Good News of Great Joy?
“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,
Jack Frost nipping at your nose,
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir,
And folks dressed up like Eskimos”
Most of us are familiar with this delightful “Christmas Song” made famous by Nat King Cole and others. It’s a delightful song, and one of my favorites. But it has nothing to do with the story of Christmas.
Few would argue that over the past few decades Christmas has become commercialized. For many people it has become commercialized to the point of irritation. But I would go even farther to suggest that Christmas has been reduced so far from its meaning that Christmas, as we celebrate it today, actually may do more harm than good for many people. Christmas has been so perverted that its meaning has been reversed from the narrative from which it grew.
Christmas trees loaded with gifts, warm fires, tasty treats, memorable music, smiling faces, Elves, and sparkling lights have conspired to paint a picture of a season that revolves around good feelings, happiness, and good cheer. All of which have nothing to do with the birth of Christ.
The true narrative of Christ’s birth, God coming in the flesh, is about the Creator of the universe humbling Himself and coming into a hostile world, to a people who despise Him, a people who would even try to kill Him as an infant, a people who finally succeeded in brutally crucifying the only innocent human ever born.
This King of the universe, this Savior of the world, chose to come to us not as a king in a golden palace, but as a baby in animal feeding trough, a baby born not into a royal family but into a poor working family. He was born living under the rule of a narcissistic, insane ruler who didn’t hesitate to kill an entire town’s two-year-old population in an effort to protect his wicked kingship. This is hardly the scene you would expect for the first Merry Christmas.
That’s my point.
Christmas isn’t about you being merry.
The birth of Christ is about God humbling Himself, coming in the flesh, and living amongst a wicked, sin-filled people that want nothing to do with Him but desperately need Him. The narrative of Christ’s birth is about the King of the universe coming to the scum of the universe and doing the work they refused to do, the work they are not able to do. He came in order that He might love them perfectly. He came to redeem them from their sin.
It’s no wonder that so many people are depressed at Christmas. Christmas has been reduced to loving, smiling families getting together around food, gifts and good cheer. If you are one whose spouse, mom, dad, son, daughter, sister, brother, grandma, or grandpa has died, then what good is that kind of Christmas? If your family isn’t loving and doesn’t get together, where’s the merry? If the tree is void of gifts for your children, what’s the point of Christmas? If you can’t live up to your Christmas duties of making the Christmas bright, colorful, cheery, and tasty, why bother with Christmas at all?
If Christmas is not a merry time for you, then Christmas is especially for you.
Christmas is especially for you because it is not about being merry. Christmas is about being hope-filled in the midst of a hopeless world. Christmas is about God coming to you, especially because you could not come to Him.
You don't have to be merry to receive the gift of Joy in the manger.
“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy!” the angel announced to the shepherds while they were watching their sheep by night. This good news of great joy came because those shepherds were living in a harsh, wolf-eat-sheep, even a wolf-eat-shepherd world.
What was this good news that the angel brought? Was it that the shepherds would no longer have hard lives to live? Was the good news that they would never be unhappy again? Was the good news that they would live in comfortable homes, eat tasty treats at Christmas, and sing memorable songs around a toasty warm fire? Was the good news that they would each receive just what they asked for from Santa, and more?
No.
The good news was not about having a “Wonderful Life”. Christmas was, and is, not about great feelings, good food, and singing. Christmas is about what the angels said it was about, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Repent, for making Christmas something it’s not. Repent with great joy, because, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
For you!
Great joy because your sins have been forgiven by a God who came to die your death on a brutal cross. Great Joy because God still comes to you today through His word, in your baptism, and in Holy Communion, bringing you the faith. He comes to you today in forgiveness that seals you to Himself for eternity.
That is the great joy.
Great joy is not a feeling, but rather it’s a knowing. Great joy is not fleeting but eternal. Great joy is the result of the good news proclaimed by the angelic hosts. It is the good news that God has enfleshed Himself in order to redeem all flesh.
Merry Christmas doesn’t cut it.
This good news is so much more than just being merry. Being merry is fine for things like chestnuts roasting on an open fire, but that’s not what the angels came to announce.
The Christmas narrative, the Christmas story, didn’t revolve around the gifts from the Magi or around the picturesque star, but around the God-Man infant, lying in humble means, who was poised to do the greatest work ever done by a human - live a perfect God pleasing sinless life and then give it all up, to redeem a people who despised him.
The prophet Isaiah said it this way;
“Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.”
This is not good cheer. This is not festive food. This is not nostalgic music.
This is sacrifice. This is the sacrifice of God.
For you!
This is the source of your joy.
The writer of Hebrews gives us a great picture of what joy really means, when he tells us; “…Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.”
Joy set before him?
Clearly, this sacred text is not talking about a euphoric feeling. There is nothing warm and fuzzy about being abandoned, brutally beaten, and nailed to a Roman cross to die. There is nothing warm and fuzzy about receiving the wrath of both God and man for things you didn’t do.
No, the great joy that comes to us because of the good news, that is, the Gospel, is a joy that transcends our flesh. It’s a joy that transcends our pain, our depression, and our loneliness. It’s a joy that defies logic. This joy is yours. It’s a gift from God, the result of faith, and this joy cannot be taken from you.
So, pass the coffee and the pumpkin pie, turn up the Christmas music, open those gifts with glee, and have another piece of fudge!
Or not.
Either way, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
For you! Amen.
