John Dekker's Day

9:33PM - Christ has already come

We're now in the last week of Advent – that period before Christmas wherein we celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. And as we look back to Jesus' first coming, we can also look forward to his Second Coming – his return in glory. (The hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel is nicely ambiguous regarding these two comings - it seems to apply to both.)

Yet there is always a temptation among Christians to emphasise subjective experience at the expense of objective, historical facts. As a result, Advent comes to be about Jesus' spiritual coming into our hearts. This sort of internalisation can be seen in the last verse of O Little Town of Bethlehem:

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
descend to us, we pray;
cast out our sin, and enter in,
be born in us today.

A worthy sentiment perhaps, but this way of thinking must never take over from belief in the objective facts of Jesus' birth, death, resurrection, ascension and glorious return. Christmas is much more about Jesus than it is about us.