The true meaning of Christmas

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.

You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this (Isaiah 9:2-7).

The writings of the prophet Isaiah contain many wonderful passages about the coming of our Lord Jesus, but the passage just cited is perhaps one of the most beautiful. In this section Isaiah sums up, in just 6 verses, what Christmas is all about. So let us turn our attention to the true meaning of Christmas according to Isaiah, prophet of God.

Isaiah begins, The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. Right away we think of the opening verses of the Gospel of John, where the apostle writes, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. Both Isaiah and John use the imagery of darkness to describe mankind’s lost and hopeless condition. Light gives life; a houseplant put near a sunny southern window grows, while a plant put in a dark basement shrivels and dies. Anything forced to live in perpetual darkness will similarly wither and die. In the Bible, darkness represents a life lived in ignorance of Jesus and His saving love; to live in spiritual darkness is to slowly wither in the shadow of eternal death. In the 23rd Psalm, David picks up this imagery when he writes, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for Thou art with me. David had hope in the deliverance of the Lord, the same deliverance Isaiah speaks of when he writes, on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. David, Isaiah, and John all find hope in the light of life that God reveals to believers through His Son, Jesus Christ.

You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder. God has increased the joy of His nation. God’s nation is the heavenly Jerusalem, the capitol of the Kingdom of God. This is a nation of perfect happiness, yet the joy of this perfect place has been increased even more. The reason for this outburst of joy? They rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest. Isaiah intends us to think, not of an earthly harvest, but the spiritual harvest that the angels of the Lord gather into heaven. It is the people of the world, who are hungry for the light of God’s love, that Jesus speaks of when He says, The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field (Luke 10:2). The nation of God rejoices as the harvest is brought in, as sinners see the light and are saved; Jesus said, I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent (Luke 15:7).

Heaven also rejoices as men rejoice when dividing the plunder. Our Lord Jesus has been fighting a war with Satan since Adam and Eve caved in to the temptation to sin. But when Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice of atonement for our sins, He swallowed up death in victory. By paying the blood-price for our sins, Jesus freed us from eternal punishment in Satan’s prison, freed us so that He could take us to heaven as His treasures of war seized from the defeated enemy. Heaven rejoices because we have been freed from the devil’s rule over our hearts.

For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Midian was the mighty nation that Gideon faced with a much smaller army. Any general would have said that Gideon faced impossible odds; but because God was with Gideon, his small force of 300 men killed 120,000 of the enemy and freed God’s people from the oppression of the Midianites (Judges 6-7). Isaiah predicts that in the same way, God was sending a Savior who, though appearing vastly outnumbered and overpowered, would shatter the yoke that oppressed God’s people. That yoke was the yoke of sin. A yoke is a burden that an animal carries, which weighs it down. We think of the Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol; remember Marley’s ghost? He was forever burdened by the weight of the money that he lusted after in life; his sins of greed were an eternal burden upon him. All sin is a burden. That is why Jesus said, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30). The yoke of Jesus is living a life that rejects sinful pleasures and follows Him in a life of loving service. The reason that His yoke is easy is because He bears it with us, walking side by side with us, shouldering almost all of the burden for us.

Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. Because of Jesus’ victory over sin and death on the cross, the end of the war with Satan is near. When Jesus died in your place, He destroyed the only weapon that Satan could actually harm you with; with your sins forgiven, the devil can no longer go to God and say, "That person is a sinner! That person deserves to be in hell forever with me." As soon as Satan tries to accuse a believer of anything, God replies, "it is true that person has sinned, but I have forgiven those sins at my Son’s request." Satan’s deadly weapon against us was our own sin, because sin deserves God’s punishment. But when Jesus forgives our sins Satan can not harm us, because Jesus has taken away our sin and the devil can no longer accuse us before God of doing anything wrong. The only weapon Satan has left is the weapon of temptation, and Scripture assures us, God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it (1 Corinthians 10:13). Jesus said, And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day (John 6:39). Satan has lost the war, and very soon Jesus will return to send our Adversary to a place where he can never tempt us again; when that day comes, the clothing soiled by war will be taken off and burned because we will never struggle against God’s enemy again.

Now Isaiah identifies the person who will do these wonderful things for us. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. Our Savior will come to us as a lowly child, the child who inherits the rulership of the kingdom because He is the firstborn Son. The government will be on His shoulders; the responsibility of governing heaven and earth will be His. He will be called Wonderful Counselor. Every human king needs a few counselors to turn to for help in making wise decisions; every president needs his Cabinet officials. But this Savior who comes as a child needs no counselors, because He is the Wonderful Counselor—He is the living Wisdom from on High, who shines the light of truth on the earth. His wisdom is beyond our comprehension; only He understands the universe, only He understands the people of earth; only He can rule wisely from heaven. And so we pray to this Wonderful Counselor for good sense in making every decision in our lives, whether great or small, because only He can see clearly the best path to take, only He cares so much about each and every one of us that He is only too happy to share His wisdom with us through the words of Holy Scripture.

He will be called Mighty God. This ordinary-looking child will disguise our extra-ordinary, all-powerful God, a God who cannot be directly looked upon by sinful man, lest such a sinner die as a result. This child will be able to tell storms to be quiet, command fevers to leave the sick, call the dead out from their graves to renewed life. This child will be able to feed 5,000 people from five loaves of bread and two fish, and feed uncountable numbers of His followers with His own body and blood through the miracle of the Lord’s Supper. This child will be so powerful that He will withstand the hell demanded for every human sin, and rise from the grave those countless sins buried Him in. This child is our Mighty God.

He will be called Everlasting Father. This Son of God is not a lesser God than His Father; Jesus said, I and the Father are one (John 10:30). Like the Father, Jesus is everlasting; at the beginning of His Gospel about Jesus, John writes, He was with God in the beginning. Jesus was involved in our creation. Jesus is the cause of our salvation, the father of our faith. Jesus lives today, seated at His Father’s side, interceding for us for His Father’s mercy. Jesus will return in glory to bring the faithful to heaven. And Jesus shall reign over all creation forever; Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. This means that we can put our trust in Him, because Jesus isn’t going anywhere; our Savior will always be here to help us.

He will be called Prince of Peace. Jesus brought peace between man and God. Before we had faith in Jesus, we were allies of Satan and enemies of God; when Jesus worked faith in our hearts, He freed us from Satan’s domination and brought us into the army of heaven. Because we have joined the winning side, we can know a kind of peace that is impossible for anyone else. Because we are at peace with God, we know that our guilt is forgotten. Because we are at peace with God, we can afford to let go of old grudges and have peace with the family of God here on earth. Because we are at peace with God, we know that death, as unpleasant as it is, is no worse than the pain of childbirth, a pain that leads to a glorious, unending life in heaven. It is this child, the Prince of Peace, that makes it possible for us to live our lives in confidence, not fear.

He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. Centuries earlier, God made David king over the people of God (called Israel in those days). And God promised David that one of his descendants would rule God’s people forever. Jesus is that child. Through His human parentage, Jesus was a descendant of King David, the heir to the throne of rulership over God’s people. But God’s people are not just found in Israel any more; God’s people are the members of the Church Militant spread across the earth, and the Church Triumphant found above in heaven—and our Lord Jesus is King of both. His eternal reign has already begun, and it is based on justice and righteousness. It is our Lord’s justice that demands that all wrongs be redressed; those who refuse to repent and believe in Jesus as their king will be condemned forever. It is our Lord’s righteousness that compelled Him to sacrifice Himself for us, and it is our Lord’s righteous nature to forgive those who come to Him in humble repentance.

Isaiah concludes, The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. God’s love for us is not a passive love, not a quiet love. Our God loves us fervently and actively. God did not wait for us to come to Him; Paul tells us, God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). While we were still enemies of God, God loved us and He did something about that love—He sent His Son to be born a baby and cradled in a manger, so that the sins that alienated us from God could be forgiven and we could love Him in return. God’s love reached out to us in Bethlehem, and it continues to reach out to us today. A zealot is passionate in pursuing the thing he loves, and our God loves us zealously—it was this zeal of the Lord Almighty, this passionate love, that rescued us from our sins and promises us peace in Heaven.

May the blessings of Jesus be with you this Christmas and always!