For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)
" + "We properly read this passage from Isaiah in light of John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." From the outset, we must realize that Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving. On its face, this statement is relatively unproblematic; it gels with one of the most popular phrases we hear around this time of year: 'Jesus is the reason for the season.' However, popular culture blinds us to the diabolical manner in which phrases like the latter diminish and domesticate the scope of Jesus' power and, thus, subjugate the will of God for our lives to our passions, opinions, and prejudices. In short, the "Christmas Season" reveals our preference for a baby Jesus over against the mature Son of God, who beckons us to follow him into suffering and death.
" + ""For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." As we stated, the "Holiday Spirit" enables our beliefs in a seasonal God and, consequently, that we can be seasonal Christians, that is, that we can live out our faith when and if we feel like it or when it is most convenient for us. This belief stems from an even more sinister belief: because Jesus represents God's self-limitation in order to save humanity (Philippians 2:5 - 11), humanity, in turn, can limit God. It betrays our belief that the salvation story realized in the person of Jesus Christ is a bed-time story, a pleasant fiction, or a quaint fable: it sounds good, but it's just good, moral teaching and not truly exemplary for how we understand our existence.
" + "The "Christmas Season" reveals that many of us think like this: here we are, a fallen humanity dead in our sins and locked in an "endless" cycle of death, and God's answer to our satanic dilemma is an infant - a little baby - who comes to earth to minister, suffer and die; of course, he rises again, but he conveniently vanishes from our sight. In short, the fact that both 2,000 years separate us from the Christ event and that God and Christ remain invisible results in our judgment of God as weak, impotent, and unfaithful. Our construal of the 'reason for the season' causes us to believe that we know better than God and that we've got to help God out. We've got to wash and feed and coddle the baby Jesus. We've got to teach the baby Jesus how to walk and how to talk. We've got to lead the baby Jesus and not the other way around, because what we really want is a God and Savior, who conforms to our passion, opinions, and prejudices, that is, the way we think things should be.
" + "See, when babies are hungry, we feed them; when they mess themselves, we clean them; when they become a little unruly, we put them down for a nap. More often than not, responses to babies' needs are reactionary rather than proactive or preemptive rather than compassionate. Thus, the "Christmas Season" comes at the end of the year, allowing us to box up our faith in ornately wrapped presents to placate a seasonal God and his weak baby boy and to make up for all our unrighteousness the whole year long.
" + "The truth is that the infant born so long ago was, is, and will always be Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14), or 'God with us,' "Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." The truth is that this child Jesus presented in 1st century Palestine and continues to present to us in the Word and through God's Spirit a human way of being God and a divine way of being human. In this light we properly interpret "of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end … " Just a season, let alone a day of Christian loving and giving, is insufficient and abominable. True, if we believe in Jesus Christ, we shall inherit everlasting life. But, this inheritance is conditional. It depends on our zeal, that is, our commitment to unfeigned love (1 Peter 1:22) and to sincere preaching, teaching, and healing (Matthew 4:23). See, if someone infrequently performs a task or job, or infrequently declares this or that thing, then we'd say that individual lacked zeal. Do we witness to Gospel of Jesus Christ in our thoughts, words, and deeds all year round, or do we catch the "holiday spirit" and do our Christian duty during the last month of the year?
" + ""The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this." As Paul reminds us, "it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12 - 13). Working out our salvation with fear and trembling for a season won't cut it. To the degree that we submit ourselves to serving this salvific zeal of God, we insure that the newborn child and the given Son matures "unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). The brand of giving God witnesses to in Christ demands our continual abundant giving the whole year long, because Jesus Christ keeps on giving through us (Mark 16:20; 1 Thessalonians 1:1 - 10).
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