"You'll Come" by Brooke Fraser
I have decided, I have resolved
To wait upon you Lord
My rock and redeemer, shield and reward
I'll wait upon you Lord
As surely as the sun will rise
You'll come to us
As certain as the dawn appears
You'll come
Let your glory fall
As you respond to us
Spirit rain,
Flood into our thirsty hearts again
You'll come
You'll come
We are not shaken, we are not moved
We wait upon you Lord
Mighty deliverer, triumph and truth
We wait upon you Lord
As surely as the sun will rise
You'll come to us
As certain as the word endures
Chains be broken
Lives be healed
Eyes be opened
Christ is revealed
*****
FIRST, SOME BACKGROUND:
I've actually been meaning to share some thoughts on this song for two years now. Good grief. And since we sang this song in church this morning, I figure there's no time like the present.
I first heard this song probably, what, Spring 2008, I guess? It was about the same time I was finishing up my New Testament: Gospels course.
I wrote my final paper for that class on Luke 13:10-17, the story of Jesus healing a woman with a disabling spirit on the Sabbath:
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your disability." And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, "There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day." Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?" As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.
In my study of this passage, I found that in Luke keeping the Sabbath meant more than just honoring the fourth commandment and ceasing from all work. Luke uses the word “Sabbath” not as a time indicator to signal the day of rest but as a signal that reveals Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath with power over Satan and the power to proclaim freedom for God’s people and restoration to God’s creation.
I could go into more detail (ask me if you like) but the ruler of the synagogue did not have an issue with the healing of the woman on the Sabbath, but with the minute detail that Jesus used his hands to do the healing. There were two previous Sabbath healings by Jesus in Luke (ch. 4 and 6); neither of which brought a response such as the one in ch. 13. The difference between the three was in ch. 13 Jesus laid his hands on the woman, which to the ruler of the synagogue constituted work on the Sabbath, a no-no.
Which is the point where Jesus (via the author Luke) refers to the woman's bondage to Satan for 18 years. Sabbath is the time for remembrance of Israel’s liberation from slavery. Luke has already revealed that Jesus has the power to overcome Satan (4:31-37). Now “God’s activity” for liberation is present for the woman. By signaling that it is the Sabbath, Luke announces Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath with power over Satan to liberate people from captivity. The laying on of hands, a creative work like God creating of the world, was a matter of doing good over evil, even if on the Sabbath.
Luke uses the terms “free,” “bound,” “loosed,” “bond” and “Satan” (13:12, 16) in conjunction with healing the woman. She was a slave to Satan in such a way that even her physical body was bound. Jesus makes it clear in his pronouncement (v. 16) that on the Sabbath, a day of freedom, she was set free. Jesus overcame the power of Satan over her so that she might experience the freedom and restoration of Sabbath. As Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus rescues Sabbath as the appropriate time for liberation and freedom.
The work of Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath in 13:10-17 reflects the words of the prophet Isaiah that Jesus read in Luke 4:16-21:
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
His anointing to “set at liberty those who are oppressed” is seen in his setting the woman free from disability and straightening her on Sabbath. The “year of the Lord’s favor” refers to the “year of Jubilee” (Lev. 25), which was to be a period of Sabbath for Israel’s land. Jesus proclaiming that the Scripture was “fulfilled” in the people’s hearing would mean that his time now on the earth would be a time of Jubilee.
Sabbath is both about acknowledgment of God's creative and restorative work; it also is about liberty from slavery. Luke shows that Jesus exhibits both of these purposes of Sabbath in healing the woman with the disabling spirit.
*****
SECOND, THE SONG:
It is my belief that there is no greater Sabbath song than "You'll Come." If there is any song that should be sung on the Sabbath, this is it.
The bridge first caught my attention as I thought about Jesus revealed as Lord of the Sabbath in Luke 4 and 13:
Chains be broken
Lives be healed
Eyes be opened
Christ is revealed
In Luke we read about Jesus revealed, coming to set the captives free, those bound by Satan. I hear this bridge as a celebratory prayer spoken by worshipers and/or over worshipers about the truth that Jesus has come to restore and set free those bound by Satan. It became even more powerful/meaningful to me as I learned the above about Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath in Luke. The words in this bridge are not meant to be nice Christian words or cool sentiments on Jesus. They should be believed as an actuality. This is why Christ was revealed to us: to break the chains of slavery and bondage, to heal lives, to open eyes. This is what he came to do! I think worshipers should feel overwhelming joy and celebration in these words; Jesus has been revealed for this very real purpose. Why wouldn't you sing these words like an excited prayer?
I like it when the song starts with the bridge. It then feeds into the idea that in fact Jesus will come. As surely as the sun will rise, you'll come to us, certain as the dawn appears. But not only that. He comes in response to us. We sing of "waiting for upon the Lord" and we acknowledge him as rock, redeemer, shield, reward, mighty deliverer, triumph and truth. This "waiting upon the Lord" could be like one would wait tables, in devoted service to a lord. And as we have decided and resolved to not be shaken or moved from our service to the Lord, he comes and responds. In these words we acknowledge him as the authority, as the Lord, of the Sabbath, of the day when the people acknowledged God as their liberator from slavery. And when he responds, when he is revealed, as the Lord of the Sabbath, chains are broken, lives are healed and eyes are opened. We make the proclamation of commitment to Jesus and have the promise that he will come; this song is our commitment vocalized to invite the Holy Spirit to do the work.
I don't know. With such powerful imagery and understanding of Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath, I can't imagine singing this song any other way then full-on celebration and expectation of healing and liberation. I just can't.
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