DECEMBER 5TH
The Christmas Messiah
Jeremiah 33:14-16 “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.“‘In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called:The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’
For many, Christmas can be a time of great expectations. You spend months looking forward to and planning for Christmas. You have a list of names with ideas for gifts that you've been working on all year. You even paid attention when that person mentioned something they wanted or needed, and you quickly wrote it down, even though it was still the middle of summer. We can look forward to Christmas so much that in our minds, we expect perfection. We want the party to be perfect, the meals to be delicious, and the decorations to be swoon-worthy and fit for a magazine. We want to give the perfect present with the perfect reaction and make the most perfect memories that a person could ever ask for. The problem is that life gets in the way, and the picture-perfect plan in our minds doesn't become reality. Christmas can even seem like a bit of a letdown. We built up this idea so much in our minds that it became impossible for the real thing to live up to our imagination.
The good news is that when it comes to the Biblical Christmas story, there are no letdowns or unmet expectations. It is perfect. If it were up to us, we might have announced the entry of the Creator of the Universe into the world with trumpets and a parade. God chose to do it differently: with humility and in a way that only those truly looking for the Savior and Messiah would find him, and those consumed with the flesh and things of this world would miss Him.
In Jesus, every prophecy of the messiah was fulfilled, every wrong was made right, and all the promises of God have been fulfilled. There is nothing that God has ever promised that has not been fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ. God's blessing, provision, eternal salvation, and even judgment can all be found in the person of Jesus Christ. The incarnation was perfect and perfectly complete. We can rest in that as well. We don't need to be anxious, stressed, or worried about whether everything will go exactly as planned because it already has, at least with the things that truly matter. Instead of focusing on all the details of Christmas, let's focus on the one thing that is and has always been perfect.
The good news is that when it comes to the Biblical Christmas story, there are no letdowns or unmet expectations. It is perfect. If it were up to us, we might have announced the entry of the Creator of the Universe into the world with trumpets and a parade. God chose to do it differently: with humility and in a way that only those truly looking for the Savior and Messiah would find him, and those consumed with the flesh and things of this world would miss Him.
In Jesus, every prophecy of the messiah was fulfilled, every wrong was made right, and all the promises of God have been fulfilled. There is nothing that God has ever promised that has not been fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ. God's blessing, provision, eternal salvation, and even judgment can all be found in the person of Jesus Christ. The incarnation was perfect and perfectly complete. We can rest in that as well. We don't need to be anxious, stressed, or worried about whether everything will go exactly as planned because it already has, at least with the things that truly matter. Instead of focusing on all the details of Christmas, let's focus on the one thing that is and has always been perfect.