Advent Week Three: A Joy that Prevails

I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. (Habakkuk 3:18)

The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great 

joy that will be for all the people. (Luke 2:10)

Christmastime joy can seem plastic and fake. We walk through shopping malls where every song, Santa, and sign is designed to put us in the holiday spirit – but we are rushed and anxious, our children misbehaving, our families struggling. We bake cookies and wrap presents, but the news in the background reminds us of the deep wounds in our world. The juxtaposition of such pain and injustice with songs of peace and joy can be jarring and insensitive.

Yet the joy we proclaim during Advent and Christmas is not a flimsy, plastic joy. It is strong enough to stand up to everything life on our broken planet has to offer.

From the very first moment, the message of Christmas has been one of rejoicing. Joy is interwoven everywhere in the story. The angel Gabriel greets Mary with a word that literally means “Rejoice.” When Elizabeth approaches Mary her baby leaps in the womb for joy. The song Mary sings in response is full of joyous pronouncement. The declaration of the angels to the shepherds is that their news is great joy to all people. The shepherds respond with joy upon seeing the new baby. And when the wise men see the star, they rejoice with exceedingly great joy.

Why so much rejoicing at the arrival of a baby? To these men and women who lived so long ago, what did this baby mean? In the songs of Mary, Zechariah, Simeon, and the angels, through the pronouncements later on of John the Baptist and Jesus himself, and through the ancient prophets long before them, we discover the source of this joy. As Zechariah sang:

…because of the tender mercy of our God

whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1:78-79)

The nation of Israel had been waiting for generations. As the prophets declared they were “waiting in darkness to see a great light.” They believed that the One who created the cosmos and called Israel to be a nation had entered into an irrevocable covenant with them—to bring justice and unity, to bring light into darkness, to make crooked paths straight, to bring good news to the poor and freedom to the captive.

When the gospel characters—Mary, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, and the Shepherds—heard the news of this child, they heard it within this context. The centuries of hopeful imagination and trust in Yahweh’s covenant with Israel and creation was coming to fulfillment in the birth of this baby. The Messiah, the anointed one, the long awaited one, has come. Israel will be delivered. Creation will be redeemed. God is with us. This is the joy of a thousand-year expectant hope come finally to fruition.

Will you lift your hands and rejoice? Will you join the forces of justice and joy?

Thousands of years later, we still carry this same joy into the world, through the celebration of Christmas. God has come to our world, and He has come to redeem and not to destroy. God’s plan of redemption is underway. In a world of pain and darkness, His plan for justice will prevail.