The reality is Christ will come again with glory, to judge the living and the dead. We do our people and our communities no favor by hiding the truth of this coming Day.
Today’s text does not feel like Christmas. In fact, it might be a shock to the ears of those who have just begun playing their favorite holiday music mix. It likely stands in sharp contrast to the songs the Sunday school kids are rehearsing for their upcoming program, or the cozily illustrated Advent devotional available in the lobby. But the return of Christ in glory is good news for the people of God.
This first Sunday of Advent invites reflection on the various ways Christ comes to His people. A “Classification” sermon structure could work well this week. The general category is “The Coming of Christ” and the specific topics under that heading might be: At Christmas (or In the Incarnation), In Word and Sacrament, and In Glory (or At the End).
One choice to make is the sequence. You could move through the topics chronologically: Christ took on flesh in the past, He comes in the Word now, and He will descend from the heavens in glory in the future. Or you might choose to arrange the sections in order to land more intentionally with your particular focus for this occasion.
For example, you might begin with “At Christmas,” since that is where your people are culturally. From there, you could jump to the startling conclusion our text offers. Then you would end up with the question, “So, what about today?” From there, you get to point people to the present reality of God’s gracious working in the Gospel; proclaimed, splashed, and tasted.
Within the broad category of “The Coming of Christ,” each of the three sections allows you to proclaim a different aspect of Christ’s gracious work. Each invites reflection on the loving heart of God.
In the Incarnation, the eternal Son of God takes on our flesh so He might take our sin and our deserved death penalty. In the Word and Sacraments now, Jesus speaks life to us and conveys His completed work to us. His Spirit calls us to faith and gives us His all-sufficient grace. When Christ comes in glory, all will be restored, every tear will be wiped away, all the sad things will be no more. Death itself will be utterly undone, and we will live in and experience the righteous and gracious reign of God directly and immediately, rather than by faith and mediated through God’s appointed means.
In the Incarnation, the eternal Son of God takes on our flesh so He might take our sin and our deserved death penalty.
You might compare each of the ways Christ comes with how the world notes or fails to notice.
The first coming of Christ was largely unmarked. Even the Gospel of Mark skips over Christmas entirely! We have a handful of secular testimonies to Jesus of Nazareth, but His birth certainly did not cause a stir in world history.
The coming of Christ in Word and Sacrament is also relatively unremarkable. God works in the most ordinary of ways to accomplish His most extraordinary work of forgiving sin and giving life. It is easy to overlook the work of God in our midst through His Word.
When Christ returns in glory, it will be utterly unmistakable. No one will miss it; regardless of where you live on the globe, or even if you have been buried in the ground for millennia! Every eye will see, and every tongue will confess (Philippians 2).
Another way to unpack each of the ways Christ comes would be to focus on how the saints experience each of them, compared to how the world around us might experience them.
The Incarnation of Christ is bookended by Christmas and Easter. In much of our American context, these are both marked by attending a church service, even if that is not a normal part of a person’s daily life or faith. Similarly, both Christians and non-Christians experience a certain joy and celebration of kindness, generosity, and the sentiment of “peace on earth” around Christmas. In these respects, Christians and the culture around us can encounter this “coming of Christ” in similar ways.
In the coming of Christ in His Word and Sacraments, we see a bigger divide. Though the saints might take God’s speaking in Scripture for granted at times, the people of God recognize the voice of their Good Shepherd in Scripture, as that voice calls us to repentance and speaks life and love into our lives.
The rest of the world is more likely to look on the Word of God in Scripture and at the Church’s proclamation “with a scornful wonder.” Maybe they wish they had a private message from God and wonder what it would be like to have what they would consider to be a true revelation. But in many of our contexts, the presence of Christ as He now comes to us is overlooked and looked down upon. They likely miss the fact that God is with us in His Word, or they condemn the idea and reject it outright.
But in many of our contexts, the presence of Christ as He now comes to us is overlooked and looked down upon.
When Christ comes again in glory, the divide will be absolute. For those outside the faith and a saving relationship with Jesus, it will be a day of terror, and appropriately so. Like the frightening scene in Revelation 6:16, all those outside of Christ will be crying to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.” “Fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming” will be their reality.
But for the baptized, for those who have heard the voice of the Savior in His Word, for those who have gathered at His Table and tasted and seen that the Lord is good, it will be a day of absolute and unending joy. Rather than cowering, they will “straighten up and raise [their] heads” (verse 28).
On that Day, our redemption, the fullness and fulfillment of Christ’s saving work will be manifest. What Paul points to in Romans 8 will no longer be our hope, but our lived experience, the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23)! It will be the resurrection of the dead, through and on account of our resurrected Savior.
Preaching “the return of Christ” does not have to be a fear tactic, reminiscent of the “Passion Plays” of Luther’s day. But the reality is Christ will come again with glory, to judge the living and the dead. We do our people and our communities no favor by hiding the truth of this coming Day. And for our people who are groaning along with the broken creation, lamenting the loss of stability in our culture and world, and may be feeling defeated by their own sin or the reality of death in their lives, the return of Christ in glory is the Gospel exclamation point on all of God’s promises.
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Luke 19:28-40 (alternative reading).
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Luke 21:25-36.
Text Week-A treasury of resources from various traditions to help you preach Luke 21:25-36.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
Lectionary Podcast-Dr. Arthur Just of Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, IN walks us through Luke 19:28-40 (alternative reading).
