Get Small this Christmas

“They put their minds together to rid themselves of this word so that their words can rule.”

-Eugene H. Peterson

Answering God – The Psalms as Tools for Prayer

One of the nice things about this time of year is that I get to spend some focused time catching up on reading. The quote above comes from some of that reading and relates to Psalm 2, which reads:

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand and rulers

Gather together against the Lord

And against His Anointed One.

“Let us break their chains,” they say “and throw off their fetters.”

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.

Ps. 2:1-5 NIV

There are people in our world, and always have been, who would try to live lives apart from God, and to do so, actively plan how to discredit and diminish His words, so that their words rule over us. Removing “In God We Trust” from coins, trying to force public citizens to take down crosses displayed, doing their best to eliminate “Merry Christmas” in favor of “Happy Holidays” are only the latest in these plans. And God Laughs. He laughs because He knows that these “kings of earth” can only see a microcosm, and He is the entire Cosmos and beyond, so beyond there are not words to describe Him.

So God invades our realm, our small piece of His creative expression. In Psalm 2, Messiah is introduced. The word used in Psalm 2 for anointed is “Mashiyach” and simply means “anointed one.” This term is used in scripture repeatedly and is not strictly for Jesus of Nazareth. It is the same word used in 1 Chronicles 16:22 where it says “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” The prophets were also “Mashiyach.” I could go on here, but my point is this. God sent anointed after anointed to tell the people about Him and to try to restore broken relationship, to try to get those plotters to see a picture much larger than their own measly power allowed. In Mark, chapter 12, Jesus recounts that very story. The owner of the vineyard sends messenger after messenger, some are beaten, others killed, and then he sends his son, and they kill him too in hopes of getting the inheritance for themselves, "throwing off their fetters" as it were.

At Christmas, we remember that God sent us THE Anointed One, God presents Himself in the flesh. In His doing so, in the way of His doing so, He reduces the power of earthly kings to insignificant rhetoric. Without humbling themselves and accepting a baby, they and their kingdoms will come to nothing. Without acknowledging that their words are no match for His words, that their sphere of influence is far too small and His all encompassing, they will fade into insignificance. And that has been the way of things throughout history. Kings and kingdoms have come and gone, but the Word of the Lord, The Anointed One of Israel, the baby who came thousands of years ago still remains.

Christmas is the story of how God invaded our world, working from within its “smallness” to bring us to His limitless love. If we reduce ourselves, give up the petty control we think we have over things, God will lead us to a world beyond our imagining.

The wolf will live with the lamb,

The leopard will lie down with the goat,

The calf and the lion and the yearling together;

And a little child will lead them.

Isaiah 11:6