Christmas is the perfect picture of anticipation as a child.
Every year on December 24, we let our kids open a present. A teaser, a taste of things to come, and we kids relished it. Of course, it wasn’t much of a surprise – we always get them new pajamas, even when they don’t need them. But still, it was a ritual of hope. Our kids hope they’ll get something cooler than PJs.
Christmas morning. For many of us is an unfortunate picture of disappointment. I am only one person with his own set of experiences, but as I talk to others, I find similar feelings of frustration. As we get older, many people seem to develop a general distrust toward any day that promises to fill the emptiness they’ve felt all year long. It is why, for some, Christmas is a reminder of the inevitable letdown of life.
The unfortunate answer to the question, “Did you get everything you wanted?” is, of course, no. And we feel terrible about this.
Why can’t we be happy? Why can’t we be satisfied? Will we ever be content with what we have – with the gifts in our stockings, the toys under the tree? Why is there this constant thirst for more?
Christmas is about hope, but if we’re honest, in the dark places of our hearts, we feel hopeless.
Many of us look back over this last year with a sense of regret. We think of conversations we wish we could redo, choices we could makeover, opportunities we missed that we would take, if only.
Each year, the Washington post releases how Americans feel about the year. They asked them to describe their year in one word. Of the top 20 answers, 11 were negative. Words like bad, unsettled, scary, disastrous, disappointed, horrible, turmoil, challenging. And the number 1 word to describe this year was chaotic.
Many of us can relate.
Where does this come from?
Henri Nouwen says our feeling of hopelessness comes from 3 places, three lies many of us believe:
- I am what I have
- I am what I do
- I am what other people say or think of me
In Luke 1, Zechariah and Elizabeth felt this. An angel promised Zechariah and Elizabeth that they would have a son, one they had longed for. Hope for a childless couple.
Zechariah and Elizabeth are the first ones we encounter in the Christmas story. Now, what is fascinating about Zechariah’s name is what it means, especially as we are looking for hope. Zechariah means “The Lord has remembered.” When we feel hopeless, we wonder if God has forgotten.
This is incredibly powerful for us to hear. It is in the act of remembering that God acts.
This is incredibly painful in any century, but in the first century, having children was considered a sign of God’s blessing. The gospel of Luke points out how Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous and followed God’s law so that we don’t fall into the temptation of thinking their childlessness is a result of personal sin.
They had resigned themselves to being childless. They had prayed and asked, and nothing.
Many of us have been there. Many of us are there. We’ve prayed and begged God. We’ve shouted at the heavens and nothing. So, we resign ourselves to not being answered. We take God’s silence. We feel forgotten and give up on hope.
The story of Christmas, the birth of Jesus and John in impossible ways, in ways that only God can bring about is what Christmas is all about. It is what Christianity is all about. The hope we long for is only possible through Jesus.
Christmas, the gospel, Jesus is about bringing about something new.
In Luke 1:78-79, Zechariah sang a song after his son was born about the new life that God brings about: Those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death have seen a light.
Tim Keller said, “Christmas through the lens of Jesus is the most unsentimental, realistic way of looking at life. It does not agree with the optimists who say, ‘We can fix things if we try hard enough.’ Nor does it agree with the pessimists who see only a dismal future. Instead, the message of Jesus is, ‘Things really are this bad, and we can’t heal or save ourselves. Things really are this dark – nevertheless, there is hope.”
