Belmont University Advent GuideExemplo

In the preaching of Jesus, the kingdom of God is greater than us all. In this Advent season, we rejoice at the coming of the King to claim His kingdom. We celebrate this joyful message of redemption and the fulfillment of God’s merciful promises.

This should be a cause for great joy, not criticism. In Luke 7.28 Jesus compares His contemporaries to sullen, spoiled little children who would not receive His words, no matter how joyful they were. He played a happy song, but they sat in the corner and pouted.

Jesus also corrects them for rejecting the preaching of John the Baptist. The content of John’s preaching was simple—turn away from your sinfulness and avoid the wrath of God. It was a rough-and-ready message of coming judgment. It was a dirge, a song sung at a funeral to mourn the dead. Yet they sat stone-faced and tearless.

They not only rejected the message, but they also personally rejected the messengers. John the Baptist lived the strict life of a Nazarene—that is, he drank no wine and did not have anything to do with anything that came from a grape vine. He roughed it in the wilderness. The soft, educated classes would have very little to do with this wilderness prophet.

Jesus fully lived out the joy of the gospel. He showed us that happiness and fun is not just for the next life, but that life on this earth is a gift to be enjoyed. Jesus ate and drank, and He loved it. For that, they said He was overindulgent and a sinner. It turns out that there really is no pleasing some people.

This Advent, let us be humbled by the greatness of the kingdom without for one second tempering the joy of living in the kingdom.

Adam Pace
College of Pharmacy