Why Did Jesus Really Come?

There is a phrase that you hear more and more this time of year, as we get closer and closer to Christmas. The phrase is ‘the true meaning of Christmas.’ Mostly you hear it used with an unhappy tone as people are missing out on ‘the true meaning of Christmas.’ I’m one of these people who like to be precise about words, so I often try to think just what it is that people mean when they talk about ‘the true meaning of Christmas.’

Mostly the phrase is used to say they don’t like some of the things that are happening. Running around like a chicken with its head cut off isn’t part of the true meaning of Christmas, although this season can get you doing just that with all the expectations for shopping and decorating and cooking and gatherings. We can get caught up in those things, but to a degree we fight them because we know they aren’t the true meaning of Christmas.

Often the phrase is used to say we don’t like Christmas being so commercialized and secularized, where the guest of honor is forgotten at his own birthday party.

It’s usually not said so clearly, but I think that often when people talk about the ‘true meaning of Christmas,’ they are being nostalgic for warm family times together, when the problems of the world can be shut out for at least one day, when we can meet all our needs and desires for nice presents and good food and family closeness, a warm and cozy church service with joyful music, a break from work and school, fresh snow on the ground and a warm fire in the fireplace. And since, in the real world, it’s often difficult to pull off that perfect Christmas, we are often left feeling nostalgic for that dream of ‘a real Christmas.’

But is that really why Jesus came, warm, family times together, at home and at church, with the doors shut, and all the goodies for us?

The Old Testament lesson for today gives a different picture of why Jesus came. Go ahead and have a wonderful family Christmas together. But this is the time of year when we may be most aware of the conflicting priorities that pull us, so it is a good time to talk about our priorities.

Our text is Isaiah 61:1-4. It is printed out for you in your bulletin. It is very significant as a statement of why Jesus came because this is the text that Jesus used in his hometown synagogue explain to his neighbors what God had called him to do. Listen as I read it to you.

“1 The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,

because the LORD has anointed me;

he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,

to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and release to the prisoners;

2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor,

and the day of vengeance of our God;

to comfort all who mourn;

3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion—

to give them a garland instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness instead of mourning,

the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

the planting of the LORD, to display his glory.

4 They shall build up the ancient ruins,

they shall raise up the former devastations;

they shall repair the ruined cities,

the devastations of many generations.”

At home we easily spend all of our focus on our families. In church we all to easily spend all our focus on ourselves, just plain keeping the institution going.

But open your bulletins and follow along with me. I’m going to read the first two verses again and stop each time the passage lists a type of person who should be our focus, the types of persons to whom Jesus was called, the types of persons that he calls us to focus on as well. And when I stop, you call out where the focus should be.

“The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,

because the LORD has anointed me;

he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,

to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and release to the prisoners;

to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor,

and the day of vengeance of our God;

to comfort all who mourn;”

It almost sounds strange, doesn’t it? We may not be used to thinking like that. Can you imagine a church that had its primary focus on people who were oppressed, brokenhearted, captives, prisoners, and mourners? Isn’t that strange?

Why should we make them our focus? And what happens when we do?

For the why, let’s look at a couple of the categories. Isaiah said God had called him to bring good news to the oppressed, only in the New Testament it is translated as ‘the poor,’ but the Hebrew word that Isaiah used and the Greek word used to report what Jesus said aren’t all that different. It means, those who are on the bottom. And Jesus agreed that his call was the same as Isaiah’s.