Here Comes the Son!

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The lyrics of a Beatles song came into my mind as I began writing this article. In their song, “Here Comes the Sun”, they sing:

“Little darlin’, it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter.
Little darlin’, it seems like years since it’s been here.”

These lyrics have me thinking about what we have had for weather lately. It seems like we are all waiting to see some sunshine and the warm-up to go with that sunshine. The rain, the cold, and the wind seem to be endless. We are all looking for spring and summer to truly begin. We’re all hoping for some better weather.

“Here comes the sun!
Here comes the sun!
And I say, it’s all right.”

Does that sound like something that you’ve been longing to feel recently? In a physical weather sense, sure. But how about in a spiritual and eternal sense? In that sense, what is the long, cold, lonely winter? In that sense, what have we been missing for years?

The long, cold, lonely winter is the winter that began when Adam and Eve fell into sin, bringing the bitterly cold grip of death upon us all. At that moment, we are all hopeless, in the midst of a winter of sin and death. However, we received a promise filled with hope. The promise of a Savior, who would free us from the winter of our sins.

So I believe, John of Damascus puts it better than the Beatles did, when he wrote the words of “Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain” (LSB #487) in the second stanza, which say:

“’Tis the spring of souls today:
Christ has burst His prison
And from three days’ sleep in death
As a sun has risen;
All the winter of our sins,
Long and dark, is flying
From His light, to whom is giv’n
Laud and praise undying.”

Jesus, the Son, has come, and is coming again. He has brought spring to our souls, and He has sent the long and dark winter of our sins flying. His death and His resurrection have accomplished this for our souls. However, we continue to wait for the final and ultimate spring and summer to come. We are still living with the lasting effects of sin and its consequences that make it seem like winter is still upon us and getting steadily worse. The final spring will come when Jesus returns, descending from the clouds, bring out our laud and praise undying.

So when we see Him coming on the clouds, we may joyfully and hopefully think to ourselves, “Here comes the Son! Here Comes the Son! And He says, ‘It’s alright!’”

In Christ’s love,
Pastor Paul Pett