ADVENT 2019: LOVE
“Love” is a wishy-washy, overused word. We “love” ice cream. We “love” that new show on Netflix. A new “love” can be the reason to abandon a marriage partner, as can a “love” that has grown cold. A gift given as proof of your “love” is a frequent sales tactic, especially around Valentine’s day. With all of the confusion, the love of God is easily lost in the shuffle.
In a passage often quoted at Christmas, the prophet Isaiah writes:
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone…
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 9:2,6)
It’s a triumphant and joyful passage, recalling images of candle-lit nativity scenes, hay-filled mangers, and echoes of Handel’s Messiah. But, how often does this prophecy evoke profound awe at its portrait of divine love: the particular, personal, active love of God for a broken, lost, and hell-bound humanity?
Isaiah continues:
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
(v. 7)
Governments? Thrones? Kingdoms? Have we left Christmas and wandered into politics? “Come on Isaiah, bring back the baby and the candles!” Yet, this too enriches the portrait of God’s loving intentions; rescuing humanity without providing for a permanent future of rest and prosperity would be a temporary reprieve. In love, God made and kept his promise to David: his heir would establish permanent justice and peace for both Israel and all the nations (2 Samuel 7:1-16, Psalm 2, Isaiah 49:1-13).
Paul writes in Romans 5:
“God shows his [unique, self-giving, other-benefiting] love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
The gift of divine love, the Father’s unique Son was placed in the wooden manger only to be nailed to the wooden cross. It’s a love that sees a need, has compassion, doesn’t stay aloof but enters into suffering, to demonstrate how the Father really feels about us, and to take our place so we can take His place.
For Discussion/Reflection:
1) How does your family use the word “love”? Is it overused?
2) What steps can you take as a family to separate God’s kind of love from “enjoyment”?
3) Thinking about the incarnation, the Son of God entering the world to show us what the Father is really like, what parts of the story of Jesus’ birth show different aspects of God’s love for us?
4) Read Galatians 4:4-5. How does this passage affect how you think of the coming of Jesus on the first Christmas? In what ways do you see the Father’s love in this act of incarnation?
Prayer:
Good Father, you sent your Son into the world not to condemn it but that it might be saved through him. As Christmas Day gets closer, fill our imagination with insight into all of the concrete ways you have shown your love to us in the person of Jesus. May we be so filled by the historical reality of your self-giving love in Christ that we can’t help but love others the way you have loved us—with joy, perseverance, and action.
Author: Nathan Baird, Pastor of Discipleship Development