Tag: Christmas (Page 3 of 10)

Our final stop on this Advent journey is most certainly an unexpected place. Before we can really understand the events of the next couple of days, we need to see their unexpected end. We take it for granted mostly because we know the end of the story, but hit the pause button today and think about this one. 

Jesus was the long expected child to be born. John 1 tells us that He was born to be a light in the darkest place imaginable. He would bring peace to a people who knew no such peace. He would instill joy in the hearts of all who would know him. 

Imagine the look on Mary’s face when she held him that first time. The shock that Joseph experienced when he heard his tiny cry. Then fast forward just 33 years. 

The same face that smiled as she held her first child now has a hard time seeing anything through the tears on her face. The light that came into the world for a moment is overshadowed by darkness once again. The peace that rang through the hillside at the birth of this baby, has quickly turned to shouts of death and murder. The life that came in a manger would now be laid bare on the cross. 

This is the story of Advent. It’s the story of Jesus. It’s the story of why he came the way he came. None of it matters if this is missing. The unexpected end would bring an unexpected result…his death would mean our life. If his life meant our peace and joy in this life, his death would amplify that peace and expound on that joy. His unexpected end means our unexpected beginning! 

An unexpected word as we sit just days before Christmas is the word sacrifice. We don’t think of sacrifice during a season of light and joy and peace and hope and love. Sacrifice is for other holidays. It’s for other times of year. We talk about sacrifice during Lent and the time when Jesus died on the cross, but during Advent it’s not really even on the radar. But that’s what this time of year really should be for all of us who are in Christ Jesus. 

In Isaiah 9:1-7, Isaiah continues to paint the picture of the coming King. He would be powerful and mighty. He would reign not with fist and weapon but with dignity and honor and power. He doesn’t need an army to fight for him or swords to vanquish his enemy. He wins by sacrifice. And because of His sacrifice we are called to sacrifice as well. 

That whole Jesus as King imagery really destroys the innocent, meek baby in the manger. Doesn’t it? We see him laying there with a blanket wrapped around him. Maybe he’s smiling. Maybe he’s sucking his thumb. Cute and cuddly. But Isaiah says we are to pledge our allegiance to Him. We’re to get rid of all things that are not Him from our lives so that we can focus on Him. 

As we near the day of His birth consider what kings you’ve brought into your life. There are traditions that often overrule the real meaning of Christmas. We sit around our trees on Christmas morning instead of standing around his altar. We bow to our packages instead of bowing before his throne. This advent take time to reflect on the unexpected response God commands from us. 

Leave the kingdoms of this world behind and revel in the wonder of the Jesus’ Kingdom.

If we stay in Isaiah 9 for another day, we see that Isaiah is inviting us to have an unexpected response. Normally when we think of Jesus, we have thoughts of warmth and compassion. We see him as a baby in a manger. We think we need to accept him into our hearts. We talk about Jesus as a close companion throughout life, which is the truth. But this is not the picture Isaiah paints. 

Isaiah talks about the coming Messiah, the one we call Jesus, as a king. When we think of kings in our world, we certainly don’t think of inviting them into our hearts. We don’t wonder how we can experience their compassion. We don’t really even try to get into their presence. When we encounter kings in life, we bow in reverence. We stand humbly and honor their position and their authority. 

Isaiah here is reminding us that as we journey through Advent and arrive at that Unexpected Christmas, we should see him not only as a loving God who saved his people. We should also encounter him as King of kings. We should bow our knee and humbly enter his presence. 

We’ve grown so accustomed to the things of church life. Religion has become merely an action done in time that we’ve lost the power of Jesus as King. Invited into the presence of a king, we should do what Paul says in Philippians 2 every knee shall bow. 

The unexpected child born to unexpected parents to an unexacting people to fulfill his unexpected plan should bring an unexpected response. When we see Christmas for what it really is, our response will become one of honor and humility, exaltation and a life altering praise. How will you respond to your king this Christmas? 

If you remember from yesterday, we were surprised by the unexpected light that God brought into the darkness of the war torn regions of Galilee. It was into that very place, Nazareth of Galilee, that Jesus would shine the light of his glory. Such an unexpected response to all the destruction. But he doesn’t end there. 

Isaiah goes beyond just bringing light into darkness. Another unexpected response God brings in the midst of this Advent season is the promise of abundance in a time of great scarcity. Isaiah 9 tells the flip side of the devastation of the northern territories. They were blasted by war and enemy invasions, yet Isaiah says they will see by a new light. Then he goes on to say to this broken people you have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy. 

Could you imagine? Multiplied a nation that lost in battle? Increased joy to a people held captive by an oppressive government? This is the scenario into which Isaiah is writing. God will bring abundance of people and joy to our lives…no matter how bleak things seem in the moment. 

God’s math doesn’t always work the way we want it to. Things like the whole trinity where God is three yet one and one yet three. Or communion where we have bread and wine but at the same time body and blood. God’s math is unexpected. When we come to him with nothing, he can provide us everything. That’s the story of Christmas. 

God knew we couldn’t save ourselves. We are bent toward our own destruction. We’re like cars out of alignment that just continuously turn into oncoming traffic. It was into this empty and destructive world that God sent His Son. An unexpected response to a devastated world. 

Peace. Joy. Increase. When we have nothing but Jesus, we have everything we need.

A war torn village. A land that is the center of invasions and destruction. A people that have fallen to their own folly. To a people in deep darkness a great light has come. This comes from Isaiah 9. It’s one of those famous passages we use around Christmas and really don’t spend a ton of time unpacking it. 

Isaiah is writing this portion of his prophecy to the territories in the northern region of Israel’s land. This was the portion of land through which the enemy nations would generally invade. They would break through the barriers and storm the cities. Towns were ransacked. Hope was all but lost. 

This is the picture of darkness. It’s a picture of devastation the likes of which many of us have never seen.   It is into this place and atmosphere of darkness that God would bring an unexpected response. When we see darkness and devastation we tend to get depressed and brokenhearted. We hang our heads low and play the whole woe is me game. 

But that’s not God’s response to darkness and devastation. As a matter of fact as we read the surrounding verses in Isaiah 8-9, we see that this actually was God’s plan. His plan was to allow for darkness to appear to win. He knew it was going to happen and he let it! 

Even though we get caught up in the moments of darkness and despair, we should find comfort this advent season that God doesn’t let darkness win. His promise was that he would bring an unexpected response to all of this darkness. It would be the sending of a great light. 

Now light and darkness are natural enemies. But in every instance in which they clash, light always wins. The unexpected response to the time of darkness would be that God would bring a blinding light that would shatter darkness and send it running. God’s theme for Christmas was to send Jesus, the very light of the world, to send darkness fleeing. The promise of Christmas is that God brings unexpected light into even our darkest moments.

There he was minding his own business. He had lived a long life and really didn’t have much to show for it. I mean he had possessions and a lovely wife, but in his day if you’re name didn’t pass to a son none of that really meant much. 

We’re looking at Isaac today, one of the most prominent examples of an unexpected person. But to get to Isaac, we need to first find Abraham, his dad. Abraham was an old man by the time God came to him and interrupted his day with the promise that he’d be a father soon. You could only imagine the shock that came to his heart (not to mention his face)! 

That child would’t just be any old child though. God promises in Genesis 17:16 I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her. That’s God talking about Sarah, his wife. Nations? They were almost 100 years old. She wasn’t able to have kids, so how in the world was this nations thing going to happen! And if you know anything about the Bible you probably know that she didn’t have literal nations of kids. She had Isaac. That’s one child, so what about this whole nation deal? 

That one child was all that was needed for nations to be part of her lineage. You see the one child that was born to Sarah was the most unexpected child she could have imagined. Not because he was a wonderful gift from God that would bring her much joy. No it was because that one child would bring us another child a few thousand years into the future. His name wouldn’t be Isaac or Abraham.  Instead, Jesus was his name. 

Jesus would establish another nation but his nation would be different than any other nation on earth. It wouldn’t have boundaries of land or kings living in palaces. His nation is eternal. It’s a universal kingdom that outlasts time and even space. And all of this because God allowed an unexpected child to be born to a couple near 100 years old. Talk about an unexpected birth!