejec­ted his cho­sen peo­p­le. The cap­ti­ves were alre­a­dy begin­ning to resign them­sel­ves to their pre­di­ca­ment. Per­so­nal­ly, we also some­ti­mes find our­sel­ves in a pre­di­ca­ment and won­der whe­ther God has tur­ned away. The good news «Your God». The pos­ses­si­ve pro­no­un must have been a balm for the depres­sed Jews on the banks of the Euphrates.
• Behold, the LORD your ruler comes with power. When we look out into our lives or into the world, it can appear that God is silent, no lon­ger working among us and has with­drawn his arm. The Good News says: «He comes with power». The fol­lo­wing ver­ses impres­si­ve­ly testi­fy to God’s supe­rio­ri­ty and strength: «Who has mea­su­red the sea with his hand and set the mea­su­re of the hea­vens with the span of his hand? Who has mea­su­red the dust of the earth with a bus­hel, who has weig­hed the moun­ta­ins and put the hills on the sca­les? Who can know what the LORD thinks? Who can be his coun­sell­or? With whom has he con­sul­ted to gain insight and to be ins­truc­ted in mat­ters of law; and who has taught him how to gain know­ledge? In his eyes, the nati­ons are like a drop in a bucket, like a speck of dust on a pair of sca­les. Distant lands are no more than a speck of dust in his eyes. The forests of Leba­non do not con­tain enough fire­wood and all its ani­mals would not be enough for a burnt offe­ring. The enti­re world popu­la­ti­on is not­hing in his eyes» (Isai­ah 40:12–17 NLB). God will step into visi­bi­li­ty with an outstret­ched arm in irre­sis­ti­ble power.
• Look: He brings a reward and leads his reac­qui­red peo­p­le befo­re him. God’s plan, the enti­re histo­ry of the world, his elec­tion, his deeds, his tire­less spea­king through the pro­phe­ts, his work was in vain if the result is the heap of ruins of Jeru­sa­lem and the heap of exi­les. The end result of sal­va­ti­on histo­ry is not ruins and a heap, but a gre­at peo­p­le. The Jews are still God’s cho­sen peo­p­le; in due cour­se, all Isra­el will be saved (Romans 11:26). In addi­ti­on, the­re are many born-again peo­p­le from all nati­ons who have found faith during Israel’s impenitence.

During this Advent sea­son, we are invi­ted to see the gos­pel with the eyes of the heart despi­te the many ruins. The con­tent of the Gos­pel is God’s gre­at visi­on for his enti­re crea­ti­on. Right at the very begin­ning of the histo­ry of the world, God wan­ted to bring hea­ven and earth tog­e­ther and dwell in the midst of man­kind. From the com­mu­ni­ty, peo­p­le had two tasks: To be kings and priests. This means repre­sen­ting the reign of God in this world and reflec­ting the prai­se of crea­ti­on back to the Crea­tor. The decisi­ve points in the return of the peo­p­le from exi­le were the buil­ding of the temp­le and the city walls of Jeru­sa­lem and the popu­la­ti­on of the cities of Judah. The temp­le was the place whe­re hea­ven and earth meet and God dwells in the midst of his peo­p­le. At Christ­mas we cele­bra­te the first coming of Jesus. He was the new temp­le that dwelt in our midst (John 1:14). Tho­se who ent­rust their lives to this Jesus are gifted with the Holy Spi­rit. This empowers a fol­lower of Jesus to be a human being for God’s new crea­ti­on. The Church of Jesus is to be a sign and sign­post for God’s new world. After the second coming, for which we are wai­ting, the ulti­ma­te new hea­ven and the new earth will be reve­a­led. This new crea­ti­on will be desi­gned like a temp­le and God will dwell in it with man­kind. Advent is the wai­ting for the return of Yahweh’s glo­rious presence.

Here, as in other places in his book, the pro­phet Isai­ah saw the return from the Baby­lo­ni­an exi­le and the first and second coming of God in Christ as one.

The shepherd

The ruler comes with power and brings with him a gre­at peo­p­le as a reward, at the same time He is the good she­p­herd: «He will feed his flock like a she­p­herd: he will car­ry the lambs in his arms and hold them on his lap, he will gui­de the ewes with kind­ness» (Isai­ah 40:11 NLB). At once holy, glo­rious, ruling and gent­le, com­pas­sio­na­te and sup­port­i­ve – this is Yah­weh our God. He goes after the lost, takes care of the wea­ry and car­ri­es the weak. He obvious­ly con­siders child­ren and mothers to be par­ti­cu­lar­ly wort­hy of pro­tec­tion. He does not bur­den anyo­ne with more than the per­son can bear. He never demands more than a per­son can pro­vi­de. This is what the image of the lambs, which He car­ri­es in His arms and holds on His lap, and of the ewes, which He gent­ly gui­des, says.

I’m ima­gi­ning a fami­ly hiking up the Sän­tis. The kids cheerful­ly rush ahead. But then comes the point when their strength fails them or the ter­rain beco­mes dan­ge­rous. From this moment on, the par­ents take their child­ren in a stret­cher or lead them by the hand. They are sen­si­ti­ve to the limits of their child­ren. God is just like that. The­re are also peo­p­le among us who are at the end of their tether or are just over­whel­med. Some suf­fer from ill­ness and pain, the break-up of a rela­ti­onship, get­ting older, pro­blems at work, slee­p­less nights. God sees it and meets you – like a she­p­herd – in your need.

Our image of a she­p­herd is rather roman­ti­cis­ed and roman­ti­cis­ed. But God is not the sweet-faced weakling, but the strong son of the moun­ta­ins who, armed with stick and club, fights wild ani­mals, knows all the ways, goes after the lost, pulls the fal­len out of the cre­vice with his shepherd’s crook.

This she­p­herd is for you! The fol­lo­wing state­ment by Jesus is the pro­of: «I am the good she­p­herd. The good she­p­herd sacri­fices his life for the sheep» (John 10:11 NLB). Jesus went so far as a good she­p­herd that He sacri­fi­ced His life. Through this death and resur­rec­tion, Jesus has ope­ned wide the door to new crea­ti­on – for you too. When you ent­rust your life to this Jesus, you yours­elf beco­me the temp­le of the Holy Spi­rit and thus a small working model for the ulti­ma­te new creation.

Advent means that we look full of hope through the open door into the new crea­ti­on and beco­me a fore­tas­te our­sel­ves when we invi­te Jesus into our lives.

Possible questions for the small group 

Read the Bible text: Isai­ah 40:9–17

1. Read the Bible text together!
2. How do you think the peo­p­le of Isra­el fared during the 70 years of cap­ti­vi­ty in Baby­lon? How do you think they recei­ved the words of Isaiah?
3. Whe­re are the­re moments of deso­la­ti­on in your life – eit­her per­so­nal­ly or in your view of the world?
4. Do you belie­ve that the­re is hope in all per­so­nal or glo­bal ruins? What, if any­thing, is the reason for hope (Isai­ah 40:12–17)?
5. What is the con­tent of the gos­pel and at the same time God’s visi­on for creation?
6. Advent means wai­ting for the next step in the pro­cess of new crea­ti­on. What has alre­a­dy hap­pen­ed? What are we still wai­ting for?