Advent Hope and Metaphor

Advent means “arrival.” Christians celebrate Advent, the season before Christmas as a time to remember the arrival of Jesus, God in the flesh, born of a woman in Bethlehem. We also remember the coming of Jesus as a young man ushering in the kingdom in answer to the hope of the Hebrew prophets.

There is another “arrival” we anticipate during Advent – the arrival of Christ to bring God’s purposes to their final conclusion. Many call this the “Second” coming but scripture simply speaks of the parousia(the appearing) of Jesus. In any case, the Advent of Christ, in its many forms, is a reason for hope for Christians and for the world. God brings salvation in Christ.

There is so much confusion about what Christian hope really is. Some writers have written series of fictional novels based on their peculiar interpretations of hope (the Book of Revelation plays heavily into these novels). The cataclysmic visions in Revelation play out like some fantasy epic in these interpretations. My still, small voice says, “Don’t buy it.”

The flaw in these interpretations is the failure to recognize the nature of first century apocalyptic literature, and the refusal to acknowledge something we all should have learned in ninth grade English literature classes – the use of metaphor. Metaphor - the use of poetic language to seek to expand or deepen meaning. When scripture says (Psalm 18:15),

Then the channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at your rebuke, O LORD,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

are we to believe that God has a nose? I doubt it. This is what we mean by metaphor – poetic language to enhance our sense of what is happening.

Likewise, when the writer of Revelation is describing apocalyptic visions of riders on horses, bowls of wrath, and great dragons, we might picture something out of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. But for goodness sake remember that it is all metaphor.

The short story is this: God wins. This is our hope. And my guess is that the way God wins has less to do with the violence of Revelation (all metaphor) and everything to do with the life of Jesus (stark reality). What is clear from Revelation is the absolute victory of God. What we often overlook is that the one who sits on the throne is still the Lamb that was led to the slaughter. What I believe is that the Christian hope is fulfilled now and in the end through the Way of the Cross. We will never take the world by force, only by sacrifice. As long as we keep trying to claim Christian hope by any other way, it will continue to elude us.

Advent hope. For past, present AND future – it comes as a vulnerable baby in a manger. It comes as a fragile human being hung on a cross. And if you need more hope than God-made-flesh, don’t forget the resurrection. The resurrection is sufficient confirmation for us to believe in the hope that comes through the Way of the Cross. The resurrection is God’s way of saying, “See, my Son got it right.”