2013-12-22 Daniel Daring 2013 articles 2012 articles
Advent
Four:
How shall
we respond to this sign?
Isaiah 7:10-14; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-24
I
went to a mall in search of a Christmas card. I wanted one with a biblical
motif: Mary with the child Jesus would be a perfect one. I searched in vain
among many varieties of the famous Hallmark cards. Not even in Hallmark's online
collection could I find a card that would tell me that the Christmas Season is
not about the tree and Santa Claus, but about the child Jesus, His mother Mary,
and her bewildered husband, Joseph. What has happened to the sign proclaimed by
the prophet Isaiah to the king of Judah, Ahaz and by an angel to Joseph?
When Isaiah prophesied that “the
Lord himself will give you a sign: the young woman is with a child and shall
bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14), Ahaz got himself in
trouble. The kings of Syria and Israel (the Northern Kingdom) were besieging
Jerusalem, attempting to overthrown him and to force Judah (the Southern
Kingdom) to join the anti-Assyrian coalition. When Joseph heard an angel in his
dream, “do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is
conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit,” he still hadn't got over the shock
of finding out that his fiancée was pregnant. In both situations the message
was meant to encourage them to trust. Yet, each one of them responded
differently.
The sign of a soon-to-be-born son
was not convincing to Ahaz. How could such a sign signify any deliverance from
his powerful enemies? How could one believe that “before the child knows how
to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land of the two kings you dread will
be laid waste” (Isaiah 7:16)? Faith in God seems to be so impractical in front
of machine guns, missiles, and jet fighters. So Ahaz made up his mind, sent
silver and gold to Tiglath-Pileser, the king of Assyria, and 'humbly' stated:
“I am your servant and your son. Come up, and rescue me from the hands of the
king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel who are attacking me” (2
Kings 16:7). It was a successful decision. The king of Assyria came with his
armed forces and defeated Ahaz's enemies. For Isaiah, however, it was a
disaster. Ahaz surrendered Judah's independence and compromised her covenant
with God. His decision openly declared that it was better “to be 'son and
servant' to the king of Assyria than son and servant to the invisible God” (A.
Heschel).
How about us today? We also are deep
in trouble. Global warming, financial crises, unemployment, to name but a few.
And we also do not believe that the Virgin with the Child will be able to solve
our problems. Whom are we going ask for help? The UN Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC)? To whom will we surrender our independence? Credit Swiss
or Citibank? How shall we compromise our faith? By believing that Chevron or any
other multinational corporation will set us free us from the present economic
mess they have brought us into?
Apparently, Joseph had a smaller
problem to solve. It did not involve the whole nation, but just his fiancée,
Mary. “Because Joseph . . . was a righteous man and did not want to expose her
to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly” (Matthew 1:19).
But, unlike Ahaz, he decided to trust. The sign of Mary bearing a son, whose
symbolic name – Jesus – was expressing the conviction that God is the Savior
(Jesus = God saves), was sufficient to change his mind. God had something to do
with the mystery surrounding Mary's pregnancy and it was aimed to set people
free from their sins (Matthew 1:21).
How about us today? Our sins are
mounting. Unjust and unnecessary wars, destruction of our environment, ruthless
and unbridled capitalism, greed and corruption. Do we recognize the gravity of
our situation? Where do we look for our salvation? Or perhaps, we have been
convinced by the self-help preachers that we do not need a savior. 'The answer
is within us' – they say, so why bother to look for a messiah. That might
explain why I could not find a Christmas card with Mary giving birth to a son,
whom Joseph should name Jesus, “because he would save his people from their
sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Yet, even if Hallmark does not make
a Christmas card with a biblical motif and the birth of the Messiah is
downgraded to shopping and eating festivities, the sign of the Virgin bearing
the Son is still there. It is for us to decide whether we will follow Ahaz or
Joseph. However, it is important to know that to trust in Assyria or any other
power for salvation is to take refuge in a lie (Isaiah 28:15); on the other
hand, to trust that the Child Jesus will alone have the power to transform us
and make us live differently means to heed the call of God “to the obedience
that comes from faith” (Romans 1:5). Christmas is not about a tree or Santa
Claus. Christmas is about our response to the sign given to us by God signifying
that our salvation is drawing near. Will this sign be enough to make us trust in
God for our salvation?