They said You would come

Merry Late Christmas! If you are reading this, I hope you had an amazing time this holiday with friends and family. It's crazy to think that all of the madness of the season - the good and the bad - flow out of a story a couple thousand years ago found in the precious gospels. At our Bridge Christmas production last week I performed a spoken-word monologue I wrote about the coming of Christ. It is very incomplete and still in need of some editing, but here it is:

They Said You Would Come

They said You would come. Yes, they said you would come.

Shortly after the Spirit hovered over the waters and stars emerged from divine breath

Shortly after paradise was shattered; and the first Adam tasted of death

Intimacy with our Maker was a torturous memory

And sin, death, and disease had plunged man into misery

Some fled to their sin and idols and others to burning bushes and temples

To hear hope of a Deliverer that would one day loose all our shackles

Oh yes they said You would come. They said You would come.

Moses and David  

Isaiah and Zecharaiah

With great detail foretold the coming of the Messiah

The meticulous lineage of Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

A descendant of Judah, from the family of Jesse, in the house of King David

To be born of a virgin in a town called Bethlehem

To be led to the slaughter out like a lamb

That You would be numbered with transgressors and cursedly hanged on a tree

And sure enough to be crucified and and killed between two thieves 

It was told that You would speak many parables and perform many miracles

That You would be God in the flesh, causing mourning hearts to be cheerful

Oh yes they said You would come. They said you would come. And then one night You came.

Finally, at the right time, You came. They said You would come and You came.

You were born of a virgin in the town that was chosen

In a dirty little barn you were cared for by Mary and Joseph

You were conceived by the Holy Ghost in a specifically foretold season

And so the gently baby cries of the Balm of Gilead now echo in eternity

They said You would come and You came.

You confounded the wise and forgave the sinners

You caused revivals and riots yet paid taxes to Caesar

They said you would come and You came. 

You are the Holy and Anointed One

The Risen and Exalted, The Lily of the Valley and the Rose of Sharon

The Abundant Life and Living Water in a world that is barren

You are Life, You are Bread, 

You are Joy, You are Rest

You are Teacher, You are Prophet

Priest after Melchizedek

The Man of Sorrows and the Rock of Offense

You were no great man, nor simply a prince

You are the Lord of lords and the King of kings; there is no other

You were fully man and fully God;  the first-born of many brothers

 The One who destroyed Pharisaical pride; the One who raised Lazarus after He’d died

The One who now understands what it’s like in this flesh, who now speaks hope into withering chests

They said You would come and You came and are now coming again

You are the only hope for mankind; the cure for our disease

You are more than gifts and Santa and man’s soulful reprise

And so I will offer more than holiday sentimentality

I will lay my life down in abandoned totality

For one day You will come in a different way

Not laid in a manger with straw, wood, and hay

But the eastern sky will split at the sound of the trump

And the greatest of kings will bow low to the earth, no longer to strut

Where You once came as a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world

You will now reign as the Great Lion of the tribe of Judah with a victorious roar

So every breath that I breathe and every beat of my heart

My very translation to the light from the dark

All demons and devils

Angels and heaven

Hell and forever

Men and their treasures

All hinges and hangs 

On the fact that You came

 They said You would come

And You came.

_ _ _ _ _

“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely, I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus.”

• Revelations 22:20