Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
Last year, my good friend and fellow City Church-goer Keller Gabriel and I were teasing the idea of putting together a Christmas EP featuring our musically-gifted friends. Sadly, nothing came of it. But during the times we did gather to talk about setlists and arrangements, I knew there was one song I was going to make sure we played: “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.”
“Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” embodies the spirit of the Advent season—it’s invitational, and it’s expectational.
Anyone who has spent time at City Church has likely heard a number of songs beginning with the same invitation: Come. “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” or “Come as You Are” are a couple that might sound familiar. These songs welcome Jesus into our midst and invite others to join his people as well. What I love about songs of invitation is how they remind us that we were first invited by Jesus into a life of freedom and purpose. In scripture, Jesus astonishes Simon and Andrew by providing a miraculous catch of fish. Afterward, he invites them in saying, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). Immediately, the brothers leave their boats and their father to follow Jesus.
An invitation from Jesus was and is an invitation to experience the full mystery and wonder of the Son of God, who himself came to serve a purpose, as we sing in “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.”
“Born to set thy people free […]
Born thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a king,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now thy gracious kingdom bring.”
Because Jesus fulfilled this purpose, we are free to invite him once again to come to us and fulfill another of his wonderful promises: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). This is what we proclaim when we take communion each Sunday together: that the Lord will come again and take us to his Father’s house where he has prepared a room for each of us.
Another reason I love this song so much is because it provides my favorite adjectival description of Christ: “long-expected.” As a journalist, I love a good hyphenated adjective. As someone who has put their faith in Christ and his provision, I love the expectant nature of the phrase. And how true does the description “long-expected” ring for us today? We wait for the Lord’s return in a world plagued by hate, poverty, brokenness, and a culture that tells us that we don’t have to wait long for anything! But as those who call upon his name, we know that we must wait patiently, much like those in the Old Testament had to wait thousands of years for the Messiah to come into an equally broken world.
It’s in this place of expectancy that we find ourselves every Advent season. As the world waited 2,000 years ago for a savior, we eagerly await the second coming of the same savior to deliver us from this broken world into his kingdom. And we do so joyfully, which I know isn’t our custom. But when we wait for the Lord—both his provision and his return—we do so joyfully because we know that he fulfills his promises…
“Joy of every longing heart…”
So during Advent, we wait with invitation and we wait in expectation. I think those themes are scattered throughout many of the songs we’ll sing together during these next few weeks, and especially in “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.” I hope as you hear and sing this song this season, you’ll come to love it as much as I do.
The last nugget I want to pull from this song and share with you is more of a personal charge from one struggling human to another:
“Let us find our rest in Thee…”
It is hard for me to find rest in anything these days. At 26, I’m finally graduating college in two weeks, which has been a five-and-a-half year process, challenging me in ways I could have never imagined. I’ve been living off of part time, weekend job-type paychecks and help from my parents, often wondering if I have enough money to put gas in my car without dipping into my savings again. It is not a restful lifestyle, and I know we all have those places in life that actively work against our need for rest—and even for joy.
This Advent season, as we’re running around shopping for our families and friends, finishing year-end projects at work, and getting ready to welcome in a new year, let’s remind ourselves where our help comes from. In the chaos, Jesus is waiting to give you rest. That’s not just the rest of the body, but the rest of our minds and our hearts too. Friends, he is waiting to give those to you—and he gives them generously and endlessly. Let the rest we find in Jesus be the most important gift we receive this year.
God bless.
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
Words and music by Charles Wesley. Additional lyrics by Mark E. Hunt.
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.
Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.
Joy to those who long to see thee, Dayspring from on high, appear;
Come, Thou promised Rod of Jesse, of thy birth we long to hear!
O’er the hills the angels singing news, glad tidings of a birth;
“Go to him, your praises bringing; Christ the Lord has come to earth.”
Come to earth to taste our sadness, he whose glories knew no end;
By his life he brings us gladness, our Redeemer, Shepherd, Friend.
Leaving riches without number, born within a cattle stall;
This the everlasting wonder, Christ was born the Lord of all.
Born Thy people to deliver, born a child, and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever, now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine own sufficient merit, raise us to Thy glorious throne.