Advent marks the beginning of the church calendar and is a time of expectant hope, both as the season leading up to the celebration of Jesus’ birth (the Incarnation) as well as the anticipation of the return of Jesus as King (the Parousia.) 

The dual focus of the season is perfectly captured in the word “Maranatha” (מרנאתא). This Aramaic word is a combination of two smaller units of meaning. “Mar” means “lord” and a form of the verb “ata,” which means “to come.”There has been some question as to what the proper segmentation of the compound word is—should it be understood to mean “maran atha,” (“Our Lord has come”) or “marana tha” (“Lord, Come!”)?

The Advent season would perhaps answer that both potential Maranatha meanings are necessary for a robust gospel understanding. The assurance of the gospel of Christ crucified is inseparable from the hope of the gospel of the kingdom. Jesus came to first-century Israel as a humble man, God incarnate, and bore the sins of many. He will come again in his glorious, resurrected frame to judge the living and the dead, establish an everlasting reign of righteousness, and put an end to this evil age.

This future kingdom is the hope we wait for with patience. God, in demonstrating his faithfulness to promises past, graciously assures us of keeping promises yet unfulfilled. Every step in salvation—from the covenants of Israel, to the Cross, to the Messianic Kingdom—makes known the manifold wisdom of God to the powers of heaven and confirms the commitment of the Lord to his people.[Ephesians 3:8-10] In light of this unimaginably glorious mandate to bear witness before heaven to the manifold wisdom of God and in the tension of living between two arrivals of Messiah.

-Devon Phillips