The Already and the Not Yet of Advent

Advent is supposed to be a season of anticipation.

When we think of the Christmas season, we tend to imagine soft lights and family traditions. Yet historically, Advent has been a season of tension, a time to acknowledge the ache that runs through the world and through our own hearts. While there is real joy in remembering the birth of Christ, we still live in a world wrecked by sin and death, by broken relationships, broken families, and broken lives.

Advent is not meant to be a sentimental, nostalgic escape. Rather, it is a time to sit honestly in the darkness while lifting our eyes toward the One who entered into it.

The First Advent Was Born in Longing

Before the angels sang in Bethlehem, God’s people lived with centuries of unfulfilled promises.

They had heard the words of the prophets, but the world around them was still groaning. Foreign powers ruled their land, the Word of God had been silent for 400 years, and the temple no longer shone with the glory of the first.

This was the landscape of the first Advent, a groaning people clinging to God’s Word while everything around them looked unchanged.

We Long for His Second

In our day, the culture often presses us to experience December with some level of Hallmark-movie happiness (let’s be honest, this is only because happy people buy more).

But Advent isn’t meant for us to hide our problems or struggles. It is a season that gives us the greatest permission to say what we often suppress: things are not yet as they should be, and that is the point.

Advent trains us to live in the tension between the “already” and the “not yet.” Christ has come, truly, in the flesh, to redeem sinners. But Christ has not yet come again. We are redeemed, yet still battle sin. We are made new, yet still feel the frailty of these bodies. We belong to Christ, yet still walk through a world wrecked by the curse.

As the saints of old waited for the Messiah to come and break the darkness, we wait for the Messiah to come and banish it forever. As they longed for the Child born in Bethlehem, we long for the King returning in glory.

He Comes to Us Even Now

And yet, Christ has not left us alone in the waiting.

The same Jesus who came once in humility and will come again in glory now comes to His people by His appointed means. He comes to us in the preaching of the Word, where His voice is heard by faith, and he comes to us in the Supper, where He feeds weary sinners. These are the very means by which the risen Christ is present with His church.

In other words, Advent doesn’t only point us backward and forward, it pulls us into the present, where Christ meets His people in Word and sacrament, strengthening us for the journey as we wait for His appearing.

This is why the Lord’s Day gathering matters so much for believers awaiting His coming. In a season when the world pressures us to chase busyness, nostalgia, and noise, Christ gathers His people each Sunday to give rest, to re-anchor our hopes, and to train our hearts to long for His appearing. The weekly assembly is the place where the “already” is proclaimed and the “not yet” is tasted.

For the One Who Feels Heavy

If this time of year feels hard for you, hear this clearly:

You are not out of step with the Christian story; you are living right in the middle of it.

During this Advent season, it is okay to feel the ache while holding a deeper assurance that Christ has come, and Christ will come again.

Instead of believing your heaviness will ruin the season, let the ache remind you that the King is on His way.

Because one day, the promise will be visible.One day, the curse will be undone.One day, the world will be remade.

And the joy that began in Bethlehem will roll outward like a river from Jerusalem, bringing healing “far as the curse is found.”

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.