Text: Isaiah 52:7-10
Date: December 25, 2020
Event: The Nativity of Our Lord (Christmas Day), Year B
Isaiah 52:7-10 (EHV)
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of a herald,
who proclaims peace and preaches good news,
who proclaims salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God is king!”
8The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voices.
Together they shout for joy,
because with both eyes they will see it
when the Lord returns to Zion.
9Break out, shout for joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem,
because the Lord is comforting his people.
He is redeeming Jerusalem.
10The Lord lays bare his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation from our God.
Look! The Arm of the Lord!
Christmas celebrations are so familiar to us that it can become easy to not stop and consider the oddities surrounding it. But, perhaps this year’s pandemic restrictions mean that we’re taking a fresh look at the ways we celebrate by virtue of this year’s celebrations being forced into being strange. We didn’t get together last night as a congregation nor are we together this morning. Maybe you’re having your family Christmas celebrations this year via teleconference. Even for me, right now, I’m having to get manufacture some “Christmas energy” ahead of Christmas itself for this special prerecorded service rather than it naturally happening in the moment as we’d normally gather for worship this morning.
Regardless of where we are or how we’re celebrating this moment, the prophet Isaiah can help us put our celebrations in their appropriate context this morning. We are not simply celebrating the birth of a baby. We are not simply observing tradition or a enjoying reason to be off of work or school. This morning we are celebrating the announcement of the good news, the best news: How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of a herald, who proclaims peace and preaches good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God is king!”
Today we are celebrating the reign of our eternal King and the salvation that he has worked. This morning is nothing less than the celebrating of rescue from sin, death, and hell and the assurance of eternal life with our God forever!
But it doesn’t really look like it, right? It looks like a poor couple being forced by their government into a harsh journey at the worst possible time in their family’s life, and having no place for a baby to be born but among the animals, with a feeding trough for a bed. This looks more like sadness and systemic failure than joy and salvation.
But Isaiah tells us what we’re really seeing here: The Lord lays bare his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation from our God. This little tiny helpless child is the arm of the Lord, the strength of God, being made clear to all people. Christmas is God rolling up his sleeves, digging into his promised work, his work to save us from our eternal death. Christmas is step one of his plan that will lead Jesus to the cross to die for our sins and then to his resurrection that will prove his victory for us.
It perhaps doesn’t look like it. Perhaps this year it doesn’t feel like it. But here in Bethlehem God is starting to do what he had promised to do. The long-promised Savior old the world is here. Christmas is the triune God saying, “Now it’s time to get to work.” And his work is focused on you, your rescue, your eternal safety and well being. Nothing else matters to him but that you are freed from your slavery to sin and death. He’s going to do everything we need him to do to save us.
The Word became flesh for you. This baby was born in these humble surroundings for you. The arm of the Lord has been laid bare for you. God is using his almighty power to rescue you. Christmas is a clear demonstration that God loves, selflessly loves you, self-sacrificingly loves you. How beautiful is the proclamation of that truth this morning, and forever! Thanks be to God! Merry Christmas! Amen.
