In Weakness

 December 26, 2021

“Who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” Isaiah asks this question at the beginning of the 53rd chapter of the book that bears his name. His words could be paraphrased thusly: “Who would have imagined how the LORD would show his strength?” 

At Christmas, millions celebrate the birth of Christ. In our Western world, even unbelievers dare to hope for a better world of peace and harmony, but cannot imagine how it will come. It seems impossible that strength could be revealed in the humility and weakness we find lying in a manger in the middle of the night. We cherish that simplicity at Christmastime, but it seems incapable of conveying the strength needed to actually make a difference in this world. So once this holy night gives way to the creeping dawn, we reject it in favor of the raw power of this world. We want God to reveal himself, majestic and militant, strong-arming his way through the problems of life instead of as a baby suckling at his mother’s breast.

But it is in a manger…and on a cross, that God’s strength and power are revealed.

A young man showed up at worship today. He was early, coming in and sitting down in a nearly empty sanctuary. He was not what you would call good-looking. He wasn’t even plain. A swarthy round face with beady little eyes and a receding chin, if he garnered second glances from any young women, they wouldn’t be glances of admiration. We often picture Jesus as ruggedly handsome, one whose visage would make women swoon, but I wonder if Jesus were more like this young man, with nothing inherently attractive. Isaiah says of him, “He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.” (Isaiah 53:2) I wonder if this nondescript young man reflects a more accurate depiction of Jesus than we see in those popular prints and paintings.

St. Paul said it best:

“For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.” —I Corinthians 1:26-29 

This unlikely choosing began not with those Corinthian Christians, but with the Savior himself. And if the Almighty God, LORD of armies chooses to reveal his strength in such a way, we might do well to search more diligently in the hovels and alleys if we men to meet him. ““Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the LORD.” (Zechariah 4:6)