The humblest day of the year has to be Dec. 26. At least Dec. 24 gets to be Christmas
Eve. All the other dates between Thanksgiving
and Christmas are the “Holiday Season.”
There’s great anticipation and much preparation in those days. The spirit
of Christmas is there; but Dec. 26 is different.
Some calendars will say it is Boxing Day. Boxing Day is an excuse for Brits and
Canadians to take time off. In the
United States, Dec. 26 is not an exciting day.
In fact, it can be a depressing day.
It is the beginning of the “Let-Down Season.” The decorations go away and along with them go
all the holiday cheer and good tidings.
Early on the morning after Christmas, sales become testimonies to greed
and selfishness. The advertisers have
picked up on this post-holiday let down and have even tapped into the after-holiday
cynicism. (“Haven’t you had a little too
much Christmas?”) Get ready, because the
fitness ads are right around the corner.
In the lectionary tradition, the year is not ending with
Dec.26; rather it is just beginning. All
the preparation and anticipation is coming to fruition. Let’s learn from this. We have spent the last month or so talking
about Christ: about his first coming into the world and his second coming into
the world which is yet to come. The question
before us on Dec. 26 (or on any other day) is “What does Immanuel
(God with us) mean today?”
John the Baptist had a Dec. 26 moment. He was wondering if all the anticipation and
preparation had come to an end. John had
dedicated himself to a hard life: An outdoor life of living in the desert eating
grasshoppers and honey. He was decked
out in his camel hair shirt and his old leather belt. He was a voice crying in the wilderness. John was a prophet – like Elijah (he dressed
like Elijah) and his message was point blank – “The Lord is coming, so get
ready now! Turn from wickedness sinners
and repent! Be baptized, washed clean!” John’s message was tough, but he had a vision
that after him would come the Day of the Lord.
The one who would come after him would be the Son of Man, which meant the
judge of all the earth. The one who
would come after him would be the Messiah, which meant God’s chosen king. This
was breaking news and John was the herald of this arrival.
On John’s Dec. 26, all those rough years spent out in the
desert and his bold proclamation (He pointed fingers at kings and called them sinners)
is coming to an end. John is in prison
and he thinks he will probably be executed.
Was it worth it? Was all the
preparation and preaching in vain or in faith?
Was Jesus the one? John had to
know. Maybe he doubted. Maybe he wanted to see the fireworks
start. That’s a Dec. 26 moment. He’s looking back. You might even call it a Dec. 31 moment,
because he is looking back and asking, “What was it all about? What gives it
meaning? What puts the seal on my life
and validates it?”
Two of John’s disciples approach Jesus and ask him “Are you
the coming one, or do we wait for another one?”
That is John’s Dec. 26 question.
He wants to know if he can look back at his ministry and connect it with
Jesus, or should he should pick up and start getting ready for the next
Christmas. After all, Dec. 26th is also the day when we pack it up
and start looking forward for the next Dec. 25th. But John wants to know if that is what he has
to do or if he can go to the executioner knowing that he had seen the one he
was preaching about.
Jesus’ answer is to let John and his disciples judge for
themselves. What have they seen and
heard? The blind receive their sight, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, the dead are raised and the poor have the good news brought to
them. Jesus asked them to weigh the miracles
and all those signs of grace. Is that
Messiah work? Jesus’ reply asks another
question, “Well what did you expect?”
What sort of Messiah were you looking for?”
Some will focus on the birth of the Messiah on Dec. 25. That picture of the Messiah is of a child
wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. But the Dec. 26 Messiah must be one that can
respond to prisoners and doubters and faithful.
It must be a Messiah who can give sight to the blind, hearing to the
deaf, cleansing to the sick and life to the dying!
What kind of Messiah were you looking for? The good news of Jesus is that the kingdom of
God is about judgment, but it is also about graciousness. The reign of God is here and is being established;
all we wait for now is the victory party.
We prepare for the second coming (as John did for the first
coming) but we do not have to wait for the Second Coming for these things to
happen. We do not have to pack up our expectations and wait for another
Christmas. We don’t have to wait for
another Savior to come. The good news
for Dec. 26 is that we can start living in the kingdom of Christ now, being joyful, being healed, being
forgiven, being patient, being free, and traveling safe along the Holy
Way. We are not ending a season, but we
are invited to begin enjoying the journey and the time and nurture it takes,
enjoying the rule of God and the fellowship of the people around us.
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