Our hymn for our devotion this week is hymn 487: Lo He Comes With Clouds Descending
Around this time of year, people are preparing for family reunions of all kinds. Seeing family for the holidays gives family members a chance to catch up and talk about everything that’s happened since they last saw each other. It gives them a chance to reminisce about years past. And it gives them a chance to look ahead to the coming year and the blessings and challenges it may bring.
This coming Sunday is the last Sunday in the church year. It gives God’s people a chance to reflect on the “family reunion” we’ll soon have with our savior, brother, and friend when he returns as king and judge over all things. Our hymn for this week beautifully reflects on just how bittersweet that last day will be. Yet the beautiful truth we see echoed again and again is the undeniable glory and power Jesus wields as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Verse 1: Lo! He comes with clouds descending, once for ev’ry sinner slain; thousand thousand saints attending swell the triumph of his train: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Christ reveals his endless reign.
When a king would return to his city victorious from battle, he would always lead a victorious procession through the city. Typically, he would be accompanied by the commanders and key warriors that enabled his victory. This was not only to show his power, but to glorify them for their role in winning the battle. So it will be on the last day. Christ the King will return victorious to earth, but he won’t be alone. All the heroes of faith we learned about in the Bible and in the history of the church will be with him. All the faithful martyrs who died rather than deny him will be with him. Every believer who has ever died will be returning with him on the clouds of glory. Not to glorify themselves or their witness, but to glorify the one who died for sinners and was raised again.
Verse 2: Ev’ry eye shall now behold him robed in glorious majesty; those who set at naught and sold him, pierced and nailed him to the tree, deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing, shall their true Messiah see.
This is perhaps the greatest mystery of that last day. Somehow, in some way, Christ will appear and all 8 billion plus people on earth will behold him at once. For many (about 2 and a half billion according to some estimates), this day will be a day of great joy. Their king has returned! But for the other 6 billion people, this won’t be a happy day. For the enemies of Christ and his church, they will get what they justly deserve: death and condemnation. That justice will be glorious to see for the Christians who suffered at their hands! Those enemies of the church will see that Christ is indeed king, and all their works opposing Christ and his church didn’t change a thing. Yet for billions of others, they are simply lost in the darkness. This doesn’t have to be the case! There are faithful Christians all over the world who can still preach the gospel! May this coming day of wrath be a motivating factor for us to fuel mission efforts all over the world, and to bravely venture out where and when we can to go and find those missing souls, so they don’t have to face that day of wrath.
Verse 3: Those dear tokens of his passion still his dazzling body bears, cause of endless exultation to his ransomed worshipers. With what rapture, with what rapture, with what rapture, gaze we on those glorious scars!
Oftentimes, scars tell a story. Maybe it’s something simple like a childhood accident or a poor teenage decision. Maybe they’re from a significant medical procedure that saved your life or brought someone else into this world. Or maybe they’re reminders of past trauma or pain that are better left in the past. Christians don’t have to wonder what Jesus’ scars from his passion will be like. They are tokens of his work in saving us, his own dear people. We don’t blanche or shy away from these wounds. Instead, we regard them as glorious! For it’s through those pierced hands and feet and side that God’s own blood was shed for us! It’s from that pierced side that flows the blood and water, the sacraments of the church! These marks signify our Savior’s love for us, and the promise that death itself is reversed because of the lamb who was slain yet lives and reigns still!
Verse 4: Yea, amen, let all adore thee high on thine eternal throne; Savior, take the pow’r and glory, claim the kingdom as thine own. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Thou shalt reign, and thou alone!
What else can we say to our returning king other than praise God, amen! Nothing will be able to stop his return. And nothing will be able to make any difference to the ultimate and final authority Christ wields as king over all the earth. And what an amazing thing it is, that we don’t have to fear this absolute king! He’s no tyrannical monarch only concerned with himself or power for power’s sake. He is concerned for us! He loves us! And he will make a new heavens and a new earth on that final day: free from all fear, all pain, and all sin. And he will rule the new heavens and earth with love, justice, and mercy! Praise God! Amen! Come quickly, Lord Jesus, and take your people home!
Is that reunion with Jesus going to be a happy day or a sad day? That depends entirely upon your knowledge of one person: Jesus our King, who will be returning among the clouds in glory on that day. For those who know him as King, Savior, Brother, and Friend, it will be a day unlike any other. It’ll be the fulfillment of an entire world’s worth of history, unveiled for all to see. But for those who know Jesus as pretender, myth, burden, or simply as something not worth caring about at all, it will be a very sad day. May this coming day be one we look forward to with joy and anticipation. May it move us to constantly watch and pray as we await that coming day of glory. And may it motivate us to be heralds of the coming king; messengers going out to warn and prepare the world for its Lord. Amen.