Maybe your first thought when you saw that the title of this post includes the word Christmas was “how behind is she?” I do know that in the wider culture (and even sometimes in our churches), Christmas has come and gone. New Years Eve and New Years Day has come and gone. Store holiday sections are now anticipating Valentines Day. But hear me out: I’m living into the church calendar and continuing to contemplate the miracle of the incarnation during this Christmas season (which lasts 12 days until January 6). After the expectation and longings of Advent, we get more than one day for Christmas. In the church calendar, the color of Christmas is white, a color of joy and celebration. In American culture, which generally skips Advent, we get a whole month to be be happy and glowing and full of good cheer. But the incarnation isn’t really a tinselly affair. It is messy, gritty, painful. I’ve been listening to Handel’s Messiah during Advent and Christmas. One song that stuck out to me takes its text from Isaiah 53:4-5: “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows! He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him.” This verse is often used during Lent, but it seemed so right to think about this verse during Christmas. Jesus took on flesh and moved into our neighborhood (see John 1 in The Message) as a tiny, helpless baby. And Jesus grew up; he lived a human life and faced its trials and uncertainties without sin. Hebrews tells us that Jesus can empathize with our every weakness. Jesus bears our griefs and carries our sorrows.
This is what Christmas is all about. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, took on flesh. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus walks with us. He knows our pain. He carries our sorrows. He doesn’t take them away. In this already-but-not-yet time we still face the troubles of this world. But we don’t face them alone. We face them with our merciful Savior who suffered the indignity to be born into this mess.
This has been a hard holiday season for me. I identify with the themes of Advent—the waiting, the longing, the expectation—much more than the joy and peace of Christmas. When I heard the chorus singing “surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” as I sat alone in my room, grieving this season of my life, I heard the Christmas story in a new way. It isn’t just a “silent night, holy night.” Christmas is pain and joy mixed together. The joy of a child born mixed with the pain of childbirth, Mary and Joseph’s tenuous social position, and the humiliation of God taking on flesh. The joy of Simeon seeing salvation and finding peace to depart this earth along with his prophecy that a sword would pierce Mary’s soul, too (Luke 2:25-35). Jesus knows my pain and carries my sorrows. I am not alone in my grief, but my grief is known by my loving God.
Perhaps this has been a hard season for you, too. If so, I pray that you will know the presence of Emmanuel, our God-with-us, our God who took on flesh and moved into our neighborhood. May God comfort you with the knowledge that Jesus carries your griefs and your sorrows, whether they are public or known to God alone. May you see a glimpse of Christ’s light, shinning in the darkness.
Photo by Jim Kenefick, used under a Creative Commons License
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