Isaiah 7:10-17; Matthew 1:18-25
December 18, 2022
- The coming of Jesus challenges our expectations for God’s help
When was the last time you truly celebrated Christmas? Wow. That is a pretty interesting question. Before you suggest that it was just last year, or if you are more Scroogish, maybe sometime in the last decade, or if you are a Christmas fanatic, maybe sometime this last summer – “Christmas in July” is a thing for some. I am going to propose, however, that none of us has ever truly held Christmas.
Have I gotten your attention? Good. But, preacher, I have been to every Christmas breakfast that has ever happened (of which today’s was grand, by the way). I listen to Christmas songs nonstop the moment they leap into the airwaves, wear all kinds of Christmas clothing, give mountains of gifts, attend every Christmas service I can find, march in 27 Christmas parades a year, and finish a whole Advent devotional each day in December. What do you mean we have never truly celebrated Christmas?
Before we go another step (and I will say this again at the end), our Christmas fun and traditions and good stuff is fine. There is nothing wrong with doing those things. In fact, if you do march in 27 Christmas parades each year, I will commend your exercise regimen. Please don’t think I’m down on Christmas practices or trying to guilt anyone. I enjoy it all, too. Our Christmas rituals and fun and traditions are just not what true Christmas is really about. What Christmas is really about is where I am headed today.
As we travel through this last week before Christmas, it made sense to think about what Christmas is about because on the one hand, we have what we think it is about today, and on the other hand, what it really meant thousands of years ago.
After all, it should be fairly obvious. If Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, and it is, then think about how much of what we do today at Christmas reflects anything of the actual experience surrounding Jesus’ actual birth. Even our nativities, living or not, are a babyfied, whitewashed, romanticized picture of what it was actually like. They were not in a some idyllic stable. They were in a dirty, smelly, noisy corner of an animal pen because there was nowhere better to go. If I were truly pressed, I might concede that there was singing – then by the angels and by us today. Even that is a stretch, though, because our songs are endearing and sentimental and joyous; their songs shook the earth.
I have no idea what it is like to be about to die. I have been with a very few people when they have died, but for me to personally feel like my life is about to end or is threatened to end is completely foreign to me. I have had a couple of close scrapes in traffic in which I could have been seriously injured, and afterwards, it was hard to think about anything. The severity of the moment was overwhelming. In the days of Isaiah, the times were even more severe. An enemy army was bearing down on the Southern Kingdom of Judah, and King Ahaz was at a crossroads. The Assyrians were coming to wipe out the land. What should he do? His death was staring him in the face. The deaths of many, many, many of his people were very real and very pressing. He desperately needed help, and in this turmoil, Isaiah gave him hope – a prophecy that a deliverer was coming. A savior would be born of a maiden. A child would be born who would show the people that God is with them, even in the darkest hour, especially in the darkest hour.
Many scholars think that baby was Ahaz’s son Hezekiah, who was one of the best kings and brought the people back into worship and a better relationship with God. What we do know is that Isaiah did not have Jesus in mind. It would have been ridiculous and even cruel to promise a king who was about to be destroyed a savior would not have been born for seven hundred years. Ahaz did dodge that attack, though the nation greatly suffered. Afterward, Hezekiah seemed to dedicate his rule to leading them in a better way.
Now, when it was the right time for Jesus to come, the people were facing a different but equally dark fate. The Roman boot was on their neck, their religious leaders were bending to the worldly powers, poverty was a way of life, and they were suffering the depth of human brokenness without a savior.
That’s when the world changed. As in Isaiah, hope was promised. Someone was to be born who would be God’s salvation in the world. Someone would be born who would lead the people into godly change. Someone was coming who could remind the people of God that God was with them. THIS TIME, however, it was for keeps and forever. Jesus was not only a Savior then, but he continues to be our Savior today. He is our help in ages past but also our hope in years to come.
To get an inkling of what that might be like, imagine that same prophecy in Ukraine or Sudan or Yemen or Afghanistan or Myanmar or any of the many places of terrible conflict or oppression where people are afraid to even walk openly. If I was living in any of those places of outright, daily conflict and then found out that all that violence and destruction was about to end, I would be overjoyed. That is deliverance. That is salvation. That is God’s promise to us who are wrecked by the brokenness of this world. But Jesus is not just a savior for here and now but for all time. In Luke’s Gospel, Mary sings for joy at the announcement. In Matthew’s Gospel today, we have a Joseph who is willing to sacrifice his name, his public face, and his future for a fiancé who got pregnant by someone else. He would have been the talk of the town. The promise of God’s salvation trumps his self-respect. Christmas is a life or death situation. Without Christmas, we only have death. With Christmas, we have hope in God’s chosen Savior.
You will occasionally hear about Jesus being the reason for the season, but that does not do justice to how big an idea this is. Christmas is the coming of God’s salvation, but if you don’t feel like you really need saving, then it honestly does not mean all that much. Might as well put an “X” in Christmas.
At least that is what my grandmother wanted you to think. My grandmother was the first person I ever heard complaining about the whole “Xmas” thing. She would rant and fuss about how unchristian it was to leave Christ out of Christmas, as if someone really wanted to cross out Jesus.
Well, it turns out that you cannot cut Jesus out. He is greater than that. What many people don’t realize is that the historic abbreviation for “Christ” is the letter “X”. When folk long ago were copying the Bible by hand, they saved time and paper by writing an “X” for the word Christ since in Greek, the title “Christ” begins with the letter CHI which looks just like our letter “X”. In fact, “Xmas” might even point to Jesus better than our word Christmas since Christmas is so secular by itself today. It is like saying “Merry Christ-mas.”
Yes, friends, Jesus has to be and will always be the center of Christmas. Even if he is not the center of our Christmas activities, the center of our rituals, our fun, or our festivities, Jesus is absolutely the center of true Christmas. X marks the spot. I just hope you remember in all of this why he really came. It was not so that we would be nice to each other or generous or feel more like good people. I’m thinking more Scrooge sitting in front of his own grave. Christmas is a reminder that we need to be saved. And if we don’t realize it, then maybe we are even worse off. We should rejoice in these days of love and giving and togetherness. We should remember Christmas in our traditions and enjoy doing our events together, but these are a celebration of our history that began with a difficult, powerful, world changing birth.
God promised a deliverer who would prove that God is with us. Our weakness, our frailty, our faults, and our failures all cry out for that kind of help. Our brokenness, our sin, our evil, our self-love, and our pride all point to our need. Do not forget why we are here, why we cherish the birth of our Lord and Savior, why we have Christmas. Without Christ, we literally have no hope in this life or the next, but thanks be to God that our Savior was born and that he has promised to return. No one has figured out how to get rid of our Christ. They have tried, and with him at the center of everything, we will never lose the meaning of Christmas.
To God be the glory. Amen.