December 18, 2005

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A Great Light

Isaiah 40:1-13

            The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, each year displays a twenty-foot blue spruce Christmas tree covered with angels, with a beautiful eighteenth century Neapolitan nativity scene underneath.  In many ways it is a very familiar scene.  There are shepherds who have been jarred awake by the orchestra of heaven and the choir of countless angels, several sheep; the magnificent wise men from the East; Joseph; Mary; the newborn Jesus — all are there, and each figure a work of art by itself.  There is something unusual about this nativity, however, and many people miss it.  Even though there is a stable, a crib and shepherds, they are set, not in Bethlehem, but amid the ruins of Rome.  As a backdrop to the little manger there are broken and disintegrating Roman columns.  The message the artist gave was subtle, yet powerful.  This fragile, infant King would ultimately conquer all the kingdoms of this world.  Kings like Herod would realize how dangerous this King was and attempt to destroy him early on, and the Roman Caesars would endeavor to annihilate his followers.  But the presence of this King signaled the end of the rule of the kings of the earth.  It is an appropriate nativity scene, for he reigns in glory while their kingdoms lie in ruins.  The good news of the Kingdom of God was bad news for the kingdoms of this world.  His kingdom would be an everlasting kingdom, and theirs would hardly begin before they crumbled. 

            We sometimes become dismayed when the kingdoms of this world oppose the announcement of the King of kings at Christmas, but what would you expect?  It has never been any different, and while they used their might to oppose him, their empires lie in rubble and they are not remembered, while King Jesus marches on through history conquering hearts and overcoming kingdoms.  He speaks to our anxious and troubled hearts saying, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).  And so, we say with the Psalmist: “The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad” (Psalm 97:1). 

            What is the message of Christmas?  It is that God has invaded our world and it will never be the same.  The message of Christmas is that Jesus Christ reigns and will guide the history of the world to its final conclusion where he will have the final word.  He will redeem the world.  A kingdom of great joy is coming.  The angel’s message is still for us today: “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10).  Isaiah prophesied of his coming, saying, “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” (Isaiah 9:2).  The appearance of this Great Light was a profound event with eternal implications, for it was grounded in eternity.  The eternal Christ came from eternity past into our present, that we might be with him in eternity future. 

            The message of Christmas is multifaceted, but one facet is this: God is the sovereign Ruler of the world.  A sovereign is one who has complete power and is answerable to no one, and that is a word that applies to Jesus Christ in a way it applies to no other.  All of the commotion over Christmas amounts to this: it is the world’s resistance to acknowledging the sovereign rule of Jesus Christ over the world.  It is the rebellion and the refusal to acknowledge him as king. 

            You have to ask yourself: “What is the world so afraid of that they do not even want to mention the name of Christ during the season which celebrates his birth?”  The reason the world does not want his name mentioned is that they understand the power of that name.  Any talk of Jesus, the mere mention of him, can cause people to be drawn to him.  But as much as the world tries to deny him, it cannot resist him.  For now there may be a flurry of fussing, but in the end there will only be bending knees and tongues confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, because God has exalted him to the highest place and given him a name above every name (Philippians 2:8-11). 

            What the kings and rulers of this world fight against is their temporality, and the enduring rule of Jesus Christ.  It is hard to accept your limitations and the temporariness of your life.  The Bible says, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them.  Surely the people are grass.  The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:7-8). 

            If Jesus Christ would accept a place as merely one of the great leaders of the world, there would be no problem.  But that is exactly what he will not do.  He is the Creator and sovereign Lord over all the earth, and that is what rankles the power brokers of this world.  The world says, “There are many gods and many saviors.”  The Word says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).  Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).  He is the exclusive and universal Savior of the world.  He came from glory and will reign in glory through all eternity.  The book of Revelation speaks of the eternal reign of Christ saying: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). 

            It is an interesting and poignant fact of history that Rome, the very government that tried to destroy Jesus and his followers, was ultimately conquered by Christ.  In just over 300 years from the death of Christ, Christianity became the official religion of Rome.  And true to the image of the manger scene we talked about in the beginning, Christ continues to reign while the Roman Empire lays in ruins.  Christ is sovereign and his rule has never been interrupted. 

            Sometimes it may seem like the cruel cold of evil is leaving the world frozen in a lifeless winter, but the world has a surprise in store.  C. S. Lewis’ book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is the story about Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter, the Pevensie children, who step out of the wardrobe into another world they previously did not know existed.  It is a land under a spell cast by the white witch — a frozen world with little joy or beauty.  Lucy is the first to stumble through the back of the wardrobe into the mysterious country of Narnia, and although it is summer in England, where she entered the wardrobe, it is winter in Narnia.  There Lucy meets a Faun, Mr. Tumnus by name, who tells her that Narnia is dominated by the White Witch.  He says to Lucy, “It’s she that makes it always winter.  Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!”  Yes, think of that!  What would the world be like without Christ?  It would be always winter and never Christmas.  But in Narnia Aslan is on the move, and the result is that the ice and snow of winter begin to thaw.  In our world, it is the Spirit of Christ, the sovereign and King of this world, who begins to stir, which causes the world’s winter to turn into Christmas.  And Christmas soon turns to Spring when the winter thaws, bringing life and warmth to a world frozen by sin and evil.  The Lord will reverse the process, and it will become a time when it is always Christmas and never winter.  As Isaiah said, “And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.  For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. . . .  You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain.  You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, ‘Here is your God!’  See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him.  See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him” (Isaiah 40:5, 9-10).  He is the sovereign of the world. 

            Which brings us to the second message of Christmas: Because of Christmas, evil will not win.  The power of evil cannot ultimately win when there is a greater Power present.  The evil of the world may resist, it may fight, it may put on a show of strength, but it cannot win.  It is impossible.  Two friends of mine were hiking the Appalachian Trail.  They were enjoying the scenery and talking, not paying a lot of attention to the trail, when all of a sudden a large snake coiled and raised up like a rattler and hissed at them.  It was very aggressive and threatening.  They screamed a little and ran backwards until they tripped over each other.  It turned out to be a bullsnake, a perfectly harmless snake to humans.  It put on a great show, but it could only frighten them by looking threatening.  In the end that is the picture of evil. 

            I was reading in the book of Revelation this week where it says, “Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them!  But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you!  He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short” (Revelation 12:12).  Don’t get me wrong.  The devil can do great harm.  There are persecutions, illness, accidents, injury, tragedies and even death, but ultimately he cannot touch our standing with God and therefore cannot do any eternal harm.  We are frightened by his fury, but he is full of fear knowing his time is short when he will have to face his end. 

            Do you remember the days when the initial invasion of Iraq was raging?  Operation Iraqi Freedom was an overwhelming military presence that marched strait for Baghdad.  But all the while Mohammed al-Sahhaf, Iraq’s Minister of Information, daily tried to refute any reports that the Iraqi army was losing the war.  On April 6, after coalition forces seized Baghdad’s Saddam Airport and renamed it Baghdad International Airport, U.S. and coalition planes started flying in.  The Miami Herald quoted al-Sahhaf saying, “We butchered the force present at the airport.”  On April 7, after U.S. troops moved into central Baghdad and stormed Saddam’s Republican Palace, the Washington Post quoted al-Sahhaf saying, “There is no presence of the American columns in the city of Baghdad at all.  We besieged them, and we killed most of them.”  Al-Sahhaf was referred to as “Baghdad Bob” by the media, because his efforts to explain away the defeat of Iraqi forces became so comical and delusional.  As he was being interviewed by CNN, claiming that American forces were nowhere near Baghdad, American tanks could actually be seen in the background.  In the same way, evil tries to create the illusion that it is winning when in fact it has already lost.  Christmas signaled the end of evil. 

            A third facet to the meaning of Christmas is: The world is coming to a wonderful conclusion.  God is doing something wonderful in the world.  God is doing something wonderful in the world and he is inviting us to be a part of it.  The good news of Christmas is that goodness is at the heart of the universe.  I was listening to a CD of Handel’s Messiah by the London Philharmonic orchestra and choir as I drove this week.  I was deeply moved as the soprano soloist softly sang the words angels to the shepherds from the Gospel of Luke.  She concludes the solo by singing: “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying. . .”  And then she is joined by the great chorus representing a sky full of angels who sing at great volume: ‘Glory to God.  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to all men’” (Luke 2:13-14).  “Goodwill to all men.”  I felt like I was there as I listened to the chorus belting out the music.  As I listened I thought, “What an amazing message from God!  What a wonderful thing for the angels to say.”  They did not threaten and say that God was angry with the world.  They did not pronounce judgment on the world.  No, they announced that there was good will in the heart of God toward the people of the world.  Good will, not ill will.  Good will which would bring about good things.  God has done amazing things for the world and there is more to come. 

            It is easy to look back over a year of our country enmeshed in the violence of war, and a world scarred by terrorism, and become dismayed about the future of the world.  It is possible to focus on the brokenness of people’s lives and the world in general.  But the promise of Christmas is that God is on the move.  The winter is nearly over, the thaw has begun with the birth Jesus and eternal Spring is on its way.  The color and warmth of God’s presence is changing the world.  The angel of the Lord says to us what he said to the shepherds: “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10).  The prophet Malachi prophesied of the coming of the Lord when he wrote: “‘See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.  Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the Lord Almighty.”  Then Malachi asks this penetrating question: “But who can endure the day of his coming?  Who can stand when he appears?  For he will be like a refiner’s fire” (Malachi 3:1-3).

            Isaiah said: “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (Isaiah 40:5, KJV). 

            The Psalmist asks, “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.  ‘Let us break their chains,’ they say, ‘and throw off their fetters.’  The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them” (Psalm 2:1-4). 

Rodney J. Buchanan

December 18, 2005