"At Last, A Good One"--December 18, 2019

At Last, A Good One--December 18, 2019

"For a child has been born for us,

    a son given to us;

 authority rests upon his shoulders;

    and he is named

 Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, 

    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

 His authority shall grow continually,

    and there shall be endless peace

 for the throne of David and his kingdom.

 He will establish and uphold it

     with justice and with righteousness

     from this time onward and forevermore.

 The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this." [Isaiah 9:6-7]

Nobody was hoping for a bully.

When the prophets dreamed of a future coming ruler, the thing they were excited about wasn't simply that someone powerful would come along.  They were longing for someone who was good.

The people of Israel and Judah had had their fill of powerful dictators from back in the days of Pharaoh when they were enslaved in Egypt, and they had lived through kings who were boastful bullies throughout their history as independent nations. (See, for example the unpleasantly tyrannical and embarrassingly graphic speech that Solomon's son Rehoboam gave to the people when he took the throne in 1 Kings 12:6-14.)  Israel and Judah had lived through more than their share of power-hungry dictators, boastful blowhards, pious pretenders, and shameless crooks on the throne.  And all of them had power.  All of them could yell and shout and bellow and declare their unquestionable right to rule over the people... but very few of them ever actually practiced justice.  Fewer still were wise.  And hardly anybody could do much to promote peace.

What the people longed for the most wasn't just one more loudmouth who rattled his saber and bullied his subjects; it was someone who would rule by servant-leadership, rather than his own self-interest.  (This, by the way, is literally what the wise advisors told Solomon's son Rehoboam to do: "If you will be a servant to this people to serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever" [1 Kings 12:7]; but that advice went in one ear and out the other.)  

And honestly, that's the thing that made the prophets' vision so powerful. They didn't just imagine a future king who would be "tough" or "strong" or look like a "winner." They didn't just imagine a future ruler who would be rich or loud or intimidating--that was old news.  The prophets dared to dream that God would at last create a new kind of community, a new kind of commonwealth, so to speak, where justice was done, where nobody was crooked or corrupt, where people lived in peace with one another, and where power was seen in servanthood, rather than self-preservation.  And that vision is what gave the people of God enduring hope.

So when these familiar words from Isaiah were first spoken, the idea of a "child born for us" and a "son given to us" wasn't, by itself all that new.  Israel and Judah had seen princes born before, and they knew how the routine went every time.  A king would have a son, and would declare that this new child would continue the family dynasty... and pretty much, the next king in line just kept the same old rotten habits and policies in place that everybody had gotten used to.  The kings became more and more like dictators, and the nation became more and more like a rehash of Pharaoh's Egypt, and they knew the next generation to come was likely to just keep the same pattern going.

What made Isaiah's vision so different was the idea that at last God would raise up someone who would break the cycle.  The beautiful idea Isaiah announced was that God would not just let the old routine of rottenness perpetuate forever.  There was a new way of being God's people together coming.  We know that way by the name Jesus.

Jesus, of course, we confess to be the long-awaited Messiah (literally, "chosen" or "anointed") that Isaiah and the other prophets dreamed of.  But what we often fail to connect is this promise of a different kind of king and kingdom with the actual things Jesus did.  And it gives a whole new depth to making sense of why Jesus' coming is good news to understand that he is doing what he does as the new promised king who rules differently.  Whereas Solomon's son (David's grandson) had balked at the idea of being a servant-leader, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples, takes the time to heal and teach the crowds who are "like sheep without a shepherd," and lays down his life for his own, rather than expecting them to take a bullet for him.  Jesus does these things exactly because this is God's new way of reigning, and this is what God's new community/commonwealth looks like.  

In Jesus' kind of reign, we don't have to fight over who gets to eat, because loaves and fish abound--even for the folks who didn't make it to the party that day.  In Jesus' kind of reign, justice and mercy meet so that crooks like Zacchaeus are welcomed to the party and changed in the mean time to make reparations to the people they cheated.  In Jesus' kind of reign, people practice showing love even to their enemies because they see this is how God loves the world.  In Jesus' kind of reign, real power is the capacity to lay down your life for the sake of your own.

This is the vital, life-giving difference about Jesus, the king unlike any other.  Jesus isn't here to intimidate or self-aggrandize.  Jesus has come to rearrange and reorder our lives so that abundance, peace, and justice are given to all.  Jesus doesn't need to convince anybody that he's a "winner," but rather shows his strength by losing it all for the sake of his people.  Neither does Jesus need to convince anybody that he is "great."  The people of God had suffered through one terrible bully after another who were obsessed with looking "great," and it had only brought disappointment and misery.  What they really longed for was someone good.

In this remaining week until we celebrate Jesus' birth, don't forget why it's worth being excited over.  We aren't cheering because another strongman is on the world-stage--we are brought to awe-filled adoration because in Jesus we have finally been given the one who rules in serving, whose power is in suffering love, whose greatness is in his goodness.

All hail our true king, Jesus, you who reign in servanthood and lay down your life for us.  All praise to you, the son who was given for us.