Come, Lord Jesus!

I always found it difficult to watch the local news in Peru. What seemed like daily stories of fatal car crashes, confrontations between police and protestors, and political corruption would leave me with a giant pit in my stomach. Back here in the United States, the story is not much different. Stories of school shootings, riots in the streets, and officers being killed left and right make it hard to watch the news here, too. The local news is hard to watch no matter where you find yourself!

We really don’t need the local news headlines to tell us. We already know from life experience that there is bad news all around us. Throughout the season of Advent, the Church cries out, Maranatha! – the Greek transliteration of two Aramaic words which mean, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

When the people of God cry out to Jesus, begging He come to us we admit that the bad news we see on T.V. and in our lives is too hard to watch. We confess that we’ve made a mess of this world and our relationships and that our hope of doing something about has run dry.

There is bad news all around us! Come, Lord Jesus, for you alone are our only hope for Good News. You alone are our Good News.

We cry out Maranatha! with repentant joy and eager expectation for Him to come to us like He has promised. Because of His amazing, infinite love for us, He doesn’t leave us to deal with the bad news of this world ourselves.

Manger scene at the front of the Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus on the campus of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Photo: Concordia Seminary Facebook.

He’s already come to us once, “wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” He comes to us every time we gather around His Word, wrapped in words and lying in the Scriptures. He comes to us every time we feast at His table, wrapped in Bread and Wine for the forgiveness of our sins. And He’s made a sure and true promise that He’ll come one final time to bring us home and to make things new.