Sermon for MHBC (24 December 2020). You can listen on Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, or our website. Live at 11:00am on Sundays.
The Christmas Eve service is a service of watching and waiting. It’s a service of demonstrating our hope in the coming of King Jesus. We are longing for renewal. I think we can all agree that 2020 has shaken us. For me, the year began with devastating news about a friend. In February, we were told our 37-week old baby was not growing properly and should probably be taken early. In March, we all know what happened. Then, the Summer revealed deep problems in our society. In September, we started making the move to Richmond—which we are grateful for, but saying goodbye to a congregation that I had served for almost six years, buying a home, moving, and starting a new job were all stressful. Additionally, in September, I experienced depression, despair, and anxiety unlike anything I have ever experienced—it has been a Dark Night of the Soul that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I don’t say this to say that my year has been harder than yours. I doubt it has. 2020 has been an awakening for many of us.
We have all had to face up to the great tragedy in our world—to the reality that all is not well. The biblical authors know all about this. Cursed is the land Genesis tells us. Genesis also tells us that every inclination of humankind is evil. Paul tells us in Romans that creation itself groans in pain, longing for redemption. Isaiah says violence and injustice and unrighteousness and idolatry and sorrow and suffering fill the earth.
But Isaiah also tells us that God has not abandoned the world. God is going to act decisively to undo the corruption of his creation. He’s going to topple the power structures and bring genuine wholeness to this world. He’s going to right wrongs. And he’s going to do it all, as we saw on Sunday, through a suffering servant, a king, who wins his victory through sacrifice. This king’s name is Jesus.
I want to begin tonight by looking at Isa 61:1–4. This passage is quoted by Jesus in the NT as a reference to himself, so we know that through Christ, God is renewing the world. Look at v. 1 with me: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me [anointed = Messiah/Christ] to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” Do you see the reversals happening here? Through Christ, God is reversing the curse of this world. The poor are hearing good news. The brokenhearted are being healed. Captives are set free. This is the work of God in our world. It’s not some sort of vague spirituality. It is an invasion. Through Christ, God has entered into our world to bring life.
And there’s more. Verse 2: “To proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.” Notice this contrast. There is proclamation of favor and blessing. A new day is dawning. But there’s also this statement about vengeance. Now that seems harsh doesn’t it? But it’s a way of saying that everything that opposes the goodness of God will be thrown down. Those forces that bring oppression, suffering, and pain to creation are going to be dealt with by God himself. Surely you would agree with the following: There is real evil in the world. Our world doesn’t just need a warm fuzzy god. We need a God who can deal with evil. And we seem to catch a glimpse of it in the Christmas story. As J. Richard Middleton pointed out, there’s an evil king in the middle of the Christmas story named Herod. Sleep in heavenly peace takes on a whole different tone in the Gospel accounts. Jesus is born into a world of wickedness, violence, and great evil. The significance of the light coming into the world is that the darkness is being consumed. Here I quote Middleton: “[This] is what Christmas is all about: the decisive blow God dealt to evil, injustice and suffering at the cross.”[1]
And that means there will be an end to the sorrow. Verse 3: “To grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes [a crown of celebration instead of sorrow], the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.” All of this will bring glory to God as he renews his creation.
Isaiah’s proclamation concerns both the physical and the spiritual. He has in mind people who are held captive by impossible life circumstances and he has in mind those who are held captive to the spiritual powers and authorities that govern the world. The work of Christ is not just to get us to heaven, but it is to reverse the brokenness of this world, to bring healing, to bring order, to bring justice.
And we see the renewal in v. 4 beginning with a phrase that is repeated a few times in the book: “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.” I love this language of building up the ancient ruins. The time is coming when all the devastation of this world will be completely renewed.
In fact, the final chapters of Isaiah tell us this. Look at Isa 65:17–19 with me: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.” Now this doesn’t necessarily mean creation as we know it will cease to exist and something new will replace it. There is debate about that, but from Revelation the picture seems to be that this is a newness in the sense of renewal. The entire cosmos will be renewed. Verse 17 continues: “and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.” Verse 18: “But be glad and rejoice forever in that I create, for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness.” Verse 19: “I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.”
Doesn’t your heart long for this? A world not marred by weeping and distress? A world not riddled with grief and pain? This is the hope of Christianity. This is the power of the gospel. Christ has come to bring life into this world. His death is powerful enough to consume everything broken in this world—sin, Satan, and death. Think of the cross as a black hole. In the death of Jesus Christ, the darkness of this world is absorbed, and in his resurrection, it is left in the grave as he bursts forth in blazing light.
This is what Advent is all about. In the darkness, we proclaim that God has acted decisively. But now we wait. We wait, longing for a second advent, the coming of King Jesus, the renewal of creation. But what do we do while we wait? Isaiah tells us in this section. Just one example will do. Isaiah 56:1: “Thus says the LORD: Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come and my deliverance be revealed.” While we wait, we seek to do the will of the Lord, which means loving him with our whole person and loving our neighbor as ourselves. And we do this, Isaiah says, because we know salvation is near.
Paul says the same in Rom 13:11–14:
Besides this, since you know the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is nearly over, and the day is near; so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk with decency, as in the daytime: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
We wait. We watch. We stay alert. We follow Christ.
A little over 2000 years ago, God entered into the darkness of human history. And now on Christmas Eve in 2020, we may feel that the suffocating darkness around us. But we are here to bear witness to our confession. The light of the world has come and the ruins will be rebuilt.
On March 25, 1988, around 2000 people, mostly Christians, stood in the public square of Bratislava. They lit candles and prayed as a protest against the crimes and oppression of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, particularly the murder of priest Štefan Polák. This action may seem insignificant to our pragmatic minds, but it was deeply disturbing to the regime. They responded by running police cars into the crowd, beating demonstrators, and using water cannons to clear the square. This was no insignificant moment in history. The 40-year totalitarian reign would crumble the next year.[2]
Being here tonight might seem like just another event during the Christmas season. But I hope you will see the broader significance. We are doing something profoundly powerful. We are bearing witness to the deepest truth in the universe. The true light has come into the world and the darkness cannot overcome it.
[1] https://jrichardmiddleton.com/2015/12/22/lets-put-herod-back-into-christmas-a-meditation-on-matthew-21-23/
[2] https://spectator.sme.sk/c/22083731/candle-manifestation-anniversary-31-years.html