Isaiah 7:14 - Christmas Is a Sign - December 22, 2019

Just three short days until Christmas. Is that good news or bad news for you? I’m sure for all the children here, they may be wishing it were tomorrow. But for the rest of us, maybe not. Maybe you’re even dreading Christmas this year. You haven’t had as much time as you’d like to buy the gifts and clean the house. You have projects at work that need completing and you can’t really afford to take time off. Maybe you’ve suffered some kind of loss this year and the last thing you want to do is try to gin up the “Christmas spirit.” If you’ve ever found Christmas to be more of dreaded inconvenience than a celebration, then you are in the same boat as the man who first heard these words from the prophet Isaiah. His name was Ahaz. He was the King of Judah. His kingdom was under siege by two allied armies and seemed likely to fall at any time. The Lord had come to him pleading with him to trust him for protection and even offering to give him a sign as proof (Isaiah 7:10-11). Ahaz, in unbelief – and, preferring to trust his own ingenuity – refused. The Lord ran out of patience and decided to give him a sign anyway. It’s the sign at the center of Christmas: a virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Christmas is much more than an annual event, it’s a perpetual sign, a sign to people like Ahaz in the 8th century BC; a sign to people like us in the 21st century. The question is: a sign of what?

A good, one-word summary of Christmas is Immanuel. Immanuel means “God with us.” Christmas means that God is with us. This means that Christmas is bigger than a holiday. It’s bigger than a reason to exchange gifts. Christmas is fundamentally theological. Christmas is the historical event that sets Christianity apart from any and every manmade religion. Every manmade religion is built on the same basic framework: man must struggle to climb a ladder up to God. The best plan mankind has ever come up with to redeem our race ultimately depends on us – whether we do enough, pray enough, give enough, meditate enough – to satisfy God and climb into his good graces. Christmas tosses all of that out the window. If your celebration of Christmas is sincere, you are making an open confession that you cannot climb up to God (repentance) – and that you don’t have to, because at Christmas God descends to be with us (faith). Long after the presents have been opened and the trees tossed to the curb and the echoes of carols have faded – this glorious Christmas truth remains: “God is with us.”

For Ahaz, however, this sign, the birth of Jesus, the coming of God to earth, was a sign of judgment. Because of his unbelief, within 100 years, Ahaz’ kingdom would be, for all practical purposes, annihilated. After being taken into exile in Babylon and released, Judah was never the same, never really free. And when Jesus was born, Judah – and all of Israel – was subject to the Roman Empire. Because Ahaz didn’t believe the words and promises of God, Christmas was a sign of judgment; a sign of worse things to come.

What was true of Ahaz is still true for those who reject God’s Word in 2019 – Christmas is nothing less than a sign of judgment, a sign of worse things to come. How can that be? How can Christmas be bad news? Because Christmas is proof that God keeps his Word; a perennial reminder that God is with us. He’s with us whether we want him to be or not. In the book of Jeremiah the Lord asks Am I only a God nearby...and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth? (Jeremiah 23:23-24) Christmas means that even if we were to blast ourselves into the expanse of space or sink into the depths of the sea – we cannot escape God’s presence. We can’t even hope to hide from God in the deep, dark corners of our minds, for the Lord says through the same prophet: I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind (Jeremiah 17:10). Yes, Christmas, God with us, is a sign, for many a terrible sign – since it means that God is so close that he can judge not only our words and actions but the very thoughts of our hearts. For many, that’s not good news. You’ve noticed that dread of Christmas in our culture, haven’t you? What is the cultural movement away from wishing people a “Merry Christmas” and toward “Happy Holidays” other than a futile attempt to suppress the truth that God is with us? Where it’s fine if you keep the season light and cheerful – all about reindeer and sugar cookies, but don’t you dare bring God into it. And yet in spite of the secular world’s best attempts, Christmas still stands as an annual sign, a sign of judgment; that God keeps his Word and for all who reject it, the worst is yet to come.

But, thank God, it’s much more than that, as the children will proclaim in moments. We celebrate Christmas, instead of hiding from it, because this sign: that the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel is above all a sign of divine love. Here is God’s love in tangible, physical, non-threatening form, in a baby lying in a manger. It means that God didn’t come to stalk us, shaking his finger at us like an angry judge – he came to be one of us. It’s what you might call a divine defection – God crossed the battle lines to take our side, to wear our uniform of weakness and mortality. More than that, this little baby would grow up to be a man who would serve mankind, to preach forgiveness and teach the truths of God, to heal the sick and feed the hungry, and ultimately to suffer and die and rise to save us. This is the heart of the good news the angels proclaimed to shepherds in that field and these children will proclaim to us today – that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself…not counting men’s sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:19). Yes, Christmas means that God is here; he’s here for us, for us and our salvation! Christmas means there’s no reason to fear! Christmas is the ultimate gift, the ultimate sign of God’s love. God in a manger means that God’s love is so unconditional that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:12). God in a manger means that God’s love is so wide that no one in the world is exempt from his forgiving and saving love (John 3:16). God in a manger means that God’s love is so deep that he suffered hell for us so that we might go to heaven. Yes, for all who believe this good news, Christmas is a wonderful sign, an enduring sign of God’s divine love for us.

Now it may still be true that Christmas is going to be an inconvenience for you this year. Perhaps it’s the timing. Perhaps it’s the pressure to be cheerful. Perhaps it’s the stress and strain it puts on your mind and body and budget. But the good news is that even though God knew the kind of mess we have made of our lives and his creation, he sent his Son to be born into it anyway. Christmas means that God doesn’t expect you to climb up to him or clean yourself up to be accepted by him – it means that God has come to you just as you are. Don’t be afraid of Christmas! Yes, Christmas means that God is near enough to judge you. But that’s not why he came; he’s here to save you. That’s why, convenient or not, Christmas is always a day to celebrate. Amen.