There’s nothing like a good birthday party - especially when that party is for you. Your favourite cake and ice cream have been prepared, friends and family have been invited, and best of all the presents are all for you! Can you imagine what it would be like if millions of people celebrated your birthday? Wow! You’d never get done opening all the presents!
Do you know of anyone that has millions of people commemorate his birthday? Sure you do. Every year on December 25th, people from around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus. What makes Jesus’ birth so special that people from all walks of life commemorate it? Indeed why does God insist we celebrate the birth of Jesus? There are at least two reasons we want to celebrate Jesus’ birth: his birth is a sign that God is with us, and our celebration is a sign that we are with God.
Imagine your surprise if you were perusing birth announcements in the newspaper and saw a notice that read: “Bob and Betty invite you to celebrate the arrival of their son to be born in the year 2710.” An announcement for a birth that is to take place 700 years in the future? That was the kind of birth announcement the people of Judah received in our text. Although God hadn’t said exactly when this birth was going to happen, the people of Judah would know that it had happened because the child was to be born of a virgin. What’s more, he would be called Immanuel, which means, “God with us.” We know of course that this prophecy was fulfilled when the Son of God became man and was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem.
But why did God make this birth announcement about Jesus at this specific time in history through the prophet Isaiah? The people of Judah, particularly, the people of Jerusalem needed to hear that God was with them. At this time Judah was led by King Ahaz who may have been one of the lousiest kings in David’s dynasty. Although his grandfather and father had been faithful followers of the true God, Ahaz made it his religious policy to follow the gods of whatever nation seemed to be the strongest. Like a careless driver who keeps switching lanes in order to get ahead without any regard for the safety of others or for the speed limits (Walter Westphal), Ahaz thought nothing of shoving aside the Lord’s altar to make room for one idol after another in the Lord’s temple. Ahaz even sacrificed his own children in fire to the god Molech.
None of this made Judah stronger of course; it actually made things worse. For example in one day of fighting, 120,000 soldiers of Judah were killed while another 200,000 people were taken captive (2 Chronicles 28:6). Now news had reached Jerusalem that the enemy was marching on that city intent on destroying it. It’s no wonder the hearts of King Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind (Isaiah 7:2). Would Ahaz now finally turn to the Lord for help? No. The prophet Isaiah found the king not on bended knee asking God’s forgiveness and help, but out inspecting the city’s water works in preparation for the upcoming siege. This was typical Ahaz; he’d much rather rely on his own strength and smarts than on God. Why, Ahaz had even sent off temple money to the king of Assyria to come to his rescue.
The same thing can happen to us can’t it? Instead of relying on our God to provide, we want to prove that we can do it ourselves. I’m not saying we should sit around and do nothing while expecting God to drop food in our laps. God wants us to work and through that he provides our needs. But as we toil away at our jobs it’s easy to think that it all depends on us. So we spend more overtime in the office than we do in prayer asking God for the things we need. Or we scour the internet for investing tips while seldom cracking open our Bibles for guidance on eternal matters. Like Ahaz we think that we know what’s best for us and don’t need God to instruct us.
So what message do you think Isaiah had for the wayward king? “You’re going down, Dude. You’ve cut God out of your life one too many times so now he’s going to cut you out of his.” No. Amazingly Isaiah reported: “…keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin...It will not take place, it will not happen...” (Isaiah 7:4, 5, 7).
You’d think that Ahaz would be overjoyed to hear that God was coming to his rescue. You’d expect Ahaz to give Isaiah a hug or at least a high five. Instead he just stood there as if Isaiah had just announced that Ahaz’s chariot had been ticketed for being double parked. Still, God didn’t give up. He tried one last time to bring Ahaz to faith. “Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights” (Isaiah 7:10, 11). Whoa. God was offering to do a miracle, any miracle to prove that what he had just said was really going to happen. What was Ahaz’s response? “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test” (Isaiah 7:12). Ahaz blew God off the way you blow off the salesman in the mall who challenges you to find something his kitchen knives can’t cut. You say, “Aw, I believe you Sir. I’m sure your knives can cut through anything.” Whatever you do you don’t take the salesman up on his challenge because you know then that you’ll feel obligated to buy his knives. That was Ahaz’s attitude. He knew that if he took God up on the offer to do a miracle, he would have to “buy into” God’s plan for him and change his life. Ahaz wasn’t interested in doing that.
At this stubbornness Isaiah nearly lost his temper, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 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” (Isaiah 7:13, 14). Ahaz was going to get a sign whether he liked it or not. A virgin would give birth to a son, a son who was more than human; a son who was also God. This sign, of course, was of no benefit to the unbelieving Ahaz for this special child would be born hundreds of years later when Ahaz was long dead.
So is the birth of God’s Son to the Virgin beneficial to us? “Of course!” you say. “It’s a sign that God is with us.” That’s true but is God’s presence what you really want? Think of it this way. If I tell you that a fire truck is parked outside your house, you don’t say, “Cool. I always wanted to see a fire truck up close.” Instead you’ll call home in a panic and to see what the matter is! The presence of a fire truck usually means that there is a problem. Likewise God’s holy presence among sinners should signify trouble too. For we, like Ahaz, have spurned God’s patient grace. Why even today God is offering us another miraculous sign that he is with us. In Holy Communion we will receive Jesus’ body and blood with the bread and wine. Yet how many times have we sauntered up here without true appreciation for what God offers? We come because we feel it’s expected of us, as if this is our spouse’s company Christmas party we’re obligated to attend. It’s because of sins like this that we need God’s presence, his gracious presence. Sure, you might panic to hear that there is a fire truck parked outside your house but then again you’ll be happy too. A fire truck comes to help. So did Jesus. He didn’t come down here to spy on us to see who’s been naughty or nice. Jesus came to save us from our sins. We need Jesus, the God-man, to do this saving for us because without him it would be like trying to put out a five-alarm fire with a squirt gun. We need more power than that to put out the fires of hell. We need Immanuel, God with us who smothered the fires of hell with the body he offered on the cross. Therefore we celebrate the birth of this child because his birth reminds us that God is on our side, that he is our friend and has come to save us!
There’s another equally important reason why we celebrate the birth of this child. Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus to show that they are with God, kind of like how (Saskatchewan) Roughrider fans wore green the week of the Grey Cup to show which team they were with. If King Ahaz were living today, however, I imagine he would laugh at our Christmas preparations, especially at the effort our Sunday School children are putting into the Christmas Eve service. “You really believe that stuff?” he would say. Ahaz would be content to leave baby Jesus away in a manger, out in the cold, out of his life (Westphal). After all Ahaz wanted to be the master of his own fate and be left to believe whatever he wanted to. To celebrate the birth of the Christ-child would mean having to relinquish that power.
Of course I haven’t met many Ahazes – people who refuse to celebrate Christmas. The problem is millions of people believe that you can celebrate Christmas without having to celebrate the birth of the Christ-child. In the United Arab Emirates, for example, they’ve decorated a Christmas tree with 11 million dollars worth of jewelry. The point isn’t to honor Jesus’ birth but to show off how rich they are. Could that be the point of the presents we stash under our trees? Do they declare: “Glory to us in the highest!”? Instead God wants you to celebrate the birth of Jesus with an attitude that signifies that you are with God, content to live how he wants us to live…by forgiving others, by enjoying Christmas parties without drinking too much, by spending less time shopping for the perfect gift and taking more time to reflect on the perfect gift we have already received in Jesus.
No, there’s nothing like a birthday party, especially when it’s commemorating the birth of our Savior, Jesus. Because of Jesus’ birth we no longer have to guess what God thinks about us. His birth is a sign that God is with us and is our friend. So celebrate Jesus’ birth as a sign that we, God’s thankful people, are with him. Amen.
