For many of us, this Christmas season has been marked by a painful loss of traditions that highlighted the season in years past. Gatherings with family or friends are either difficult or impossible and many concerts and other community celebrations have either been cancelled, or else were livestreamed to be "celebrated" at home on one's couch with no real connection with those with whom we are purportedly celebrating. Those of us whose jobs have been labeled "non-essential" may have found that limited finances prevent them from buying the gifts they long to give. And some of us may have lost people we cared about to COVID-19. Add to all this the recent spikes in COVID-19 cases and deaths and the political and social turmoil which have characterized 2020, and it can be hard to say "Merry Christmas!" with any enthusiasm, let alone look forward to a "Happy New Year" in 2021.
But if we look at the Christmas story as told in Luke 1-2 (which we have been reading this month as part of Grace's Scripture reading plan), we see a picture that resembles our situation more than we might have thought. Chapter 2 begins with an imperious decree from a distant ruler (does this sound familiar?) that everyone was required to travel to their ancestral hometown to be counted as a part of a census. For Mary and Joseph, this could not have been a welcome demand, with Mary being so close to term. If they knew their Bible, they might also have remembered that God did not always approve of a king demanding a census of his people (see 2 Samuel 24). Nevertheless Joseph and Mary did what was required of them and made the trip from their home in Nazareth to Bethlehem to join the mass of people who had all been forced by Caesar's command to make the same trip. While Mary's cousin Elizabeth had delivered her baby three months earlier at home surrounded by family and close friends (Luke 1:57-58), Mary delivered her baby in the only place they could find, an animal stall, isolated from all of their friends and family. And when they went to Jerusalem to fulfill the requirements of the Law regarding the birth of a child, the prophet Simeon warned them that Jesus was a sign that would be rejected by many and that a sword would pierce Mary's own heart (Luke 2:34-35). He was joined by the prophetess Anna, who spoke to those who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem (Luke 2:38), which would not turn out at all as expected for those who thought that it meant Jerusalem's liberation from Roman rule.
And yet, the message that the shepherds brought from the angels who visited them to Mary and Joseph was one of "good news of great joy" (Luke 2:10). Under the burdensome decrees of an unjust ruler, in an animal stall in a strange town, away from family and friends, with the prospect of alienation and pain in their future, Mary and Joseph were still to know great joy, for to them (and to us) was born a Savior who is Christ the Lord. This Lord, they would discover, would not overthrow their unjust ruler to take his throne, nor would he save them from loneliness, hostility, and persecution. Instead he would give them joy beyond all these things; the joy of the resurrection (see Luke 24:50-53). Mary expressed it in her song in Luke 1:46-55, the shepherds voiced it in Luke 2:20, and Simeon spoke of it in Luke 2:29-32. God was becoming one of us in the person of His Son, who would save us from sin and all suffering by transforming them through His resurrection power into eternal life and a joy that will make all the hurt that we have ever endured seem insignificant in comparison. Oppression, poverty, suffering and death may burden us, as they did Jesus, but if we recognize what Jesus has accomplished for us in His resurrection, they will lose their sting because through the resurrection God has promised to work all these burdens for our good and His glory (see Romans 8:28-29).
So if we find ourselves struggling with loneliness, oppression or fear, we can be assured that, far from being experiences that are alien to Christmas, they were there at its inception. But joy was there too, a joy that God intends for us to experience as well. God wants us to be firmly convinced, as the first disciples were, that no matter what trials we endure in this life, if we rest in the resurrection power of Jesus to transform them, they will in the end become beautiful trophies of His grace that will bring us great joy. If this is our confidence, then we will be able to truly and sincerely wish each other a Merry Christmas, for this is the day that God gave us Jesus, who would turn all of our sin, sorrow and suffering into joy, and a Happy New Year, for this is another year in which we have an opportunity to participate in the resurrection work that Jesus is doing in and through us for His glory and our good.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
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