Joy has been defined as a feeling of great pleasure or happiness that typically comes from success, good fortune, or a sense of well-being.
That’s an inadequate definition.
How does one find joy when one faces bankruptcy, when a relationship fails, or when the diagnosis is terminal? If joy can only be found in our circumstances, then it seems to follow that when there is a demise in our circumstances, there can’t be joy.
The Chaos of Christmas
Imagine Mary and Joseph on that first Christmas. Their families are distraught, believing their children are hypocrites. Their parents believed Mary and Joseph were righteous and God honouring, and they couldn’t comprehend the shame they brought on their family through this pregnancy.
An angel appeared to Mary declaring that although she was a virgin she would be with child by the power of the Holy Spirit. She, of course, told Joseph what the angel said. Her fiancée, heartbroken that Mary had not only cheated on him, but lied about God, by saying she was carrying God’s Son, made plans to break off his engagement with her. An angel appeared to him telling him to take Mary home as his wife because what she told him is true. The angel declared to Joseph that she would give birth to Jesus who would save His people from their sin. Mary and Joseph believed and obeyed God.
They make the long trip to Bethlehem for the census. Mary’s water breaks, and Jesus is born in a stable and placed in a manger. I imagine they were confused at first. How is this part of your plan, God? Did we hear You right?
God Confirms His Plan
The Lord graciously sends shepherds. They come to celebrate the birth of the Saviour and as they explain to Mary and Joseph what occurred. I imagine they mention how one angel appeared to them first, followed by a multitude of angels. I’m sure the shepherds told them about the sign of finding a baby, wrapped in cloths, lying in a manger. I’m sure they mentioned what the angel said, ‘the Saviour, the Christ, the Lord’ has come.
Luke records that Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart (Luke 2:19). The Lord encouraged her. He hadn’t left her. In that bloody mess in the stable, where Joseph had to deliver Jesus, the Lord was with them.
They stayed in Bethlehem. Likely as Mary was recovering, Joseph found work as a carpenter. As a godly and righteous couple would, they went to Jerusalem to the temple to offer their sacrifice for purification rites and to present Jesus to the Lord (Luke 2:22-24).
God provides two witnesses, at the temple, to declare that the Messiah has come. Simeon is righteous and devout. Anna is a widow, prophet, and prayer warrior. The Holy Spirit declared to Simeon that he would not die before seeing the Lord’s Messiah (Luke 2:26). As he is led by the Spirt into the temple courts, he sees Jesus and declares that he has seen God’s salvation who is a light to the Gentiles and God’s glory for Israel (Luke 2:27-32). Simeon continues to bless Mary and Joseph as he says that this child will cause the falling and rising of many and that Mary’s soul will be pierced (Luke 2: 33-35).
He is Our Salvation
We simply didn’t need more education. We had a manual on how to be righteous that none of us could achieve. We simply didn’t need an example. Someone showing us the way to God, wouldn’t enable us to get to Him. We needed a Savoiur. Like the residents of New Orleans who climbed to their rooftops during Hurricane Katrine waiting for the coast guard, knowing they needed to be rescued, we need someone to save us.
He qualifies as Saviour because He is the Christ. He fulfills the law in two ways. Firstly, every Messianic promise is found true in Him. Secondly, He lives a sinless life. He is completely righteous. He lives the life I couldn’t live, allowing Him to become my substitute on the cross. He saves anyone who comes to Him in repentance. He is qualified to save us and He saves anyone who acknowledges their need for Him.
He is The Lord
He is the Christ who saves because He is the Lord. He is God the Son, the second person of the Trinity. He enters in and cloaks His Deity with humanity. He absorbs the wrath of the Father on the cross that should have been poured out on me. He went through hell, so I never need to. He is sinless. He fulfills the law. He qualifies as Saviour because He is the Lord come down. He will accomplish His mission as Savour and Christ because nothing can stop the Lord.
Belief and Disbelief
Not everyone believes who He is. They will charge Him with blasphemy and execute Him. Many will fall. They will doubt who He is. Mary will be present at His crucifixion. No one knows a child like their mother. She knows He’s never sinned and doesn’t deserve death. Her soul is pierced, as her Son is pierced. But those who believe will rise. He will take their feet out of the pit and put them on a rock (Psalm 40:2).
The Dawning of Redemption
Anna was an older widow who worshipped night and day at the temple while she fasted and prayed. She was only married for seven years when her husband died. She could have aged crusty and bitter, but instead, she aged with beauty and grace. Anna loved to worship God, and in her eighty-fourth year, a 40-day-old infant is brought in by His parents, and she declares the redemption of Jerusalem has arrived. The Lord has come.
Redemption is the buying back or purchasing of something that was yours. An old story is told of a boy, about 12, who was studying carpentry after his father. He crafted a small replica of a sailboat. He worked diligently on it for weeks. It was magnificent. As he took it down to the river, his father warned him not to let it out of his reach. One day a gust of wind caught the sails of the boat, and he couldn’t catch his boat. It was gone. He noticed it, a couple of days later at the local Five and Dime. He went in and explained to the owner what happened, and the owner told him that another boy sold it to him, and he’d have to buy it back. He worked odd jobs for neighbours for a few days until he had enough money to buy his boat back and when he did he said, ‘You’re twice mine. I made you and I bought you back.’ That’s what Jesus has done.
We need a redeemer. God made us. We chose to rebel, and we could never make our way back to Him by our own accord. We needed someone who could save us by buying us back. On the cross, Jesus paid the debt I owe God for my sin. He redeems us.
Further from God Than We Thought
Because God graciously grants us life and breath for each new day, we don’t often think about our need for redemption. We somehow believe that there is something in us that procures God’s favour. We know we need God’s grace yet most of us believe we deserve God’s grace more than a porn star or someone who has embezzled the retirement savings of the elderly or Paul Bernardo. All of us equally deserve separation from God yet God graciously redeems.
God is repulsed by all sin. He is as repulsed by bitterness as He is by murder. We are all depraved. We all fall short of God’s glory. Depravity isn’t that we are in every way as bad as we can be, but rather that we are not in any one way as good as we should be. We needed Jesus to live the life we couldn’t, a perfect life, to offer redemption to us. He redeems us perfectly. God treated Jesus the way I deserved on the cross, so that God can treat me the way Christ deserves in glory. I will be declared innocent because of His redemption.
It’s why William Cowper could pen:
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed ones of God
Be saved to sin no more.
E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply.
Redeeming love has been my theme
And shall be till I die.
It’s why Fanny Crosby would write:
Redeemed how I love to proclaim it,
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb,
Redeemed through His infinite mercy,
His child and forever I am.
And God is gracious. Forty days after the shepherds appeared to declare how God revealed to them the birth of His Son, Mary and Joseph encounter Simeon and Anna at the temple and they both marvel at what is said about Jesus (Luke 2:33). God graciously reminds them that He is with them and has granted them His Son. He is Immanuel, God with us. He is Jesus who will save His people from their sins.
Joy at Christmas
Our joy isn’t found in our success, good fortune or well-being. Our joy is found in His success. He defeated sin, Satan and death. Our joy is found in His good fortune. He is the Sovereign One who holds the universe together by His might and will. Our joy is found in His well-being. He is the resurrected and ascended King of Kings. Our joy rests in what God has done for us in Christ. He is the Saviour, the Christ, the Lord. And He redeems. It is good news of great joy! Merry Christmas!
