May Your Days be Pensive and Right
Perhaps, like me, you’re feeling just a bit grinchy as we enter the final sprint toward Christmas. It’s understandable. That first Christmas party is novel and jovial, but by the 5th or 6th you’d gladly trade all the sugar plums in the world for a quiet night at home. What should be a time of warmth, celebration, and family gathering has been characterized since late September by gaudy storefront decorations and a pressure to spend. Something about Christmas, and especially Christmas gifts, brings out the worst in all of us. By the time we hang our stockings by the chimney with care, it's an existential care, not just a concern for tasteful decoration. We find ourselves wondering, will we never change? Is even this sacred holiday just an excuse for consumption, commercialism, and excess?
If you find yourself concerned for the future of humankind this Christmas, I would contend you’re more in the holiday spirit than any caroler or store-front Santa. In fact, your existential dread corresponds to one of the most prominent and essential themes in scripture. If the evil of the world makes your heart heavy this Christmas, think of the Biblical figures who’ve felt the same way:
Adam and Eve, clothed in fig leaves, and looking ahead through tears toward an uncertain future.
The confused and frustrated architects of Babel, walking away from their failed attempt to build their way to eternity.
The family of Noah, building a life in the soggy remains of an eradicated world.
The enslaved Israelites, weeping for their lost children at the edge of the Nile.
The writer of Judges, summing up the broken moral compass of his time with the words, “Each one did what was right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)
The Prophets, calling for repentance, generation after generation, as God’s chosen people continued not to choose Him.
The Israelites in exile, watching their culture and, in many cases, their very lives extinguished by Babylon.
The old men of Israel, weeping at the sight of the feeble temple built to replace their once great one. (Ezra 3:12)
The Israelites of the Roman Empire, waiting in desperation for a Messiah. After 400 years without a prophetic word, they had to be wondering if it was all over and if the future held anything other than Roman occupation.
As we read the gospels, it’s common to think we know better: That the disciples and other followers of Jesus got it wrong when they heard, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand” (Matthew 3:2) and expected an actual king.
The promise of Christmas, though, is that they got it right. They weren't wrong, they were just early. The weary world rejoices because when He returns, Jesus, the Prince of Peace, the feeder of 5000s and the healer of cripples will restore what humankind has shown it is hopeless to fix. King Jesus will rule an eternal Kingdom of peace and plenty (for a stirring description of this, read Isaiah 9:2-7). He is the healer of sin right now, and the eventual healer of all creation. As we read the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1, we should feel the weight of generations trapped in a cycle of sin and destruction. We should long for a leader like the long-dead David and we should yearn for the marginalized like Ruth to be protected. We should look around us, here and now, and sense the heaviness of the waiting - 2000 Christmases later we still so often fail to see Messiah through the glare of tinsel. More than anything though, we should feel hope. However dark the night, the light has come and the darkness will not overcome it.
If you arrive at Christmas this year with a heavy heart, you may be best positioned to celebrate the season of advent. The Savior is on the way, but we can’t appreciate him unless we recognize how desperate we are, how hopeless we are, without him.
May your Christmas bring you the thrill of hope. Come, Lord Jesus.
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