Today is the eve of one of the most celebrated days in the world: Christmas, the birth of Jesus, the coming of the Christ, the Son of God. What does it mean for you that the Lord has come?
Reading Isaiah chapter 25 in the light of Christmas brings to mind two words that rings loudly throughout the whole of Scripture: HUMBLE and BOLD.
HUMBLE ... for the coming of the Lord silences every proud heart - even the strongest and most ruthless of all. The coming of the Lord is good news only for those who see themselves with "the poor", "the needy in distress" (25:4), indeed for those who are in tears and in deep disgrace (25:8).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor-theologian-martyr, words it powerfully in this manner:
For the great and powerful of this world, there are only two places in which their courage fails them, of which they are afraid deep down in their souls, from which they shy away. These are the manger and the cross of Jesus Christ. No powerful person dares to approach the manger, and this even includes King Herod. For this is where thrones shake, the mighty fall, the prominent perish, because God is with the lowly. Here the rich come to nothing, because God is with the poor and hungry, but the rich and satisfied he sends away empty. Before Mary, the maid, before the manger of Christ, before God in lowliness, the powerful come to naught; they have no right, no hope; they are judged. (God Is In the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas, cited in Q ideas)
The manger and the cross summons people from every nation to bow the knee and confess that Jesus is Lord, and apart from him we are nothing.
But Christmas also brings to mind a second word,
BOLD ... for the coming of the Lord gives every one who trusts in him the reason to sing gladly about God's love and boast unreservedly about God's grace - whatever comes our way.
For from the manger in Bethlehem to the glory of the cross and power of his indestructible life in the resurrection, the Lord Jesus has demonstrated once and for all that has come and utterly destroyed that "shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations" (25:7) ... he has "swallowed up death forever" (25:8).
Assured of the blessings of this triumphant Lord ... he who has secured for us final victory over every enemy, even death, God summons his people from every nation to boldly declare, "Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us.This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation." (25:9)
Let all God's people therefore join in with saints from every age and every nation, and the angelic choir in the heavenly realms, humbly and boldly sing & declare with one voice:
Joy to the world, the Lord is come; let earth receive her King.
