Our homes look different during Christmas. If you told me that it would bring joy to your heart on a Thursday to have a higher electric bill, eat lots of unhealthy food, travel through cold, snowy and crowded highways and airports while trying to keep a dead tree alive in your living room, I would not believe you. On the other hand, if you told me that the decorations, lights, presents, festive foods, manger scenes and family you have not seen all year that fill your home during Christmas bring you joy, I would be in full agreement with you. Christmas looks different from the days we are not celebrating, and we do all of this because we are filled with joy.
We like to capture the brief joy of Christmas with pictures. Today, we capture the joys of Christmas with apps and look back through the grids of pictures on our screens. In the past, we captured the joys of Christmas with rolls of film and printed pictures in photo albums. About 2,700 years ago in our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 35, the prophet Isaiah used many word pictures to capture a joyous time of celebration. We can think of these words like a photo album or Instagram grid labeled ‘Heaven’. Among these words, there are images of deserts becoming fertile gardens, the weak and fearful becoming strong, the physically impaired being healed, ferocious beasts being driven away and a safe highway being paved through the wilderness. These images show the vast difference between our time in this sinful world and the eternal life waiting for us in heaven. Joy overtakes us as we read and imagine these vivid pictures, but the joy quickly fades as we look around to see that those pictures are not what we see in our lives.
Our lives look different from the description of heaven. Rather than a place of joyous abundance, we live in a sin dried desert of sorrow and sighing. The things that bring us joy in this life do not last as long as we want them to last. We wish things like a Christmas celebration, honeymoon, pay raise, vacation, baby and toddler years or having kids home at all, etc. would last. Beyond our joy from these not lasting, our joy in Jesus also turns to sorrow and sighing. For the joy Jesus’ forgiveness brings, it quickly leaves us as we give back into temptation and sins. Rather than living in the joy of Jesus, free from sin and eager to show love and kindness, we return to the darkness mining chunks of coal and etching our names on the naughty list. This sinful world and our sinful nature make us weak like going through a desert without water. Spiritually, we find ourselves parched, thirsty and dehydrated so that we are tricked by mirages and visions of things that claim to give joy in place of Jesus. When we are not seeking joy from Jesus as the foundation of our lives, we grow desperate, hopeless and helpless. A life without Jesus dries up like dust in the desert, dead, forgotten and walked over.
Jesus journeyed through this sinful desert to redeem us. For all the soul shriveling sin that overtakes us, Jesus paid for us to be rescued to live in an oasis. Jesus’ advent or coming at Christmas began his work to restore our strength as sin made us weak and fearful as we hear in our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 35, 3 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; 4 say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” We are made strong and confident by hearing what God has done for us. Hearing what God has done gives life to our soul and faith like water gives life to our body and mind. Against sin, Jesus came with God-level vengeance and retribution. Such strong words are used to describe Jesus’ rescue mission because we needed to be saved from sin, death and hell.
More desperate, hopeless and helpless than a baby abandoned in the desert, our only hope for rescue was Jesus. Out of his glorious love for us, the holy, sinless God was conceived and became flesh and blood. Jesus lived as one of us, and for our sins, he was sacrificed on the cross. And he cried from the cross the words of Psalm 22, 1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? God allowed his Son to be the Redeemer, the ransom price, the one to be given up, to experience hell, earn the right to forgive us and pave a highway to heaven for you and me. Isaiah 35 says, 8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. But only the redeemed will walk there, 10 and those the LORD has rescued will return. Jesus is the Way out of the desert of sin, sorrow and sighing. We are part of the pictures of Isaiah 35 because Jesus came to save us and will return to bring us to our eternal home in heaven as we read, 10 … They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Our joy in Jesus has been confirmed by his fulfillment 700 years later of Isaiah 35, as we hear in our Gospel reading from Matthew 11, 2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” 4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” Jesus brought to life the pictures of Isaiah 35 by healing the blind, lame, diseased, deaf and even the dead. These pointed to him as the One to bring redemption of our sins and give us eternal joy in heaven.
Joy takes many different forms. We may easily recognize joy during the Christmas season in the face of a child at the sight of presents, cookies, lights, decorations or family. Giggles, loud bursts of thanksgiving and jumping around may signal joy in some, but not others. Despite many brief and surface level things this time of year, once the distractions fade away, we remain in the reality of a sin dried desert of sorrow and sighing. Though it looks different, another form of joy appears in our New Testament reading from James 5, 7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. James encouraged patience as we wait for Jesus’ second coming. The joy we have in the redemption won by Jesus at his first coming allows us to endure patiently until he returns. The farmer illustration James used reminds us that a farmer may not act like a kid at Christmas jumping around with loud bursts of giggles and thanksgiving, but to say that the farmer patiently waiting for the crops to grow and yield a harvest far greater than what was planted does not have joy would not be true. And the same is true for us as there may be times when the words of Jesus’ forgiveness cause us to leap for joy and shout God’s praise with laughter, but we may also wait patiently for the Savior’s birth and heaven.
When we list all that God has redeemed us from both the temporal and eternal, joy overtake us. As severe as the suffering is that we go through here, Jesus’ redemption is greater. If sin dried up this world and brought sorrow, sighing and death, then Jesus is greater by restoring life and showering us with his grace. With our joy founded on Jesus, we can enjoy the temporary joys of this world like the season of Christmas and endure the temporary seasons of sorrow like sickness and separation because we look forward to lasting joy. We are already citizens of heaven. The joy we will have there is already ours now, so as often as you look at photo albums or Instagram grids, look at these words of Isaiah 35. They are a heavenly album with you included as was written, 2 … they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God. 10 … Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Our homes look different during Christmas. Decorations, lights, presents, festive foods and family we have not seen all year fill our homes during Christmas, and all of this is meant to bring joy to our hearts. Our Christmas joy is a brief glimpse of the eternal joy we will have in heaven. Christmas looks different from the days we are not celebrating, and with far greater difference, heaven will look different from our time in this sinful world. The prophet Isaiah gives many pictures of the peace, healing and abundance of life in heaven separated from the wickedness, ferocious beasts and death so prevalent in this world. As we look to our Savior Jesus joy will overtake those the LORD redeemed. Amen.
Gunnar Ledermann, Pastor Divine Peace Church
Gunnar Ledermann
I’m passionate about Rockwall’s vibrant community and actively engage with local non-profits and community organizations, including the Rockwall Chamber of Commerce, the City of Rockwall, and the Downtown Rockwall Association. My background includes a bachelor’s degree in Classical Languages and a master’s degree in divinity. Currently serving as a pastor at Divine Peace Church in Rockwall, I also enjoy spending time with my wife, Marinda, and our five children.
