Come, Lord Jesus

“He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.” (Revelation 22:20-21)

This year, as I have listened to Christmas music, a couple of songs have stood out to me. These are songs about the anticipation of Jesus’ coming. When we sing these songs, we put ourselves in the shoes of the men and women who lived in the “BC” time, waiting for the Messiah to arrive. They knew God had promised a Savior, and they heard and believed the prophecies, but not until a virgin gave birth to a Son and named Him Jesus were these promises fulfilled. 

The first song we will look at is “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” This song, usually always sung in a minor key, begins by pleading:

“O come, O come, Emmanuel,

and ransom captive Israel

that mourns in lonely exile here

until the Son of God appear.”

Before Jesus came, the people of Israel—and all people—were in bondage. Humankind lived in slavery to sin, captive to the devil. God’s people mourned in lonely exile here on earth until Jesus came. 

However, the repeated refrain of this song says, “Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel shall come to you, O Israel.” As the people of Israel waited for Jesus and longed for His coming, they were to rejoice in the promise that God would send a Savior. They could rejoice because they knew God was true to His Word and would fulfill it. And fulfill it He did, for Immanuel—God with us—came to earth. 

The other song that has struck me this year is one that I was not very familiar with until this Christmas season. It is the song, “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.” The song, composed of only two verses, starts with this:

“Come, thou long expected Jesus,

born to set thy people free;

from our fears and sins release us,

let us find our rest in thee.”

Before Jesus came, people were living and walking in darkness. They were bound to fear and sin. They were the people Isaiah 9:2 describes when it says, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” Praise God, the light of the world, Jesus, has shone on those people. Jesus was born to free us from these oppressors. We can now find our rest in Him because He came to earth and died in our place. 

But these songs are significant for us, as Christians living since Jesus’ first advent, because we relate to those who lived before the first Christmas more than we think. We still await Jesus’ coming. This will not be a lowly manger birth, but a powerful return on the clouds. Jesus will not come again as a baby, but as the reigning Son of God to take His children home. He will not return to die again but instead to defeat Satan, sin, and death, eternally silencing these foes and their destruction. 

We live in the already but not yet. We know Jesus and walk with Him now, but we also anticipate the day when “all things are subjected to him…that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). So as we celebrate this Christmas, we celebrate Jesus’ first coming, but we also long for His return, when “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth” (Isaiah 25:8). 

May we live our lives for Him as we eagerly anticipate His coming. With believers from all centuries, we cry out, “Come, thou long expected Jesus.” 

Side note: Below is a link for the version of “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” I listened to that piqued my interest! If you’d like, please listen to this arrangement by The Arcadian Wild, or maybe even check out their full Christmas album, Happy Golden Days.

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus