The Good News Born at Christmas

Prayer of the Day: Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come to us with Your presence. Restore to us the joy of Your salvation and grant us a deep and abiding peace for all of our days. By the working of the Holy Spirit, lead us to share that joy we now know as Your gift. Keep us in true faith until the coming of Your everlasting kingdom where You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

How many of you are familiar with the Christmas song, “I’ll be home for Christmas?” Originally recorded in 1943 by Bing Crosby, it’s been re-recorded by over a dozen artists in the last 80 years—including Kelly Clarkson, Elvis Presley, Rascal Flatts, and Michael Bublé. “I’ll be home for Christmas (if only in my dreams)” was originally written from the perspective of a World War II soldier dreaming of being home for Christmas. It immediately became a favorite of soldiers deployed overseas who longed to be home around family and friends, especially at Christmas.

Imagine for a moment hearing that the war was over and either you or your loved one really would be home for Christmas. What good news that would be! How special that Christmas would be.

We hear again from Isaiah as he tells of the good news that the people of God were returning home:

How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice;
together they sing for joy;
for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion.
Break forth together into singing,
you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the LORD has comforted his people;
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The LORD has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. (ESV)

So far God’s Word.

During Isaiah’s ministry, the Kingdom of Judah stood firmly in place and the Kingdom of Babylon was but a small blip on the world’s radar. However, 100 years after Isaiah lived, Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army would roll into Jerusalem and level it. They would burn the palace and the beautiful Temple that Solomon built to worship the LORD. Something like 18,000 of the youngest and most skilled citizens were taken captive from Jerusalem to live in the heathen land of Babylon. Jerusalem would be left in ruins, as a waste place, occupied by the aged and the crippled.

For 70 years it looked like the God of the Israelites had been defeated. His capital city had been destroyed and His place of worship had been looted and burned by the heathen Babylonians. But 70 years after being taken captive, God would “bare his holy arm” and overthrow the mighty Babylonians through Cyrus, king of the Medes and Persians. Cyrus would then allow the Israelites to return home to Jerusalem after 70 years. God reigns! He freed His people just as He promised and heralds ran ahead of the returning crowds announcing the good news.

That is what Isaiah sees unfolding in our text. He sees heralds running over the hills of Palestine headed for Jerusalem. The watchmen of Jerusalem see the runners coming, wondering what kind of message they bring. More bad news, perhaps? No. These heralds bring GOOD NEWS. News so good that it causes singing. Verse 7 tells us they bring good news of “peace…happiness…and salvation.” The substance of this good news is found in their message to Zion: “YOUR GOD REIGNS.”

These words of Isaiah are not just directed at the waste places of Jerusalem 2,500 years ago. These are written for our hearing today. How many times has it seemed like God was defeated? How often have you felt like you live among the ruins where the church has been looted and burned by the enemy? How often do you feel like you are living in a wasteland?

Remember the good news that echoed over the hills of Palestine when Christ was born. We hear it each Christmas as the angels tell the shepherds: “Good tidings of great joy which will be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11)

The good news of Christmas is essentially the same as what Isaiah says in our text. “The LORD has bared his holy arm,” Isaiah says in verse 10. When God bears His holy arm, it is always in a display of His omnipotent power. When He drowned the Egyptian army in the Red Sea and when He freed the captives from Babylon, the LORD was bearing His holy arm, flexing His omnipotent muscles, if you will, as He comes to do something for His people.

But think of how God made His holy arm bare at Christmas. The Lord Himself comes to earth to bring all the things spoken of in our text: peace, happiness, salvation, comfort, and redemption. The coming of Jesus at Christmas is God announcing to Zion once again, “Your God reigns.”

But it didn’t always look like God was reigning. Jesus didn’t come in a grand display of power, but it was literally in the bare arms of a newborn Baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. As a toddler, the Christ Child had to be rescued from King Herod who wanted Him dead. On Good Friday it certainly didn’t look like God was reigning as His beloved Son was nailed to a cross. As Jesus died and was buried in a cold tomb and as the stone was rolled to seal the entrance, certainly we could understand why the believers might have asked, “Where is God?” It certainly did not look like the LORD was making His arm bare.

But in all of this, in His lowly birth, His humble life, and His horrific death, the LORD truly was making bare His holy arm. The Almighty God reveals His strength not by destroying His enemies, but by becoming one of us to save them. He shows the strength of His love by taking on flesh and taking our sin on Himself. He lives a poor, humble life to give us the glorious life of heaven. He dies and is buried to taste death for all of us.

That little Baby in the manger, who looks so tiny and so helpless, is Himself Lord of all. Jesus, whose arms are bare and nailed to the cross on Good Friday, is Lord of all. And though He didn’t look like the Lord throughout His life, on the third day after His death, He broke free from the shackles of death. On Easter, Jesus flexed His muscles and rose from the dead. “Your God reigns.” This is the good news that is born at Christmas. Jesus is born to free us from the captivity of our sins and the bondage of death. Unto you is born a Savior who is Christ the LORD!

Good news is intended to be shared. Little kids love to tell their friends the presents they got for Christmas. Couples love to tell when they are engaged. Husbands and wives enjoy telling when they are expecting a child. The heralds Isaiah sees in our text cresting the hills of Palestine, can’t wait to tell Jerusalem that God has freed His people from the Babylonian captivity and they are on their way home.

What better news is there to share than the good news born at Christmas? The angels share the good tidings of great joy with the shepherds. The shepherds hurried to Bethlehem to see God reigning. And then what did they do? “They made widely know the saying that had been told them concerning this child.” They shared the good news.

What are we going to do with this good news? Let us share it. We live in a spiritual wasteland where so many people are questioning whether God is reigning. How many people do you know who are still stuck in the captivity of sin and death? How many are living captive in their unrepentant sin as if God does not reign and does not care about how they live their lives?

You, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you are the next generation of heralds. You know the good news. You know your God reigns. You know God has made bare His holy arm to save sinners from their sin. Let us run ahead with the message that Christ, who was born to save us, will come again to set His captive people free. Let us break into joyful singing. To those living in their sins, let us warn them that Christ will come again. To those who sorrow over their sins, let us echo to them the message of the Christmas angels, those good tidings of great joy— that to them is born a Savior who is Christ the Lord. How beautiful are your feet as you carry the good news that was born at Christmas. Amen.

—Pastor Nathan Pfeiffer

Berea Ev. Lutheran Church
Inver Grove Heights, MN

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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.