Early in my ministry, I often said that the season of Advent is not pre-Christmas, the idea being that the point of the season is for us to prepare for the return of our Lord, not for us to sort of slowly ease into the Incarnational hot tub and halfway celebrate the birth of our Lord until the full-throated celebration on Christmas Eve and Day. And while that’s true to a certain extent, in more recent years, I’ve come to see that this is not really an either-or proposition. Advent is a season to prepare for Christ’s triumphal return, of course, but in doing that, we’re also deepening our understanding of what Christ’s first arrival meant, what His incarnation meant.
So we typically think of Christ’s birth as a tranquil thing, as gentle and lowly and humble. And that’s all true, but Isaiah shows us the radiating, militaristic, spiritual warfare throbbing just beneath the surface of that tranquility and humility. Yes, a child was born for us in lowliness, but He is not born in lowliness to remain in lowliness. He is the mighty God who is born to shatter the rod of our oppressor. He is the glorious Warrior who will walk onto the field of battle. He will crush His enemy into a pile of viscera through His own wounds. He will gather every boot of battle used against you, every garment stained with your blood and He will burn them all to give you warmth in a kingdom that will never end. Jesus Christ was born in meekness to show you that He had come to save the meek, the broken, the worthless. But He Himself is not weak. He is not broken. He is not worthless. He is the glory-clad, radiant Son of God whose very presence vibrates with a holiness that is deadly to every enemy of His kingdom. And He has come to give that holiness to you, to clothe you in it, and to make you His own forever. May He come quickly.
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