Christmas Eve

 December 24, 2021

It is perhaps at Christmas and Easter when we are tempted most to give lip service instead of real service to the Christ we worship. It’s easy to get so caught up in the trappings of the seasons that we fail to understand what is really going on here.

In Isaiah 47:4, 48:17, 49:7 and 26, we read a variation of these words: “I am the LORD of hosts, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.” God identifies himself with these words that are descriptive of his character, or as it used to be said, his attributes. The interesting thing about these words is that they don’t naturally go together. For example, we would seldom think of a military commander whose primary attribute is holiness. Armies are not generally known for their piety. 

Redeemer is not a word we would primarily associate with Israel, so maligned and persecuted throughout history. Redemption is for the Jews, a distant dream, at best. But the eternal “I am” who never changes, and from whom everything that is springs, and in whom all existed, is Supreme over all armies, all hosts, human and divine, and is Holy—apart from Jesus, unapproachably Other. And this One is our Redeemer. 

In Isaiah 47, all we tend to lean on in life is revealed to be frail and failing. We imagine ourselves invincible, untouchable, both by our remedies for the ills of this world (eg. Modern medicine), and by the increase of human knowledge and wisdom.

But all this will fail, and is failing even today. In 48:11, we read, “evil has come upon us we don’t know from where,” but it has fallen on us; we cannot rid ourselves of it, and it will bring desolation. In v. 12, we stand by our methods, hoping for profit. We listen to the prognosticators, but they have no power to save us. That’s why Jesus was sent into this sad and broken world! 

Tonight we will gather, sing songs of adoration, and go to our homes reminded once again that salvation is not within our power; it is the Gift of God wrapped in swaddling cloths, and lying in a manger. The LORD, praised by his heavenly armies appearing over Bethlehem to humble shepherds, is our Redeemer, the Holy Child lying not in splendor and opulence, but in humility and weakness, for it is there, and there alone, that we find redemption.