Tomorrow we celebrate Christmas, the birth of the Christ, the long awaited Savior of the world. Faithful Israelites anticipated his coming, they longed for the promised Messiah. God in his faithfulness fulfilled what he had promised at the beginning of time, he sent his beloved Son to live perfectly and to die, to be the perfect and final sacrifice for sin. That tiny babe, surrounded by livestock and the weak and lowly citizens was the gift that so many were waiting for, but the anticipation is not over. Christ came as infant, he lived perfectly and he died as a substitution for the world’s sin, he rose from the grave conquering death for all, he ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father waiting again, and we wait in great anticipation, this time for the coming not of the slaughtered Lamb, but for the coming of the Lion of Judah, for the King. For Christ to come and set all things right, to judge the living and dead, to extend mercy to those who have submitted to him as Lord of all, and to exact judgment on those who stand in willful pride and insist that they are god, not he.
Jesus was the word that spoke all things into existence and his word will be the final rule of mercy and justice. As Israel eagerly awaited the coming of the Messiah, we too, the New Israel the nation that encompasses every tribe and tongue, ever nationality and age united by the God who is the King of all, we await the coming of our King, the final trumpet call that announces the end of the tyranny of sin, the end of death, the end of injustice and tragedy. We await the coming of the Prince of Peace. Christmas is a reminder of the first promise fulfilled that gives us an unshakable hope that the second promise, that Jesus is coming back to bring justice and peace will undoubtedly be fulfilled.
Christ came, and he will come again, and we wait with great anticipation.
So my series comes to an end, thank you for sticking with me, I’ll be taking another brief break until the start of the New Year. So, until then, Merry Christmas, may your celebration be filled with the joy not only of the Messiah who came, but the knowledge of the King who is coming again.