I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.
–Genesis 3:15 (ESV)
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory o’er the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!
Criminal
It’s criminal what we did, what we’ve done
The world was wrung by the very hands meant to steward it
Gifted to a people bearing the image of God himself
Crafted by his hands
Filled with his breath
Yet hungry for God-like power?
The apple of his eye eyed that fruit so deliriously
Imperiously domineering creation by our chomp
We bit ferociously
Devouring the perfection imbued into sabbath’s rest
Spitting up the vomit that we would now be subjected to
Broken bodies buried in a world of demoralization
Yet he moved
Amidst the curses rightfully earned
A promise was given
The smallest of seeds with the greatest of power
The hour would come when the curse would be crushed
For a baby would be born who would smash Satan’s head
A promise so secure it weathered many wilderness nights
Through the choosing of a people to be a light to the nations
Israel would bear the promise of a Savior to come
An infant her fulfillment
Her successor her redeemer
A child, our salvation
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
–Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
And order all things, far and nigh;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And cause us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!
Peace, his name was peace as he peacefully slept in a bed of hay
And although his airway had only housed but a few breaths,
Breathing small sighs of contentment
Up and down
Up and down
Those breaths embodied wisdom personified
With toes just the right size to crush the head of a serpent’s lies
And aggrandize the truth that had always remained
For the I AM had stayed
Immanuel, God with us
Yahweh Yireh, The Lord Who Provides
Guides His people through the deepest of darkness
Bringing to fruition his promise to Abraham
A King, he was said to be, in the line of his ancestor David
And lying on the throne of a manger, robed in swaddling cloths
His tiny arms outstretched like living shoots off a dead tree
Freeing his righteous gavel to set all the captives free
For he would be
Their justice and justifier
A few days young yet wiser than the oldest ancient sage
Virtue in the frame
Freedom from the grave
The Spirit obeying the rhythm of his breaths
Turning stone hearts to flesh
Opening closed minds to know
And so this baby housed the greatest mystery ever told
As history itself would unfold past the threshold of that cold, stable floor
In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
–Daniel 7:13–14 (NIV)
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel;
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!
Son of man
Ah, our God who is the Son
Sometimes “I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Savior did come for to....”[1] live
He lived
He lives!
He gave
He gives!
He gave up his heavenly throne to step down and be born into human flesh
The Messiah
The Anointed One
Son of God and yet Son of Man
The one they had been waiting for for thousands of years
Now was here
And fully present in this tiny package
Weak and yet powerful
Dependent and yet masterful
With his eyes shut tight and his mouth opened wide,
He cries
Screaming that rang loud as a sound to dry up all tears
All fears
For even the wind and the waves would bow to his command
And he would carry healing in his hands
And make a stand against even the demons
And teachings that were beaming with the truth of revelation
The divine representation
The delegation who would fulfill the entire Israel nation
The Incarnation
God became one of his own creations
Born in a mere stable stall
Yet his kingdom is without borders
Bordering people from every tribe, language, and tongue
The nations will be one under his eternal dominion
And all this will be won through the Son born to die…
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
–Isaiah 53:5 (NIV)
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!
Silence….
Oh, how I wish I could’ve heard the cry of that baby boy
For his cries then were swiftly met by the met needs of an infant child
And later he would stand silent as he was swiftly reviled
Exiled from the earth by the ones he had come to save
I don’t think we often realize the gravity of what he gave
That baby, held gently and rocked back and forth,
Would as a man be ferociously pushed to the ground with force
Spat upon
Rejected
Beaten
Dejected
His soft skin had no impurity, just mere shallow wrinkle lines
Foreshadowing the spilling places of the greatest wine that ever was
Fragile hands that fidgeted around the finger of his mother
Would envelope that iron placed right in the center
Lucent lips that breathed barely a few coos
Would cry out in agony,
“Eloi, Eloi, Llama Sabacthani?”
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
And that new life that was born into human flesh
Would be ended by death
But death by death would be destroyed
And all that would be from this little baby boy
But that’s not the end of the story…
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
–John 1:1–4
It’s easy to hear the Christmas story and think it begins with a young boy born in a stable
Ah, but enable your mind to focus much farther back
For the resurrection didn’t just save him from a state of ultimate death
But it solidified his position as the author of all life
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...
In the beginning, the Son gave us first birth
This baby wasn’t just a prophet or a good man
But he held the authority of God in his hands
Like baby’s breath breathing life into our dead nostrils
The gospel was authored by this Son in skin
And although he was placed in a small shell of time
Time itself could not hold him captive
For this Messiah’s throne was eternal and active
The Alpha and the Omega
The Beginning and the End
Giving life itself meaning, and giving life without end
O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!
Notes
[1] John Jacob Niles, “I Wonder as I Wander,” traditional Appalachian carol, collected and arranged 1933.