Christmas and its message have never been more relevant than at this moment in time.
There have been such rapid changes over the past decade—technological, cultural, social, and political changes—that the current level of nervousness and uncertainty is only to be expected. There is a growing tone of fear and anxiety in much commentary both here and around the world. What is going to happen in the Middle East over the next few months? Why hasn’t the defeat of IS brought an end to terrorism in the name of religion in other parts of the world? What are going to be the international consequences of Brexit and a new US taxation regime? What will some of the more unpredictable national leaders say or do next? Are we in the West entering a new era where freedom is surrendered in the name of vested interests and political correctness? What will be the medium to long-term consequences of the unravelling of what have been our most basic common commitments about the nature and value of human life, human sexuality, the importance of family, the care of the most vulnerable? Change and uncertainty exist at so many points as 2017 draws to a close that it is easy to understand why some are overwhelmed.
Yet it was precisely into a world of change and uncertainty, of military muscle and politically motivated injustice, where long-held verities were under challenge and immorality was endorsed at the highest level, and where economic disadvantage seemed to be permanently entrenched by those with power, that ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’. His coming was described as from the start a struggle between light and darkness and the great message of the Christian gospel is that ‘the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it’. Herod might dispatch a band of thugs to slaughter the Christ child before he could grow to manhood, an angry gang of zealots might try to end his teaching career the minute he challenged their notion of privileged religious status, Pilate might surrender to the will of the mob and hand Jesus over to be crucified and even set an official Roman seal upon the door to his tomb, but the one the angel said would ‘save his people from their sins’ triumphed at every point. He did what he came to do, and in both rising from the dead and ascending to his Father’s side, he set the seal on his victory. It had never been in doubt, not even for a moment.
Christmas is a reminder that, over and above all the petty manoeuvrings of politicians of whatever persuasion, of military leaders with or without ballistic missiles, of religious dignitaries who long ago abandoned the responsibilities entrusted to them, and of special interest groups no matter how successful they are in garnering public support (at least for a while), a determined plan to rescue us from the mess each one of us have made of our lives was enacted by the God who made us and loves us. It is a reminder that God will not let go and God will always win. God entered the world he had made as one of us. He endured the conditions of human existence, especially, in the most intense way, the hostility that human beings have shown for the God who gives them life—every heartbeat, every breath. The light shone in the darkness. The darkness did all it could to snuff it out. But the darkness has not overcome it.
Christmas is a reminder that God will not let go and God will always win. The light shone in the darkness. The darkness did all it could to snuff it out. But the darkness has not overcome it.
Ten centuries before that first Christmas, King David wrote,
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us’. He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
The changes and uncertainties of this present moment have not made the slightest mark upon God and his rule, nor have they in the slightest derailed his plan to ‘save his people from their sins’. The harder those who oppose God’s Christ work to dethrone him, and the more concerted and concentrated their efforts, the more we need to be reminded that ‘He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision’. There is a reality that puts everything else in perspective. It is not that God is amused by the opposition to him. No, rather he sees the futility of such a refusal to acknowledge him, whether it be clothed in ferocity or sophisticated self-justification. It can be so serious, so measured, so confidently expressed in terms of human maturity and integrity and movement towards some social and moral ideal. Yet it is always simply the outworking of the decision made back in the Garden of Eden, to decide for ourselves what is true and what is false, what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong, without reference to God. From the beginning that has led to disaster.
God has not abandoned us to the chaos, confusion and cruelty we have created for ourselves by that decision and all that flowed from it. In a dusty, dirty stable in a Jewish village on the edge of nowhere, during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, a child was born. That child was God with us, the Word become flesh. He came as the answer to promises made over the centuries before, that God would act decisively to rescue human beings and to do that without ignoring the seriousness of what we have done to ourselves and to each other. The manger was a step closer to the cross where our rebellion against God and his rule was borne by him at its most intense point, and to the empty tomb where the verdict of God was given for all who will put their trust in the crucified and risen Saviour.
Christmas has never been more relevant because the conditions that made it necessary are increasingly evident all around us. Christmas is the reminder that uncertainty and change ought not to bring fear and despair because there is one thing that is entirely certain and does not change: God is still determined to rescue human beings and restore them to fellowship with himself. The key is and always has been the man who was born in that stable in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago. The good news Christians have to share, the gospel, is ultimately about him. It is ‘the gospel concerning God’s Son’. Peace, reconciliation, good will, security — all of these are empty abstractions apart from him. Yet in him they are the most magnificent counter to the anxious spirit of our age.
First published at https://markdthompson.blogspot.com.au
