Suggested Readings: Psalm 126; Habakkuk 3:2-6; Philippians 3:12-16
When I was an Internal Medicine intern, I was working on the oncology inpatient service. I had lots of very sick cancer patients. Many of them died. But I was so busy I could not mourn their deaths. I had to put my head down and move on to the next patient. Towards the end of the oncology rotation, I was worshipping in church for the first time that month due to my call schedule. We were singing Isaiah 43 and the following lines wrecked me:
When you pass through the fire, you’ll not be hurt // And the flames will not consume you // Do not fear, for I have redeemed you // I have called you by name, you are mine.
I’m not normally a crier, but I wept and wept. I wept over the many patients who died that I could not save. I wept over feeling helpless in the face of their pain and suffering. I wept for almost getting burned by the flames of suffering. But I was assured that I would not be consumed by the suffering for I belonged to the Lord. I was then comforted by Revelation 21, which promises that in the new heaven and the new earth, God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Advent is just like this.
The world is suffering and we feel helpless in the face of it. We are crying out for a comforter and a redeemer. We hope that all will be made right. Psalm 126 calls on God to restore the fortunes of his people like streams in the Negeb, sowing in tears and reaping in joy. In the midst of our own suffering, and suffering in the world, we sow in tears. But how do we respond to the tears and how do we reap in joy? How will our divine fortunes be restored?
There are two ways to respond. In Habakkuk 3, the prophet has a vision of God as a divine warrior who comes in splendor and glory, making his power felt throughout all the earth. We expect the mighty victor to come to make things right. But there is another way to respond. In Philippians 3, Paul strains forward to know Christ in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that he may attain the resurrection of the dead. Rather than seeking divine restoration from suffering and death, Paul finds perfection through imitating Christ in his sufferings and death. So the sowing of tears, in a sense, becomes the streams of the Negeb: sowing in tears is a means to attain divine restoration. We attain the resurrection of the dead in conformity to Christ’s death and resurrection. We respond to suffering through conformity to cruciformity.
During Advent, let us be like Habakkuk with a vision of God coming to make things right. But let us also remember that Christ will come again in cruciform glory, marked by wounds, and God will wipe away every tear because Christ has made us his own.
Kimbell Kornu
Kimbell Kornu
