The Season of Joy

"It’s the most wonderful time of the year"… "Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la"…"Have a holly, jolly, Christmas it’s the best time of the year"…"A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Let’s hope it’s a good one without any fear" even the songs of the season that are not about the actual birth and celebration of Jesus contain lyrics of hope and joy and gladness. It’s inherent. Mankind longs to be free, to be whole; to wake up in the mornings feeling complete, like it is going to be a good day without fear and full of hope and joy.

But we look around at the real world in which we live and what we see with our eyes, what we experience with our relationships, what we are going through with our health, what we hear with our ears on the evening news doesn’t seem very capable of providing that place of hope, joy, and completeness. So we look forward to Christmastime with the anticipation reflected in the children singing the opening song from A Charlie Brown Christmas, “Christmas time is here. Happiness and cheer.” We hope. But even with hope being a good thing, I believe as a whole, our hope has been placed into what has become as the “season” of Christmas.

When the angel of the Lord appeared in front of the shepherds in the hills around Bethlehem two thousand years ago this was the message they heard: “Don’t be afraid. I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior – yes, the Messiah, the Lord – has been born today in Bethlehem.” (Luke 2:10-11) No fear? Good news? Great joy to all people? This is the stuff our Christmas songs long for!

But even more is the actual news, the event to which the announcement of and the anticipated hope for couldn’t compare, was that the Savior, the Messiah was here – born on earth! The Greek word here for Messiah is Christos which means “anointed one” referring to the coming of the Savior from the line of David as God had promised centuries earlier.

Luke, who was not Jewish, wrote the account of Jesus standing in the synagogue and proclaiming his purpose: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” (Luke 4:18-19) As the “Good News” spread beyond the culture of the Jews and into the cities of the Gentile’s  the name Messiah was used less and less and the Greek word Christos began to be used more; Christ – Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Lord, the Savior, the promised one who would bring great joy to all people. This, this is the real stuff of the season of Christmas lore! The event. The person. The Son of God come to be among us as one of us to show that a right relationship with God (peace between us who were disobedient and God’s wrath against that disobedience) can be accomplished.

 “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God” and “God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ.” (Colossians 1:15, 19) Christ, Jesus, the baby in the manger, the Savior born in Bethlehem as the prophets wrote about, God loved us so much that he sent him to be born a human just like the rest of us and God, according to his faithfulness and promise to fix our broken relationship with him, chose to live in Christ while he was here as a man with flesh and blood.  It wasn’t because Jesus is the Son of God that God chose to live in him; it was because he chose not to sin and walk with God that God chose to live in him. It pleased God to do this. Jesus was modeling it for us in the flesh! God, in all his fullness, God, omnipotent, omnipresent, all encompassing and all consuming God chose to show us that it can be done! All of him can live in me! I need nothing else! There is nothing else I can find to fill the emptiness or calm the fear or fill with joy other than the fullness of God living in me! This, this, brings the season of joy for all people! This is what we long for!

So the next Christmas season song you hear, whether it says anything about the birth and event of Christ or not, let it remind you that the shepherds that heard the angels’ message that night near Bethlehem could have skipped with real joy all the way to town to see this amazing thing singing, Fa la la la la, la la la La!!!! Because it really is the season of joy!