The holiday season is saturated with expectations. We tend to crave control by trying to craft the perfect meals, experiences, and memories. Yet more often than not, things do not go as we planned and we are left disappointed—even disillusioned.

Imagine this Christmas scene: you’re sitting in your pajamas on Christmas morning, curled up on the couch, a hot cup of coffee in hand. A fire crackles in front of you, a fresh covering of snow is in progress outside, and a beautifully decorated tree with a pile of presents underneath is in view. All your kids are playing kindly and gently with each other, and the Christmas carol “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is softly playing in the background.

Ahhhhhhh…

Now here’s a question: what’s missing from this picture? Well, for starters, what’s missing is a healthy dose of reality! What I just described is the Instagram, filtered, cropped, airbrushed, Hallmark version of Christmas. That’s not Christmas. While I love Christmas, and I deeply appreciate all the things described in this scene, notice not “what” I left out but “who.” You see, each of these things are good gifts from God, but often we can turn these “good things” into “god things” and seek a pleasure or fulfillment from them that they are unable to deliver. The stuff of this world always over-promises and under-delivers. We can put our trust in and seek earthly things and resources above heavenly things and spiritual resources. We can treasure the presence of material possessions above the presence of God in our lives. Yet the real reason for Christmas flies right in the face of this line of thinking and confronts us with something better—a faithful God who fulfills all His promises through sending His Son Jesus to earth. But the sending of God’s Son came after centuries of waiting, and when He finally came it was in a way everyone least expected.

Waiting and Expecting

At several times throughout the history of Israel they asked, “Has God forgotten us?” When Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed and they were sent into exile by foreign nations, they honestly questioned, “Are we still God’s chosen people?” The Old Testament closes with the book of Malachi, in which the temple and Jerusalem had been rebuilt, but God’s people were unfaithful in their marriages, were not tithing, did not fear the Lord, and neglected God’s laws. And the closing of Malachi ends with a cliffhanger promise that sends Israel into a 400-year period of silence in which there was no word spoken by God through a prophet.

Imagine this intense period of waiting. God had promised a coming prophet who would prepare the way for the Messiah, yet He would make Israel endure 400 years of silence. Imagine the unrest and painful anticipation from the passing of multiple generations. How did God break the silence?

With crying…

God first broke the silence through an angel of the Lord in the announcement of Jesus’ impending birth to Mary and Joseph, and then the very voice of God broke into human history through a crying baby. Many parents are used to the silence of a dark night being broken by the cries of their baby boy or girl. God broke the darkness of 400 years of silence by the crying of the Son of God, supernaturally born of a virgin. Secondly, God broke the silence by Israel’s last prophet John the Baptist, who was “a voice crying in the wilderness saying, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord’”.

Beloved, God made His people wait for the fulfillment of His promised Messiah for a really long time. And He will make you wait too. But God’s faithfulness fuels our patience. So hang in there—whatever God promises, He fulfills.

Beloved, God made His people wait for the fulfillment of His promised Messiah for a really long time. And He will make you wait too. But God’s faithfulness fuels our patience. So hang in there—whatever God promises, He fulfills.

A Promise Fulfilled

I believe the message of Christmas, and the whole Bible for that matter, can be summed up in these three words: God with us. And these three words became a reality in human history when God fulfilled His promise in sending Jesus to earth (Matthew 1:23). All of the waiting and expectation was fulfilled in the most precarious and paradoxical way. The holy, uncreated, and sovereign king became a humble, created, and submissive servant. Both exist at the same time. Jesus added humanity to His deity—fullness of humanity with undiminished deity existing in perfect, mysterious, and glorious harmony.

Jesus put the “with” between the eternal expanse that once existed between “God” and “us” by becoming one of us. In Christ we have not a slice or a section of God, but the fullness of all His unlimited and glorious attributes incarnated and veiled in humanity.

Holiness became humble.

Majesty became meek.

Sovereignty became submissive.

Transcendent became imminent.

Limitless became limited.

Uncreated became created.

Supremacy became servanthood.

God became man.

Jesus put the “with” between the eternal expanse that once existed between “God” and “us” by becoming one of us.

All of these attributes are held together in beautiful and glorious tension within the only One who embodies the fullness of two natures, deity and humanity, in One Person: Jesus Christ, our Immanuel!

The One Who Thwarts and Exceeds Our Expectations

Jesus, our Immanuel, is truly the one who not only beautifully thwarts our expectations, but also exceeds them in remarkable ways. This Christmas, what if our earthly expectations were eclipsed by a heavenly perspective? What if instead of expecting all our plans to curate the perfect Christmas experience, we were captivated by a fresh longing to encounter our incarnated and living Christ?

Jesus, our Immanuel, is truly the one who not only beautifully thwarts our expectations, but also exceeds them in remarkable ways.

This next week, we encourage you to allow the lyrics of an old cherished hymn, “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus,” to guide you in your communion with Christ and to shape and renew your Christmas expectations. Written by Charles Wesley in 1745, this song not only speaks of an ancient hope for Israel’s Messiah and a contemporary hope for Christ’s second coming, but as one writer observed, “This hymn rightly assumes that Jesus also comes today, in a sense. One day, He will come and bring the kingdom. Today, Jesus can begin to ‘reign in us forever.’ One day, Jesus will ‘raise us to [His] glorious throne.’ Today, He can ‘rule in our hearts alone’ through His ‘eternal Spirit.’”^[1]

Join us this week on Facebook Live at 9:00 a.m. EST as we pray from these Christmas songs and prepare our hearts to humbly expect to experience Jesus as our strength, comfort, joy, and deliverer.

Below are the words of this week’s song. Click HERE to enjoy a modern day rendition of “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.”

Come, Thou long expected Jesus,

Born to set Thy people free,

From our fears and sins release us,

Let us find our rest in Thee:

Israel’s strength and consolation,

Hope of all the earth Thou art,

Dear Desire of every nation,

Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,

Born a child and yet a king,

Born to reign in us forever,

Now Thy gracious kingdom bring

By Thy own eternal Spirit

Rule in all our hearts alone,

By Thy all-sufficient merit

Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Copyright © 2022 Justin Jeppesen. All rights reserved

 

^[1] Cited from: https://www.theologyofwork.org/the-high-calling/daily-reflection/come-thou-long-expected-jesus