For a child is born to us,a son is given to us.The government will rest on his shoulders.And he will be called:Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.His government and its peacewill never end.He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor Davidfor all eternity.The passionate commitment of the LORD of Heaven’s Armieswill make this happen! (Isaiah 9:6–7 NLT)
When I was younger, we lived roughly 2,000 miles away from one set of grandparents. This meant it was a very rare holiday when we could celebrate with them in person. To compensate for this physical lack of presence – and also likely due to a desire on their part to use the new-at-the-time technology of home video cameras – my parents would record my siblings and me unwrapping our gifts from our grandparents so they could mail them the tape to watch. It was the nearest thing the mid-nineties had to video calls.
One Christmas, when the hints of puberty were still nowhere in sight, the gift I received from my California grandparents was an electric razor.
My face went from excitement to crestfallen in the span of a breath as I finished unwrapping the device I would still be years away from needing. I’m certain the camera on its tripod, ready to catch all the action, did its job well, much to the chagrin of my mom. She immediately did her best to get me to see the great boon this razor would be any day now, but she was still too late to temper my reaction.
Yesterday, we looked at the verses leading up to this passage, where Isaiah writes about a people who walked in darkness but will see a great light, where God will bring about a drastic reworking of the world, changing the power structures in place so the oppressor’s rods are broken and there is no longer any need for the accoutrements of war (Isaiah 9:2–5).
In today’s passage, Isaiah tells us how that comes to be: a child, born to us; a son given freely to us.
Rather than ending war through force or putting an end to oppression through a flexing of legal power, God brings about a new world order through the birth of a child. The framework for this government that will never end was set in place with the birth of Jesus.
In a method typical of the upside nature of the Kingdom of God – and nonsensical everywhere else – the Creator himself needed to become a child, born of flesh and bone yet still fully divine. This isn’t to say the work was complete once the Little Drummer Boy finished his music solo next to the manger, but without Christmas morning, there is no Easter Sunday, no resurrection, no end to death, and no beginning of the new creation.
This was not a passive birth that just “happened.” As Isaiah tells us, this child – Jesus – was “born to us” and “given to us.” This is the story of the Christ child, but it is also our story. If Jesus is the gift, we are the recipients.
And this gift isn’t always one we want, even if it is one we need. Jesus doesn’t always do things the way we want to. After all, his upside-down Kingdom is unlike any other; under Jesus’s rule, “Those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last” (Matthew 20:16). Even the disciples were eager for a political revolution when it was an entirely different kind of revolution Jesus was establishing.
Jesus is our gift, not just that day in Bethlehem, or even just at Christmastime. Every day, our God gives himself to us. How will you receive him today? Is it with excitement and eagerness for how he will guide and direct you today? Or is it more akin to annoyance at disruptions to your schedule or the way you like to do things?