December 1 Advent: Don’t be Afraid, Just Believe
Mark 5:21-43
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?” 36 Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
In the story of Jairus and his 12-year-old daughter, told in all 3 synoptic gospels, he pleaded with Jesus to heal his sick daughter, and Jesus agreed and went with him. However, Jesus was “interrupted” by another healing, and by the time he was done, messengers from Jairus’ home brought devastating news – the girl was dead. Imagine how Jairus might have felt at that moment. The interruption had cost him everything. Then came the discouraging query of the messengers “why bother the teacher anymore?” These well-meaning messengers were so invested in the finality of death that they had no room for the miraculous one who conquered death. Fortunately, their message of discouragement was countered with Jesus’ message of hope “don’t be afraid, just believe.”
This Advent season as we reflect on and anticipate Christ’s coming, let us remember that hope comes in unexpected ways. What in your experience seems to have been permanently disrupted by an interruption? Perhaps a calendar year that started with promise but seems to be hurtling to a devastatingly disappointing close. Is there some progress that has been halted by circumstances beyond your control? In these moments what external (or internal) voices seductively whisper, “why bother …anymore?” Just like the people living in darkness saw that great light of Christ’s coming (Matt. 4:16), we can wait in hope like those living in the land of the shadow of death on whom the light dawned, believing that Jesus enters our most desperate situations.
Jesus counters despair with “don’t be afraid; just believe.” This is the message of Advent, that Christ breaks into our darkness, our disappointments, and seemingly final defeats – and there speaks hope into our despair!
As you interact with others who face difficulties, what kind of voice will you be – one that says, “Why bother…anymore;” or one that points to Christ and says, “Don’t be afraid, just believe”? This first week of Advent, let us remember and anticipate Christ, the groundswell of our hope and pass that hope on to others.
December 2 Advent: The Audacity to Hope
Mark 5:21-43
27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
The woman had suffered, living with the shame of ritual uncleanness, bankrupted by medical bills – and still she had the audacity to hope as she drew near to Jesus. Her body might have been broken, but her soul was kept alive by her fierce hope. There was no visible sign of change in her circumstance, and despite her best efforts her condition grew worse. And yet she had the audacity to hope as she approached Jesus. She had lived with this condition for as long as the other ‘daughter” in the story had been alive. And when she reached out, she was healed.
Advent itself is an exercise in audacious hope – waiting in darkness for the light to dawn, expecting that God will break into our broken world with shalom. Where do you need the audacity to hope this Advent season? Where do you feel spent, drained, isolated? You’ve invested everything – time, energy, creativity, passion – tried every method, sought every resource, and still see your efforts worsening rather than improving the situation. The discouragement can be isolating, leaving you feeling ritually “unclean” in your profession, calling, family or other relationships – as though you don’t belong.
But Advent calls us to the audacity of hope. To hear about Jesus and push through the crowd of doubts and disappointments. To reach out, believing that God can bring wholeness to our weary souls. To reach towards the same Christ who stopped and asked, “who touched me?” The one who noticed a desperate woman in a pressing crowd; sees you.
December 3 Advent: Get Up!
Mark 5:21-43
41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.
As Jesus arrived Jairus’ home, amid the commotion of loud crying and wailing, Jesus announced that “the child is not dead but asleep.” The mourners laughed at him. Jesus removed the laughing sceptics and took only the girl’s parents, and the three disciples with him inside, took the girl’s hand, and commanded her to rise – and she did! The now-wailing, now-laughing (professional?) mourners were so invested in the rituals of death that they had no room for the life that Jesus was pronouncing. Where do you need to experience the life that Jesus proclaims this advent season? What in your life needs to respond to the word of Christ calling it forth to life?
Just as Jesus entered the room where death had the final word and said, “Get up!” So, he enters our world, your life and mine – with his life-giving power. The mourners laughed because they could only see what was. They were so comfortable with death’s finality that they were incapable of imagining resurrection. They had lost hope. But Advent calls us to wait with the relentless hope that God speaks life into the dead places of our lives. That the same Christ who rose from the dead demonstrates his resurrection power in tender moments where he takes us by the hand and says Get up!
Where do you need to experience resurrection power this Advent season? What dreams, callings, or relationships have the “mourners” convinced you to bury? How can you respond with audacious hope this Advent as the word of Christ calls them back to life? Jesus extends His hand and says to whatever feels dead in you: “get up!” This is our Advent hope – that nothing is beyond the reach of His resurrection power.
December 4 Advent: Pregnant with New Life
Romans 8:18-30
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
Paul uses the vivid imagery of pregnancy and childbirth to describe the church’s waiting for Christ’s return.
Pregnancy involves waiting, anticipation, and discomfort as a mother co-creates new life with God. This process involves morning sickness, swollen feet, sleepless nights, backaches, and numerous bodily changes. It is messy, uncomfortable, and often painful. Childbirth is even more so in the intense labor, acute pain, and upheaval that results in new life.
Paul likens believers to pregnant women, groaning as we wait for “the redemption of our bodies.” Just like an expectant mother carries new life she cannot yet fully see but knows is real and growing, we carry within us the firstfruits of the Spirit, the beginning of the new creation. We also are pregnant with new life.
Like pregnancy, this waiting is neither passive nor comfortable. We groan as we experience the labor pains of a life being transformed and a world being born anew. We feel the tension between the “already” of what Christ has begun and the “not yet” of what we are becoming.
This Advent, you may be groaning under the weight of a difficult year, exhausted by the labor of caring for others, weary in your body and soul, or disappointed in the slow-going nature of your transformation into Christlikeness. You are experiencing the groaning of one pregnant with new life. Such pain is not meaningless. Like labor pains, they signal that something new is being born. And just as no pregnant woman stays pregnant forever, our waiting has an end. This is the hope of Advent: that we who groan are pregnant with glory. That our labor is not in vain. That new creation is coming, as surely as a baby comes after labor.
December 5 Advent: Pregnant with Glory
Romans 8:18-30
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:18
Paul’s vivid imagery takes on more significance during Advent as we consider Mary experiencing the waiting, backaches, swollen feet and the numerous bodily changes and discomforts while pregnant with the Prince of Peace. God became flesh in her womb, not bypassing the messiness of human bodily existence. God in her womb meant God in her nausea, God in her exhaustion, God in her labor pains.
By entering the world through Mary’s pregnancy and childbirth, Jesus redeemed our bodily existence; complications, dysfunctions, messiness, and all. The incarnation declares that our bodies matter, that physical suffering is not outside God’s concern, and that redemption includes our bodies, not just our spirits.
This Advent, if you are experiencing an autoimmune condition that makes it exhausting to get through the day, an aging body that is more uncooperative than ever, or a chronic migraine that interrupts your tasks, know that Mary’s pregnancy means God has entered into precisely this reality. Because Mary carried Jesus through the messiness of pregnancy and childbirth, we know that God is redeeming every part of our bodily, messy, groaning existence.
The practical implications abound. First, we can honor our bodies as part of what God is redeeming, instead of treating them as obstacles to spiritual growth. Rest becomes cooperation with God’s gracious design rather than laziness, and seeking medical care is stewardship of our bodies rather than a lack of faith. Second, it is an invitation to extend compassion to others with groaning bodies. If God could assume the bodily limitation of Mary’s womb, we can certainly meet others with dignity in theirs, whether it is a colleague living with depression, a student struggling with undiagnosed ADHD, or a parent dealing with chronic pain. Third, we can give thanks in all circumstances, including physical challenges, not because pain is good, but because our perspective has shifted, and we know it is both temporary and incomparable to the coming glory.
This is part of the hope of Advent: that as we groan, we are pregnant with glory. Glory that makes our present suffering pale in comparison. Reflect today on the things you groan about and confess the coming glory that they are not worth comparing to. Then wait patiently for it.
December 6 Advent: Blessed in the Mess
Luke 1:46-55
46 And Mary said: My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name.
We commonly celebrate success and accomplishments as evidence of God’s blessings, leading to the assumption that God’s blessings are present only when things are going well.
But Mary’s song challenges this idea. The reference to her “humble state” was not just personal; it was an accurate description of Israel under Roman occupation. In this shadow of empire, Mary calls herself blessed! Why? Because God was mindful of her and chose to identify with her. The God who brought down rulers and lifted the humble, who filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty handed.
Mary’s song thus challenges our Hallmark-Christmas-movie understanding of blessing. We feel blessed when we look at the smiling, warm, well-fed faces of our loved ones on Christmas day. But for Mary, God’s blessing did not look like perfection. People would call her blessed because God was breaking through the ordinariness and revealing himself in the messiness of their lives.
Why? Because God’s purposes are often accomplished through the foolish, weak, lowly, and despised. I pray that we can recognize the blessings wrapped up in my own chaotic lives, because the same God who saw the abused slave girl Hagar in the desert, the same God who saw the desolate woman with a hemorrhage in a crowd, is mindful of you.
This advent season, as you identify the messiness in your life, know that God is mindful of you and where you are is precisely where God chooses to reveal himself. Are you experiencing hunger, insecurity, or loneliness? Remember that the Lord is close to the brokenhearted. As you find comfort and hope in this truth, you can respond by reaching out to others in their own humble state. God can use your own humble state to meet others right where they are.