Christmas Midnight A B C
Readings: Isaiah 9:1-6 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-14
The readings for Christmas at midnight proclaim the joyous, yet humble, arrival of Jesus as the light of the world. He comes to bring peace to all and calls Christians to live temperate and just lives as they await his return in glory. Let us rejoice as we hear the angel’s proclamation to the shepherds: “’Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.’”
Isaiah’s messianic oracle expresses the hope for a king in the Davidic line who will bring peace in the aftermath of an Assyrian invasion of Israel. The prophet prefaces his description of the king’s just rule by praising the Lord for delivering the nation from the Assyrian yoke. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;/ Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone./ You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing./ For the yoke that burdened them, the pole on their shoulder,/ And the rod of their taskmaster/ You have smashed, as on the day of Midian.” Isaiah believes this liberation is only the initial act of a two part drama. He expects that “the zeal of the Lord of hosts” will raise to the Davidic throne a king who will rule with wisdom, power, paternal care and peace. Although Jesus did not assume a worldly throne, we Christians believe he is the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah’s oracle though his life, preaching, death and resurrection, and return in glory (see Peter’s sermon in Acts 2). Jesus has begun the Kingdom of God that will ultimately triumph in the peace and justice Isaiah so urgently awaited.
The Titus reading presents us with the whole mystery of salvation: the appearance of God’s grace in Christ’s offering salvation to all, the challenge of the Christian life, and our hope for the final appearance of God’s glory and our savior Jesus Christ. Even on the feast of Christmas, the Church does not lose sight of the demands of our renewed life and the urgent expectation of the second coming. As the letter to Titus proclaims, all have been cleansed and redeemed in Christ, but we still wait in hope, as did Isaiah, for the appearance of the full glory of God’s kingdom. In the interim, we are called to reject godless ways and to live temperately and justly.
Luke’s beautiful nativity story is best understood in relation to the major themes of his gospel, especially his insistence that Jesus is a universal savior, who was prophesied in the Scriptures and will overturn worldly expectations for greatness. This universality is most explicit in the angel’s greeting to the shepherds which is the center piece of his entire narrative. “’I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ the Lord.’”
By dating Jesus’ birth in the reign of Caesar Augustus, Luke contrasts the powerful Roman emperor with the lowly Jesus who is born as an exile. Luke’s initial readers were aware that Augustus had inaugurated the Pax Romana and that many entertained messianic expectations about his rule. For Luke, however, Jesus’ humble birth is the joyous beginning of the long-awaited fulfillment of God’s promises of salvation in the Hebrew Scriptures. Salvation and peace will not come from the emperor who has the power to order a census of the whole world, but from Jesus whose parents must obey the emperor’s commands.
Luke’s special emphasis on the fact that Jesus has come for the lowly is evident in the role of the shepherds. In Jewish tradition, they were considered disreputable and their testimony was invalid. Yet in Luke’s account they receive the initial annunciation of Jesus’ birth and even function as evangelists. When they proceed to Bethlehem, they witness the truth of the angel’s message and then make it known to others. Likewise, when they return, they glorify and praise God “for all they have heard and seen.”
Other details of Luke’s story make symbolic allusion to Jesus as the unexpected fulfillment of the Scriptures. The swaddling clothes recall a saying associated with King Solomon who says: “I was nurtured in swaddling clothes, with every care./ No king has known any other beginning of existence” (Wis 7:4-5). Despite the lowly circumstances of Jesus’ birth, he is already a king like the great Solomon. The manger (feeding trough) also has more than literal significance. Isaiah had criticized his generation’s failure to understand the Lord in the following oracle: “An ox knows its owner,/ and an ass its master’s manger./ But Israel does not know, my people has not understood” (Is 1:2-3). In contrast to the senseless people of Isaiah’s time, the humble shepherds, representative of a renewed people of God, go in haste to the infant lying in the manger who is food for the world. Setting aside our pride, let us follow the shepherds to adore the Christ-child.
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