Advent: An Invitation To Restoration
I love Jesus but during Advent of 2019 I didn’t want to teach about him.
Serving as a pastor, I had just unearthed significant childhood trauma a few months prior and felt inauthentic every time I got up to preach. I didn’t want to teach inauthentically the same Advent messages.
Yet, as I prepared, I read familiar passages with new eyes. I was gripped as I read the accounts of the early years of Jesus’ life on this earth. I read about wise men, coming from the land of Assyria/Babylon and of Joseph taking his family to Egypt for safety from the genocidal Herod. I realized that these two nations had brought the most devastation and trauma into the story of Israel. Ancestors of the Assyrian and Babylonian invaders came again to Israel, but rather than pillaging they came bearing gifts. The nation that once was a land of slavery, Egypt, became a land of refuge.
Pillagers became generous. A land of abuse became a haven.
All of that happened in Jesus.
I had heard from people that I just needed to stop thinking about my trauma, that they hoped I could get over it, and wondered why the blood of Jesus couldn’t cover this too. The blood of Jesus does indeed cover this, but maybe not in the trite way that person meant. And Jesus didn’t “get over” the abuse He endured on the cross, still bearing the marks of the cross on His resurrected body, nor did he want people to stop thinking about His trauma, that He marked with the practice of communion and through the enduring symbol of the cross.
What if Jesus came to bring real restoration to the most broken parts of your story? What if He came to confront Evil rather than give a motivational speech?
In the same way that Jesus came to bring restoration to the story of Israel and confront Evil through His victory on the cross, I believe He is coming again to you this Christmas illuminating and confronting where you’ve encountered Evil, and offering to restore all that Evil stole, killed, and destroyed.
I am preparing for Christmas this year by trying to follow the example of Mary, who received Jesus into the sacred and intimate parts of her life, believing in the blessing that His confronting and restoring presence brings, “From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name” (Luke 1:48-49). I’m no Mary, but I do have a legacy of generations calling me blessed and being themselves blessed because I didn’t forget, get over, or trivialize my trauma. Rather, I received my Savior and agreed with His confronting and allowed His restoration.
As you prepare for the coming of Jesus that we celebrate at Christmas, what Evil is He wanting to confront in your story? What restoration is He offering to you? And like Mary, can your soul glorify the Lord as you receive His presence into the sacred and intimate parts of your life?
___________________________________
Kevin Armstrong, Director of Legacy Partnerships
