Slow Down! It’s Christmas!

We are now into the season of Christmas. This is a time when things can get very hectic and confusing. A time when the almighty dollar is worshipped by corporate America as they vie for our money with the best and newest gadget, toy, or fashion. The commercials on television and the radio are trying to talk us into spending money that we really do not have, while children are begging their parents and/or grandparents for the new, incredible, thing that they just cannot live without.

This is the typical holiday season with its rush, rush, rush; stress, stress, stress; and debt, debt, debt. The season was that way at the time of Jesus’ birth, but not because of or caused by his birth, the cause was life itself. There was taxation and a census, people were rushing to get to their ancestral homes because that is what Caesar told them to do. They were afraid of the repercussions if they were to disobey his command. He was a tyrannical and violent leader of Palestine who was capable of anything, including executions.

It was in the middle of all of this ruckus that Jesus was born. According to the world it wasn’t something to merit their attention; after all, babies are born all of the time. Not only that, Jesus wasn’t an original name, it was rather popular and why would anyone take note of a child being born around animals? “He is a pauper and we have better things to do” they might have said, if they even noticed anything special happening at all. In the middle of life, he came.

In their hustle and bustle no one noticed when the child that Isaiah and others had foretold had come. There were Magi from the east that noticed, because of signs in the heavens, and shepherds were visited by a large group of angels who told them of Jesus’ birth and worshiped God for bringing peace to earth. Other than that handful of people, including Mary and Joseph, of course, no one noticed that night. It took the Magi some time to locate him, but they were persistent even to the point of standing up one of the most dangerous rulers in the world at that time.

In the prophet Isaiah’s day, King Ahaz of Judah was worried about the kings of Syria and Israel. God, through Isaiah, was trying to remind King Ahaz that God was with them and that he did not have to worry. After Ahaz refused to ask for a sign, as God instructed him, God said that he would give a sign anyway. The sign God chose was, “the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14b, NRSV). Immanuel is translated, God with us. This was a prophesied child whose purpose it was to remind the king and the people of Judah of the presence of God.

Even with this obvious sign and God’s promise to be with Judah, the king was still afraid and remained that way even though the prophesy was fulfilled in the timing that God promised. God promised that, not only would the two nations whom Ahaz was afraid of be diminished, it would take place within 12 years, or “by the time [the child] knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good” (Isaiah 7:15b, NRSV). This “young woman” would have been someone that Isaiah and King Ahaz would have known, a member of Ahaz’s family of the lineage of David, and they would have seen the prophesy through the stages of fulfillment. But King Ahaz was not to be dissuaded from his irrational fear.

Some 700 years later, the Lord spoke to a carpenter named Joseph. The author of Matthew was inspired to repeat the prophesy from Isaiah, “the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (Matthew 1:23, NRSV). Though this prophesy was originally given for the nation of Judah prior to their exile, God had “repurposed” it to help the Jewish reader understand who Jesus was to be. This was directly following the announcement that the angel gave to Joseph after Joseph was going “to divorce [Mary] quietly” (Matthew 1:19, NRSV).

Jesus birth, life, death, and resurrection were all prophesied many years before it all happened. That night in Bethlehem had been long sought after by God’s people, Israel. Even though they had all been looking so intently for him, they missed the birth of their Messiah, Jesus Christ the Lord. They were too busy to notice the stars, through which God was speaking, the angels in the field, where the glorious announcement was made, or even the very Scripture to which they give high importance. They had let their lives get in the way of their eyes and were blinded.

Just as God “repurposed” the prophesy of the birth of Immanuel, he continues to do that for us today. As we come up to the Christmas holidays once again, the prophesy rings out, loud and clear, “the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (Matthew 1:23, NRSV). In the busyness of the season we are in danger of doing as King Ahaz did at the time of the original prophesy, let fear overtake us because of the demands of the season. If we stay clear of fear, there is always the complacency of those who were trying to get things done in the time when Jesus was born, so complacent and busy that they missed the birth of their King. Will you miss the true message of the season? Stop and listen to that babe, Immanuel, and remember why we celebrate this time of year!