EXPECTATIONS ACROSS THE POND
Christmas Around the World—Part 1
In other parts of the world you might find yourself celebrating Christmas by skiing down a mountain side with a lighted torch in your hand…strewing hay on the floor of your home…knocking on a neighbors door in a symbolic pilgrimage. In some countries gifts are given twice during the Christmas season.
Christmas is Britain’s most popular holiday and is characterized by traditions which date back hundreds of years. Many Christmas customs which originated in Britain have been adopted in the United States.
The first ever Christmas card was posted in England in the 1840s, and the practice soon became an established part of the build-up to Christmas. Over a billion Christmas cards are now sent every year in the United Kingdom, many of them sold in aid of charities.
Children hang a stocking on the fireplace or at the foot of their bed for Santa Claus (also named Father Christmas) to fill. Presents for the family are placed beneath the Christmas tree.
Christmas Day sees the opening of presents and many families attend Christmas services at church. Christmas dinner consists traditionally of a roast turkey, goose or chicken with stuffing and roast potatoes. This is followed by mince pies and Christmas pudding flaming with brandy, which might contain coins or lucky charms for children. (The pudding is usually prepared weeks beforehand and is customarily stirred by each member of the family as a wish is made.) Later in the day, a Christmas cake may be served - a rich baked fruit cake with icing and sugar frosting.
I love this time of year. It’s probably my favorite time of year. One factor that makes it great is all of the anticipation that builds up through the month of December. Think now. What are some of the things that you are expecting—special time with family, days off, beautiful decorations, lighting candles with my family, exchanging gifts, special worship experiences.
We’ll be experiencing these things all through the month of December!! There is a certain fun factor that goes along with expecting and anticipating. Remember as a child the fun of counting down the days. Looking at the wrapped presents day after day under the tree, imagining the thrill of opening those gifts.
God wired us, so he knows that expecting and anticipating are part of the human experience. So he created his own anticipation with the coming of the Messiah.
THE LONG-EXPECTATED MESSIAH
God didn’t just suddenly drop Jesus out of heaven to earth. He prepared humanity for his coming hundreds of years ahead of time. Consider the prophecy offered in Isaiah 7:14 (NIV)
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Consider Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
A child will be born to us. Listen. Be ready. Heaven will give us a son. What will be his name? Well, the government will rest on his shoulders. His name will be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Shalom Prince. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of his peace on the throne of David or over his kingdom to establish it, to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forever more.
God wraps the Messiah in the words of the prophet and places him under the tree. There’s just enough information to create suspense, curiosity and the oh-so-important hope, but not enough information to figure it all out.
Both references in Isaiah clearly refer to the long-promised Messiah. No one fits Isaiah’s description except Jesus. The Jews held on to these prophecies, waiting for the Messiah’s arrival. These messages of hope came out of some of the darkest periods in Jewish history. Israel’s once thriving nation had been divided by a bitter civil war. The northern section had been over run and conquered by the Assyrians.
In the midst of this darkness God places he wrapped gift under this tree.
Don’t forget Isaiah 11, either. A shoot will spring up from the stem of Jesse—just a branch. A branch from its roots will bear fruit, and the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him. He will be distinct. He will be unique. Upon him will be the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, and strength—the spirit of knowledge and the fear of Lord.
The Hebrew poetry in this passage is beautiful. It says that God will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips will he slay the wicked. It’s intense! Righteousness will be his belt. Faithfulness will be about his waist. Look at the beauty of that prophecy! Here we have a gift that comes through the womb of the Virgin Mary, but ahead of time, there was a prophet that said, "Righteousness will mark his life—godliness, the fear of Lord. He will with fairness judge the poor and the rich alike. He will be like none other"—though the prophets also point out that we shouldn’t be surprised to find that the wrapping hides something that appears at first to be just a shoot, a stem, a branch.
One of England’s best contributions to the celebration of Christmas is their Christmas Carols, which are often sung on Christmas Eve by groups of singers to their neighbors.
I want us to sing one of those carols now. The roots of this ancient hymn date back to some of the earliest known liturgies—somewhere around the 9th century. Originally, this son was a Gregorian chant, and monks sang it a cappella. This particular chant was sung during a specific period of Advent between December 17-23.
The English minister John Mason Neale translated the hymn from Latin into English in 1851.
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Now turn to Isaiah 53. In this chapter Isaiah seems to be at a loss. This is probably towards the end of his life perhaps 20 years after his first prophecies were recorded. He wonders aloud as to who will believe his message. He’s living among a people of unclean lips. He knows the times well. Isaiah 53:1 (NIV)
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
In other word, who’s waiting with expectation and anticipation for the coming of the Messiah? Isaiah goes on to describe the Messiah once more: Isaiah 53:2-3 (NIV)
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isaiah’s prophecy was proven true. Jesus looked like any other Jew of his day. As a boy he looked like any other carpenter’s son. His appearance had nothing majestic about it. There was no shining glow about him. He drove a nail just like anyone else. He worked with wood like anyone else. He didn’t perform miracles until his ministry began. He was just another man according to outward appearance. He was despised and forsaken—a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. We did not esteem him.
THE MESSIAH FINALLY ARRIVES: BUT NOT AS EXPECTED
We do know that when Jesus was born there was an expectation present in the wide range of Jewish groups that produced literature throughout the time period just before and after Jesus birth. For some of them, their expectations for the ’deliverer who shall come forth from Jacob’ was intense, theologically-charged, and surprisingly detailed.
The expectations were all over the map. Some thought that no Messiah would come, some thought that he would come as a political leader, others expected a military deliverer. Some were waiting for a spiritual king. It was into this world of mixed hopes, pre-conceived categories, and pre-built eschatologies that Jesus of Nazareth arrived.
But despite the prophets’ predictions and startlingly detailed descriptions Jesus was not what most expected.
Unexpected Fragility
Luke 2:6 (NIV)
While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,
God put his gift together not as a grown man, but as a little baby. He was not a knight in shining armor. He was an infant tucked away in a feeding trough, in a manger, just over the hill.
Unexpected Humility
Luke 2:7 (NIV) and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Unexpected Obscurity
Luke 2:8 (NIV)
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
Something this awesome, something this stupendous, needed some kind of PR campaign. But I’ve got news for you: if we had lived back then, we wouldn’t even have known what happened. This baby was silently delivered. The nursery was a common stable. The cradle was a feeding trough. The first cries were heard only by a mother who was cleaning him up, a bewildered man who stood in the entrance watching it all happen, and a few little animals. And when God finally did decide to make it known, he slipped out into the countryside and he chose a few Shepherds! Never once are they even named.
2000 years later there is nothing obscure about how Bethlehem celebrates Christmas today. At the Church of the Nativity, the building is ablaze with flags and decorations on every Christmas. On Christmas Eve natives and visitors alike crowd the church’s doorways and stand on the roof to watch for the dramatic annual procession. Galloping horsemen and police mounted on Arabian horses lead the parade. They are followed by solitary horseman carrying a cross and sitting astride a coal-black steed, then comes the churchmen and government officials.
Unexpected Mystery
John 1:14 (NIV) The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Roll “Christmas Mystery” Video Here
Let me try to give you my best impersonation of a theologian for a moment. Undiminished deity took upon himself perfect humanity and, linking the two natures together in one personality, the God-man was delivered. No less deity. No less humanity. That is not quite as expected.
The fact of the matter is: When Jesus was born very few people knew about it. And even the ones who knew about it didn’t really know about it. They were awed and asking. “What Child Is This?”
The ancient melody Greensleeves is so old that it’s impossible to get an accurate date. There are references as far back as 1580. It’s had many different sets of lyrics. As with many other Christmas carols, traditional music made a late marriage to sacred Christian words.
An English insurance administrator William Dix composed the words under the title “What Child Is This?” He was stricken with a sudden serious illness at the age of 29. Dix was confined to a bed for an extended period and suffered deep depression until he called out to God and met him in a new way. Out of this experience came several hymns including this great carol.
What Child Is This?
CLARIFYING THE EXPECTATIONS
Throughout history, God uses angels to communicate special news. They have made some pretty important announcements to some pretty important people, including prophets and priests and kings. They have announced life and death, victory and defeat, judgment and mercy. But the most important announcement in the history of humankind was when the angels were commissioned to announce the birth of God’s Son.
I can imagine a strategy session in which the angels start brainstorming how they want to make this particular announcement. It seems like the most important announcement ought to be made to the most important people in the most important place at the most important time. So the angels come up with this plan to make the announcement at the Temple in Jerusalem. They decide to do it during one of the annual feasts when there will be thousands of Jewish pilgrims from all over Israel gathered in Jerusalem. They decide to let the priests in on it first.
They’re feeling pretty good about their plan when God walks in the room and makes a few minor adjustments. Instead of the Temple in Jerusalem, he chooses a hillside outside Bethlehem. Instead of an annual feast, he chooses the nightshift. Instead of priests, he picks shepherds. The angels crumple their plans and throw them in the recycling bin.
We take the Christmas story for granted because we’ve heard it so many times, but God could have announced the birth of his Son any way he wanted. Why did God do it the way he did it? Max Lucado has an interesting take. He says:
“Had the angel gone to theologians, they would have first consulted their commentaries. Had he gone to the elite, they would have looked around to see if anyone was watching. Had he gone to the successful, they would have first looked at their calendars. So he went to shepherds—Men who didn’t have a reputation to protect or an ax to grind or a ladder to climb. Men who didn’t know enough to tell God that angels don’t sing to sheep and that messiahs aren’t found wrapped in rags and sleeping in a feed trough.”
So what did the angel say? He tried to clarify the expectations of the Messiah. He didn’t connect all the dots for them that night, but he made it VERY clear that Jesus was born and that was GOOD NEWS for ALL People. Jesus was a SAVIOR who would bring PEACE between God and men.
Luke 2:10-14 (NIV)
But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. [11] Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. [12] This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
[13] Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
[14] "Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
Hark, The Herald Angels Sing
WHAT ABOUT THE FUTURE?: MORE EXPECTATIONS
Already, not yet.
Matthew 25:31-32 (NIV)
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. [32] All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
Acts 1:11 (NIV)
"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
As one of the most jubilant of all Christmas carols, this song omits the usual references to shepherds, angels and wise men. It emphasizes instead the joy that Christ’s birth brought mankind. For centuries hearts had yearned for God to reveal Himself personally. At last it happened as “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Joy To The World
