“Jesus, Our Hope”

So this is Christmas. You’ve heard the song haven’t you? “So this is Christmas and what have you done? Another year over; a new one just begun. Let’s hope it’s a good one with plenty of cheer.” We can always hope, can’t we? Or can we?

So this is Christmas. Have you ever said that with more resignation than excitement? Have you ever said it with more disappointment than joy? “So this is Christmas?”

Somewhere in a family gathering there will be a moment when hearts are torn because the place at the table is empty where a precious loved one had once been. Cherished traditions will be robbed of their joy. How can we put the star on the tree without Uncle Bob? Where will we have Christmas dinner now that Grandma is no longer with us? How can we hang all the other stockings when little Billy won’t be here to enjoy his? “Joy to the World” was Father’s favorite carol. How can we sing it without him? Will we ever have joy again? So this is Christmas.

Somewhere a soldier patrols the streets of a shattered city. His mind is not preoccupied with turkey and mistletoe, gifts and carols, or candles and lights on the tree. Every sense is alert. Every nerve is on end. “Will it be a roadside bomb, a suicide bomber, or a sniper?” Celebration is the farthest thing from his mind. Survival is his all-consuming thought. So this is Christmas.

A hungry child shivers in the cold, waiting for a soup kitchen to serve Christmas dinner, the annual holiday reprieve from life as usual. For a moment, warmth and food will intoxicate his senses. Tomorrow, it’s back to the trashcans and cardboard shelters, back to hunger and homelessness. When will they ever stop wandering from town to town? When will his mom find a good job, so they can move beyond scratching out a meager existence? So this is Christmas.

Now how do we pay for everything? We charged and borrowed to buy Christmas, only to receive a termination notice two days before the holiday? Where do we find a new job? How do we meet all our financial obligations? So this is Christmas.

Do cancer and caroling go hand in hand? How does a broken body sing, “’Tis the season to be jolly?” When fear and sickness sweep over you in waves, where do you find the voice to sing, “Fa-la-la-la-la?” So this is Christmas.

Fire, earthquake, tidal wave, flood, drought, blizzard, accident; the timing of tragedy is never kind. Death catches humanity unaware. Injuries and inconveniences change schedules, alter lives. So this is Christmas.

A Roman decree sends families scurrying back to their ancestral cities to register. Enrollment means “taxes,” and as we all know taxation without representation is galling. Taxation without representation is oppression and tyranny. The families who go back to their ancestral homes to register so they can pay taxes are an oppressed people, who live with cruel taskmasters and know the bitterness of Roman rule. Can anybody say, “Egypt” all over again? So this is Christmas.

Day by day, week after week, year upon year, decade following decade, century fading into century; for 400 years there has been no voice of a prophet. The heavens have been silent; no word of the Lord, no new revelation from God, and no promised Messiah. The people have prayed, “Deliver us! Deliver us, O Lord!” There has been no deliverance. So this is Christmas.

A poor peasant couple takes shelter in a stable among the livestock of the household. There the woman labors. She pants and groans. Sometimes sharp cries escape her lips with the intensity of her contractions. The man waits anxious and dutiful, watching, praying, doing all he can do to help the midwife and comfort his wife. A little, rough-hewn trough used to feed the donkey just a few hours ago, now stands filled with moldy, dusty hay, ready to receive a child. This is Christmas?

Depressing, huh? Our world, the biblical world, the human world; it is a broken place. The reality we experience day after day doesn’t change when we wake up on Christmas morning. The celebration of Christmas rarely heals any wounds or fixes any of the problems we have lived into this day or will carry with us out of it into our tomorrows.

We call this the season of hope, and joy, and love. What do we mean when we use those descriptors? Are we possessed by some Pollyanna mentality with its “head stuck in the sand” when it comes to reality? Do we use Christmas as an escape from the harshness of living, like some euphoric cultural drug that titillates our dulled senses into believing in peace and goodwill despite all the evidence to the contrary? How is there hope, real hope, life-changing hope, world-arranging hope, when Christmas comes and goes year after year leaving nothing more than a sweet after-taste in our mouths, so that we can’t wait until it rolls around again.

Thankfully the Scriptures aren’t fantasy or wishful thinking. The hope given according to the biblical revelation comes to us at night. There is something realistic about the darkness of the night. We sing, “It came upon a midnight clear,” but it wasn’t a midnight clear. It was a dark night that represented a cold, hard, broken, sometimes lonely, sometimes cruel world. The kind of world you and I live in. Into that world where people weep and are hurting and broken there was a cry.

It was a cry of a fragile little baby breaking upon history’s scene. Strips of cloth are wrapped around his tiny body. His mother nuzzles him close for warmth and nourishment. Does the wonder of the picture still amaze you, or have you gone through so many Christmases that you have become deadened to the mystery? In the fragility of a tiny baby crying at his mother’s breast, where livestock nervously move about, and a weary peasant leans against the wall pondering how he will care for his family, the hope of the world comes. This is Christmas.

The hope of the world comes, and no one notices. The world is oblivious. Why would it take notice? Babies are born all the time, especially to peasants; and the setting is almost always crude. You’d think someone would explain to them how to keep that from happening until they had a little more financial stability. No one recognizes that hope has been born.

The couple in the stable with their baby has some idea. Words of revelation have been given to them. Promises and visions and dreams have been communicated to them that this child is much more than He seems. He is God’s gift to humanity: a Savior, a rescuer, the hope of the world. This is Christmas.

No one else has the foggiest idea, however. No one even notices the child is born. No king, philosopher, priest, or religious leader is aware. No one knows, until a group of angels break the tranquility of the night sky outside Bethlehem where shepherds are keeping their flock. As they fill the quiet, night sky with their heavenly glory, they announce a message, a word of revelation, tidings of great joy. “A Savior has been born to you!”

The angels highlight a peasant child and say, “Hey, don’t be afraid. Here is a word of good news: A Savior has been born to you! This is good news not only for the select few, the rich and powerful, the beautiful people, those who have it all together; it is good news for everyone. The poor, the silly, the foolish, the sinful, the broken, the hurting; this is news for all people, and it is GOOD NEWS! A Savior has been born to you. He is the Christ. He is the Lord. You will know what we say is true, when you run into Bethlehem and find a broken hovel of a stable. Within you will see a peasant couple and a fragile baby wrapped in bands of cloth. When you see them, you will know God is at work among you. You will know there is a Savior.” Then the angels began to sing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” The babe in the manger is the hope of the world, and this is Christmas.

The babe in the manger is exactly what we need. You see, we are foolish. We are disobedient. We are deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We live in malice and envy and hatred. That’s us! We are foreigners to the covenant of promise. We are far away, and without hope. We are hopeless!

We are a hopeless cause. We can’t fix ourselves. We can’t make our day better by trying harder. We have no future. We have no promise. We have no hope! That’s us! We couldn’t change if we wanted to. Try as hard as we might, no matter how hard we tried, we are hopeless.

The good news the angels sing over us, however, is, “A Savior has been born to you.” A Savior has been born for us! We needed rescuing, and God has provided a rescuer. We needed delivering, and God has provided a deliverer. We needed redeeming, and God has provided a redeemer. We can be forgiven. We can be pardoned. We can experience reconciliation with God. We can become sons and daughters of God. A Savior has been born to us! This is Christmas.

When the kindness and love of God our savior appeared, he saved us not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:4-6).

All who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God (John 1:12-13).

Jesus is our hope for He is our Savior. He is the only one who can rescue us from the brokenness of our world. He is the only one who can deliver us from the shackles of sin, death, and hell that so dominate our day-to-day to reality. In Him is our hope, and this is Christmas.

Jesus is our Savior. He is also our Christ, our Messiah. He is the promised One, in whom all the promises of God are, “Yes!” Every promise for wholeness, every promise of taking up all our broken pieces and making something beautiful again are “yes” in this one called “the Christ.”

Isaiah had prophesied, “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. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:6-7a).

Peace. For the citizens of Rome, like Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus, peace was the “Pax Romana,” the peace of the Empire. Peace referred to the order and stability of the Empire. All the subjected peoples were content, not trying to rise up and throw off the Roman yoke. The flow of trade was smooth. Education and the exchange of ideas were uninterrupted. The “peace” the angels announced, however, was of a different character than this. Peace didn’t refer to God’s pleasure because all of humanity was no longer trying to throw off His yoke. The peace the angels announce in Jesus the Messiah is the peace of God’s activity, where the Lord has entered into lives of people like you and me, who are very good at throwing off His yoke, to make all things new and whole and holy. The Lord has come into the midst of the mess we’ve made of things, and is at work to bring the broken pieces back together and make His creation whole again. The Lord is creating peace—wholeness, rightness, righteousness, healing, strength—and inviting all of humanity whom He graces with His love into His peace! The angels announced peace. Jesus is our hope because He is our peace, who has broken down every obstacle to wholeness and holiness, is making all things new, and fulfilling all the promises of God for you and for me. This is Christmas!

Jesus is our Savior. Jesus is our Messiah, our Peace. Jesus is our Lord. “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” What does the angelic announcement of Jesus’ Lordship means for us? In keeping with messianic prophecy its significance is simply this: Jesus is our hope because He is Lord, the only answer for our need.

In some of the great messianic prophecies of Isaiah there runs this theme emphasizing that you can go to a lot of different places—Isaiah usually calls them idols, sometimes the nations—trying to find answers for your life. For Isaiah, such activity is like chasing the wind, an exercise in futility. Listen to Isaiah as he writes, “But those who trust in idols, who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back in utter shame” (42:17). Utter shame. Haven’t we found that to be true? We have tried all the other answers to meet the needs of our lives to our shame.

Isaiah’s message offers hope to the misled and self-deceived, however, by pointing to One who is the Lord. “I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior” (Isaiah 43:11). “Is there any god beside me? No, there is no other rock; I know not one” (Isaiah 44:8). Go try to stand anywhere else and it is sinking sand. Try to find a different foundation on which to build your life, and those foundations are going to shift and crumble, crack and break. But build your life on this Savior; build your life on this Christ; build your life on the one who is Lord, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, and your footing will be rock-solid. The Lord is the answer. All the things we might experience, all the circumstances that might come our way, every trouble or trial, every sin or heartache; for it all, He is the answer. There is no other. Not the multitude of self-help books and programs, but Jesus; HE is the answer. He is the answer, for He is the only One truly able to bear the title “Lord.” Jesus is Lord. Jesus is the answer to every heartache and hardship we face. He is our hope. And this is Christmas!

The scriptures declare, “The people living in darkness, have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Matthew 4:16). Brother and sister, Jesus is the light. Jesus is the light because God knows we live in a world of darkness. God didn’t send Jesus into a “Cinderella World,” where everything ends happily ever after as Cinderella and Prince Charming go riding into the sunset. God didn’t send Jesus into that kind of world. He sent Jesus into a world filled with Roman Centurions, filled with heartache and hardship, filled with poor peasants who birthed their babies in stables. That's the kind of world into which God sent Jesus, and sends Jesus still today. Jesus comes to a world where people mourn and grieve, where hearts are broken and sin reigns. He comes because He is the answer for that kind of world!

If Jesus is not an answer for that kind of world, He is no answer at all! Christmas is a charade. Jesus is a charlatan. The message of the angels is old-fashioned snake oil: high on promise, low on cure. If Jesus is not the answer for a broken world, we need to quit pretending. We need to stop playing the Christmas game, silence the carols, and throw out the gifts. We need to get rid of the nativity scenes, and make sure we throw the baby out as well. If Jesus is not the answer for our kind of world . . .

But He is! Brother and Sister, Jesus is the answer for our kind of world. For our greatest heartaches, for our greatest sorrows, for all the situations and circumstances that cause us to feel so hopeless, Jesus is the answer. This is Christmas. This is why we celebrate.

So this is Christmas. The story continues with three kings; we don’t know if it was just three, but they have three gifts. The kings come to Jesus. One king bears frankincense. Another king carries myrrh. The third brings the purest gold. We forget, however, that there is a fourth king and a fourth gift in the Christmas story. It is the King lying in the manger; and while one holds frankincense and another, myrrh, and another, the purest gold, this King holds the hope of the world.

Let me ask a question, “Have you taken the one who holds the hope of the world, and held Him in your heart this Christmas season?” No matter where we are in life’s journey; no matter how busy or complex our lives may seem to be; no matter how transfixed we have become with the darkness of circumstances around us, there is One who comes to us this morning and invites us to experience a birth of hope. His coming is not false hope, not hope that doesn’t make a difference. His coming is hope that transforms us, transforms life, and makes all things new. His name is Jesus, sweet, little Jesus boy, crucified and resurrected Savior, coming Lord and King. Have you taken the one who holds the hope of the world, and held Him in your heart this Christmas season?

You know that night only a group of shepherds on a hillside saw, and came, and received, and went away praising God. There were lots of other people in the vicinity. I am sure there were some in Bethlehem who thought they were seeing the Aurora Borealis in the night sky. None went and found the Christ child, however. Would that be true of any of us today? The hope of the world is in our midst, but we miss Him. We are in the vicinity of the greatest gift ever given, but fail to recognize, or take time to go, see, and receive. This is Christmas. Jesus is Christmas. Have we held Him in our hearts? Has He become our hope?

Whether we have known Him all our lives, or have never known what it is to be in a personal relationship with Him, or find ourselves somewhere in between, will we receive into our hearts Jesus, our hope, afresh and anew today? Will He become not just the hope of the world, but our own personal hope as well? So this is Christmas, and what have we done?