Third Sunday of Advent
Scripture Reading for Today:
The Ray of Joy
by Francis Pang
Ah! The third week of Advent. The week of Joy! We light the rose candle on Sunday, signifying the joyous anticipation of the Lord’s coming. The rose candle is sometimes called the Shepherds’ Candle to remind us that the good news of great joy was first announced to common people. Common people! Not the rich, not the elite, not the royal, not the fittest and greatest among us, but people that don’t usually draw attention, people that are invisible to most, people that are often looked down on or marginalized by society, the little guys, the hired hands, the non-unionized workers, the individual small links in a long chain.
How is the coming of the Lord a joyful occasion for those who are at the bottom of the food chain? It brings joy because the Day of the Lord ushers in the reversal of their fortune. We hear over and over again in the passages today that when the Lord comes,
He will turn the desert into a pool, dry land to bubbling springs (Isaiah 35:7),
He will uphold the cause of the oppressed (Ps 146:7),
He will give food to the hungry (Luke 1:53),
He will sustain the fatherless and the widow (Ps 146:9),
He will raise up those who are marginalized by society due to their physical impairments (Isaiah 35:5–6a; Ps 146:8a; Matt 11:4–5).
This is indeed good news of great joy today to those
who mark time by drought in many corners of the world,
who suffer under authoritarian regimes,
who work multiple jobs and still cannot afford nutritious food in the richest countries,
who are falling through social safety nets,
who are considered by many as unproductive and unwanted due to their impaired bodies.
This is often called the eschatological reversal! The last will be first! This is what generations of Israelites were longing for—the joyous moment when God brings justice and peace to those who are humble and oppressed. This is what the psalmists and the prophets preached (Isaiah 35:1–10; Psalms 146:5–10). This is what Mary sang in the Magnificat (Luke 1:6b–55). This is what was witnessed in the first coming of Jesus. This is what Jesus asked the disciples of John the Baptist to report back: “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” (Matt 11:5)
We know the rest of the story, don’t we? Indeed, the dead have risen. Jesus was not only raised from the dead, but He also ascended to heaven! Today, Jesus is no longer in the world, healing the sick, raising the dead, and proclaiming the good news to the poor. Yes, he promised to come back, but this is where the mystery lies, isn’t it? This is the mother of all mysteries. The early church attested to two eschatological convictions: on the one hand, they were certain that Jesus would come again to judge the living and the dead; on the other hand, no one knew, not even the Son, about the timing of his coming. In essence, the early church’s confession was that they knew the Lord would come back but didn’t know when. Known and unknown, certainty and uncertainty, clarity and mystery!
We live in a time almost two millennia from the first coming. Look around the world! The news is full of depressing stories of famines, discriminations, humanitarian crises, wars, conflicts, oppressions, and injustices. And when we stare at our phones, hatred and bigotry stare back at us! How can we be joyful today? After two thousand years of waiting, two thousand years of sitting on the eschatological mystery, how can we be joyful?
I don’t have the right answer. I don’t think anybody has the right answer.
But I think there is something we know. Something that is not a mystery. Something Jesus already told us. We know what Immanuel looks like. We witness on page after page in the gospel story how Jesus brought forth the eschatological reversal on earth. Let’s read it again: “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” (Matt 11:5)
If the word “Christian” means Christ’s representative on earth, we need to ask ourselves how we are going to bring forth the same eschatological reversal in our communities. We need to ask ourselves: Who are those whose fortunes need to be reversed? Whose eyes need to be opened today? Who needs to leave the couch or the armchair, stop hiding behind an avatar, and have real face-to-face human interaction? Who needs to be accepted and reintegrated back into society? Who needs to get a smack on the head? Who needs to be empowered and enlivened? And who needs to hear the true message of the good news of great joy?
Jesus told his followers that whatever we do to take care of “the least of the brothers and sisters of mine” (Matt 25:40), we did it for him. This is a call to take part in the in-breaking of the eschatological kingdom. Each one of us is called to be a link in a chain that brings forth the Great Reversal. We may not be the great light that the shepherds saw on the first Christmas night, but we can be small sparkles adding up to a ray of joy. Let’s be reminded once again this Advent season that we are called to be agents of joy.
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