The Advent of Hope – December 2, 2013

Suggested Reading: Luke 1

The world is messed up!

There are wars and rumours of wars. There are economic problems, political problems, racial problems, family problems, and the list could go on and on. Proposed solutions and the people proposing them come and go, but the problems remain. In the midst of all of this, it is easy to become discouraged. Just a quick glance at the headlines on any given day gives us many reasons to despair and few reasons to hope.

We may imagine that we are living in a uniquely terrible time in history, but many generations have seen similar times and felt similar things. Empires have risen and crumbled and people in those times have lived through a level of pain and chaos that most of us have never experienced. And, I hope we never will. The Jews living in Palestine at the turn of the first century knew more about these things than we do in the West at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

They were living under an oppressive foreign regime who installed a puppet king. They lived under military occupation, subject to brutal treatment and crushing taxation. They longed for someone to deliver them. They lived in anticipation that God would intervene and save them, setting them free. They dreamed of the coming of the Messiah, the promised deliverer, the long delayed fulfilment of the ancient prophecies, already hundreds of years old in their day.

When Zechariah was ambushed by an angel of God in the temple, the plot began to thicken. There were rumblings and rumours – not of war – but of hope. Could this baby be the Messiah? Could this unborn child of a barren old woman and a dried up husband be the One? There were whispers in the hills of Judah. God is on the move! There is something special about this child!

But this baby, miraculous though his birth was, was not the One. There was another coming. A birth even more miraculous was on the way. Not one originating in the temple, but in a backwater town. God initiated another visitation, and another miraculous pregnancy, this time in a virgin womb. God's only Son became human, the Spirit of Christ enfleshed in the waiting womb of a willing young woman. Mary was to be the mother of Our Lord, the Hope of Nations.

The Advent of Christ was a rebirth of hope; more than that, a fulfilment of hope becoming flesh and dwelling among us. God drew near to us and demonstrated His love in the most tangible way possible, He became one of us. The God who created all things humbled Himself and became part of His creation. He began the remaking that will ultimately be fulfilled when His reign is fully established. But what a beginning He has made!

He is not distant or disengaged. He is not against us. He is one of us. He is among us. He is for us. We can know Him and know that He understands us. He is the reason for and the embodiment of our hope—the hope that came at Christmas!

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Questions:

What pain, conflict, or problem is challenging your ability to live in hope?

How does the miracle of Christmas restore your hope?