Maranatha: The Perfect Christmas Greeting

This season can bring great joy or sometimes tremendous stress and heartache.  Whatever it brings this year, even if it’s a mess, invite Jesus into the very center of it all.

“Come, Lord, Jesus…Maranatha.”

There is something beautiful in these words.  Yet our family mumbles them at the dinner table in preparation for our meal. Come.  An invitation to The Most Holy uttered as something to get out of the way before the grub.

Invite Peace into the mess

The word for the phrase, “Come, Lord Jesus,” is “Maranatha,” an Aramaic word that Jews, knowing the chaos and oppression the world around them offered, began saying to replace the greeting, “Shalom,” meaning peace.  For them, the world offered no peace and fear was so widespread, they couldn’t even congregate in public and had to meet secretly.

It was only one Christmas ago that I, too, felt no peace or hope.  Our marriage was at it’s worst, and I had been confronted with the fear it might never get better.  I was pregnant with our fifth child, days from giving birth, and scared I was going to end up on my own.  I couldn’t see hope in the world, but this is when I started realizing I couldn’t depend on the world for my hope.

Over two thousand years ago, also with no hope for peace in the world, the Jews instead found peace in the promise of the coming of the Lord.  “Maranatha, means the Lord is coming,” or “Come, oh Lord.”  We find peace at the manger, where He came into the world.  What a beautiful Christmas greeting, when our world looks similar to the ethnic cleansing that happened under Herod’s rule.  Or when our homes are as much a battlefield as the streets of Aleppo, even if the darkness isn’t all over the news.

Take it back to the stable, prepare your heart, and saturate in His presence.

To saturate means to “cause (something) to become thoroughly soaked so that no more can be absorbed.” There has never been a better time to saturate.  The word “maranatha” is found at the end of 1 Corinthians 16:22, and I love how The Message version of the Bible translates it,

“Make room for the Master!”

Let’s prepare our heart, make room for our Master, and let Him and the peace only He can bring thoroughly consume our heart so there is no room for anything else.

If you don’t feel a lot of hope in your circumstances or in the world, you can find it at the manger this Christmas.  Even if you have found the peace He brings and find great hope in Him, you may be greeting someone who does not have a lot of hope for a “merry or happy” Christmas, but you can wish them the blessing of a gift of peace only Jesus can bring and that the world cannot understand.

“Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus.”

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace that transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”   Philippians 4:6-7