Friday Communication - 8th December 2023
While it is an awful thing to read of, I am always grateful that the Holy Spirit recorded through Matthew Herod’s cynical slaughter of the male babies of the Bethlehem region [Matt. 2:16-18], that we hear in the Christmas story ‘weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children.’ I am grateful because it, along with the dislocation it brings to Joseph and his family, assures me that the Lord Jesus is born into the world we know, the world in which we live, and it legitimises the grief many of us will feel at Christmas – grief at loss and memories of loss, grief at the suffering of others, grief at our own part in contributing to the mess in our families that often comes to the fore at Christmas.
We do not celebrate the birth of our Saviour by temporarily putting these things out of our mind, as if Christmas is just a festival for children and we share in their excitement only by closing our eyes to the reality of our world. It is the opposite.
Our joy and thankfulness at the birth of our Saviour is because we know this is the way the world is – a world of violence and death, of proud people seeking to secure their own place at the cost of others, a world where we are not in control of events that can disrupt our lives for ever, just as Joseph and Mary were not in control as they were forced to move from Nazareth to Bethlehem by the decision of an Emperor far way, and then from Bethlehem to Egypt by the cruelty of a tyrant.
But we have joy because in this world the birth of the Lord Jesus, God with us, ‘a Saviour who is Christ the Lord’ [Lk. 1:11] as a baby to grow up in a human family tells us we are known, our lives, with all their griefs and trials, are familiar to our God. The Lord Jesus is truly one who can sympathise with our weaknesses, having shared a life like ours ‘in every respect’ [Heb. 2:17, 4:15]. It is good to know that we are known by the One to whom we can turn for help.
And our Lord’s birth into our world tells us not just that our lives are known, but we have a Saviour who came to rescue us from that injustice, suffering and death, to save us from ‘our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us’ through the forgiveness of our sins [Lk. 1:77, Matt. 1:21]. Jesus doesn’t just bring sympathy or a way to cope with the world, He brings deliverance. We don’t experience it all now, but believers in the Lord Jesus are already part of the new creation [2 Cor. 5:17], already we have been delivered from the dominion of darkness and brought into the Kingdom of the beloved Son and Paul can talk of our lives as hid with Christ in God [Col. 1:14, 3:3]. The grief of this world is not the story of our lives, but just an early chapter in a life that will continue forever in the new creation, in a resurrection that we can long for eagerly because Jesus’ death and resurrection as the incarnate Son makes it sure [Romans 8:23-25].
For our Lord’s birth also tells us that the end of injustice, death and grief, the end of this age, is certain. In the birth of our Saviour the living almighty God has acted to establish His kingdom, the reign that has no end [Luke 1:31-33], and we celebrate the day because, as the gospel tells us, the Lord Jesus has already destroyed the one who had the power of death, the devil, by His own death. He has already shown the powerlessness of all rulers and authorities by saving through the cross [Heb. 2:14-15, Col. 2:13-15]. When He comes again all His enemies will have been subjected under His feet, the mourners comforted.
We rejoice at the birth of our Saviour in the midst of the real grief many of us feel. And being able to do that, to have joy in this world as it is because of the generous gift of our Saviour who though He was rich for our sake became poor – born in a stable - so that through His poverty we might become rich [2 Cor. 8:9], knowing that gift should excite our compassion for others experiencing the griefs of this world – the poor, the sick, the refugees, the lonely – make us want to share with them the comfort we have received. And acknowledging, not denying, the reality of this world as we come to rejoice in the birth of our Saviour will also sharpen our hope, lift our eyes from this world and the good things we may or may not enjoy this Christmas – whether plenty, or presents, or holidays, or family – all things that will pass away, to what will never pass away, resurrection life in the new heaven and earth as the gift of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ [Titus 2:11-14].
Blessed are those who mourn said our Saviour. Make room for your grief this Christmas, so that you can start to know the comfort our Saviour’s coming brings, the deep joy of knowing that His birth means that one day every tear will be wiped from believers’ eyes.
