The Good News and Bad News of Christmas
Isaiah 11:3b-4
©Copyright December 18, 2011 by Rev. Rick Goettsche
Not long ago, I had a
conversation with a judge about a case he had recently heard where I knew both
parties involved. I joked with him about how I had talked to both of them and one
thought he was an idiot while the other thought he was a genius. He laughed and
said that in every case he hears one party thinks he’s clueless while the other
party thinks he’s brilliant. He said that everyone you judge against concludes
that you don’t really understand.
While I believe this
man is a good judge, he ultimately does have a major limitation—he can only
make judgments based on what he sees and hears. While he may have a good sense
of when someone is lying, he can’t really be sure. He doesn’t really know what people
are thinking as they stand before him. He doesn’t know what happened in a given
situation or why people behave the way they do. No human can judge on that
basis, they must simply follow the evidence they can see.
The other truth is
that though he wears a robe and sits in a chair that is higher than everyone
else, he does not have the power to enforce his judgments. When he orders
someone to pay a fine, or to stay away from another person, or to be put in
jail, people can (and often do) seek to ignore his judgments. He must rely on
those in law enforcement to ensure people obey the judgments he makes.
I am telling you this
to point out the limitations of human judges, because Isaiah contrasts the limitations
of human judges with the unlimited power of Jesus. He shows us that the One who
was promised, the baby lying in the manger, is more than just a child. This
baby was not just a human being; He was and is God Himself, and the righteous
judge of all the earth.
In our text this
morning we are turning our attention to the end of verse 3 and verse 4 of
Isaiah 11.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he
hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with
justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the
earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the
wicked. (Isaiah 11:3b-4, NIV)
This passage tells us
that the One who was promised would be different from human judges. The Messiah
would not judge merely on outward appearances, but He would judge on the basis
of the heart—He would know the truth and judge rightly.
So, did Jesus manage
to judge in this way? Certainly! There are many times in the New Testament
where we read that Jesus knew what people were thinking, and responded
appropriately. One of the best examples we find is the way Jesus consistently
pronounced judgment upon the religious leaders of the day. He repeatedly called
the Pharisees and teachers of the law whitewashed tombs, a brood of vipers, hypocrites,
and other things. He said these things because He knew what was in their
hearts. He knew that although they put on a good show, and everyone else was
convinced of their goodness and their infallibility, inside they were
empty—their actions were not intended to honor God, but to bring honor to
themselves. Jesus judged them on what was in their hearts rather than outward
appearances.
Throughout his earthly
ministry, Jesus sought to help people to look at themselves in this way. If you
look at some of Jesus’ most famous teachings, called the Sermon on the Mount,
in Matthew 5-7, you see this in action. In Matthew 5, he goes through many of
the commandments that people were familiar with and then turned them around. He
helped people to see that even though they may have kept the law outwardly,
they had often violated the law inwardly. He said things like:
You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder,
and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell
you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.
(Matthew 5:21-22b, NIV)
As well as:
You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell
you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery
with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28, NIV)
Jesus was trying to
show us that God does not judge simply on outward appearances, but also on what
is inside—and that we ought to judge ourselves based on our hearts as well.
Later on, in chapter 6 He explains how it is possible for us to do “good”
things in a way that really isn’t good at all.
“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be
seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give
to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the
synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they
have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the
needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so
that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in
secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:1-4, NIV)
We understand this
truth, don’t we? A good thing, done for a bad reason, is not really a good
thing at all. It reminds me of the story of a wealthy man who made a sizable,
anonymous donation to the local hospital. Later on, he was heard talking to
someone and saying, “Did you hear about my sizable, anonymous donation to the
hospital?” Clearly, his goal really wasn’t to help others, but to get good
press for himself. Even the act of making the donation anonymously was probably
done so that people would think he didn’t care about the publicity! We can see
the heart of this man in his actions—and we see that his donation was not so
much about helping others as it was about helping himself.
That’s an extreme
example, and it is very clear what that man’s motives were. But we often cannot
see the motives of others so clearly. We can, however, see our own motives—and
I think that is the point. We need to look at ourselves the way God does. He is
not fooled by the show we put on for others; he knows who we are on the inside.
This is both good news
and bad news. The good news is that God will see our hearts when we are trying
to do good. He will see the things we did that no one else noticed. He will
know how hard we worked when the rest of the world seems to overlook us. He
will see when we have not given much, but have given with a sincere heart.
The bad news is that
God also sees our hearts when we are pretending. He sees through our excuses,
and sees our true motivations. God is not fooled even when everyone else is. He
knows when we have been lazy, when we are doing good for the applause of
others, and when we are just going through the motions. If you’re like me that
is kind of a scary thought, because I know my motives often are tainted by
selfish desires.
Think about this truth
from the perspective of our Christmas celebrations. If Jesus knows what is in
our hearts, it means he knows what we are really celebrating this Christmas. It
means that even though we insist on saying “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy
Holidays”, that we declare that “Jesus is the reason for the season”, and decry
the commercialization of Christmas, he knows what is in our hearts. He knows
whether our hearts are filled with joy because we are remembering the entrance
of God into the world or because we are expecting the entrance of presents into
our hands. It means he knows whether we are excited to meet with family or
whether we are excited to meet with Him. Can I challenge you to examine your
own heart this Christmas? What is driving your excitement about the holiday?
What makes Christmas special to you? We need to examine our hearts for
ourselves, because our hearts are the measure God will use to judge us.
The question we might
ask is this: How is Jesus able to render an impartial judgment? In order for
the promised One to be able to judge on the basis of the heart He had to be God
incarnate (i.e. God in human form), as opposed to just being an incredibly wise
human judge.
If you remember back
in 1 Samuel 16, when Samuel was tasked with anointing the next king of Israel,
he saw David’s brother Eliab first and immediately concluded, based on his
appearance, that this man was certainly to be the next king. As these thoughts
were going through his mind, God spoke to Samuel.
But the Lord said to
Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.
The Lord does not look at the
things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel
16:7, NIV)
God told Samuel to
anoint David as the next king, even though David’s physical appearance wasn’t
quite what Samuel might expect in an ideal king. God saw the whole picture. He knew
that David was a man who sought after God’s heart. And He knew that was far
more important than what David looked like on the outside.
The point is that it
is only God who can judge the heart. Human beings cannot see what is in a
person’s heart, so we can only judge based on appearances. Since Jesus judges the
heart, it tells us that the Messiah must be “in very nature God”.
This is precisely the
point that Paul made later on after Jesus had lived, died, and ascended to
Heaven.
6 Though he was
God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead,
he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and
was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he
humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
(Philippians 2:6-8, NLT)
Jesus came to the
earth as God. He did not stop being God when he became a man, but rather chose
not to exercise his divine powers. Jesus came and lived a human life just like
us. He came as a baby, a creature who was dependent upon others to care for
him. He experienced the same things that we do—hunger, thirst, exhaustion,
pain, grief, frustration. Jesus had every right to stay in heaven and judge us
justly, but he did not. He came to the earth in the most humble of
circumstances, and allowed himself to experience everything that we
do—culminating in his dying the death of a criminal on a cross.
That is what is so
special about Christmas. For years God had sent prophets to the people. But in
Bethlehem, God came in person. He came to rescue us by living a sinless life
and dying in our place as our sacrifice. We celebrate the birth of Christ because
we know he came to die for our sin. We do not merely celebrate that He was born; we celebrate who He is
and why He was born. Because he
willingly chose to humble himself as a man and die in our place, we can have
hope, we can have forgiveness, and we can be sure of our future.
As we think about
Christmas, we must remember the importance of what happened. The One who was
promised was more than just a baby, He was more than just the greatest human
judge that would ever live—He was and is God incarnate! The baby lying in the
manger is God who has come into the world to both judge sinners as well as to
save them.
In this passage,
Isaiah also says that the Messiah would ensure justice for everyone, regardless
of their station in life. He talks about giving decisions for the poor of the
earth. This does not mean that somehow God has a preference for poor people and
will somehow try to “even things out” between the rich and poor. Isaiah was
saying that under human systems, the poor often are deprived of justice. It may
be because they cannot afford to get the best lawyer, or cannot afford to pay
off the judge, or because they are being persecuted by those who are rich.
Isaiah’s point was that Jesus, the Messiah, would be different from human
judges. He would judge impartially regardless of who it was that stood before
him.
God judges us each
fairly, not based on the labels the world gives us or the circumstances in
which we live. There are lots of people for whom this is good news:
·
The person
who is looked down on because they are poor, and people label as lazy, even
though their poverty is a result of extreme circumstances.
·
The person
who feels branded because they are divorced even though they did everything
they could to save their marriage.
·
The person
who is dismissed because of their age (either too young or too old) even though
they have so much to offer.
·
The person
who feels like a failure in the world’s eyes because they aren’t as talented or
smart as others, even though they work hard to do the best they can.
·
The person
who is not viewed as outwardly beautiful by the world, but is wonderfully
beautiful in God’s sight.
The point is that God
will ensure justice for every person, no matter what label the world has given
us. But there is more. Isaiah tells us that the Messiah will eventually bring
everything under His power. He says that there will be a day when God will
destroy the wicked and evil will be done away with once and for all. He will do
this in His own power, not having to rely on a police force to carry out his
decisions. This means that no matter what happens, evil will not ultimately go
unpunished.
Again there is good
news and bad news. The good news is that we can face the apparent injustices in
our world with the knowledge that one day every wrong will be righted by
Christ. It means that we can endure being treated unfairly because of our faith
because we know this world isn’t all there is. That doesn’t mean that we
shouldn’t speak out against injustice or try to right wrongs in this life, but
that we rest in the knowledge that even when evil seems to triumph, its victory
is only temporary.
The bad news is that
we will also not get away with our evil deeds. Most of us can surely point to
something in our lives that we know is wrong, but we have managed to “get away
with it.” We have this notion that if we aren’t convicted (by a court, by our
friends, by our boss, by our family, etc.) then we are not guilty. We stand
guilty whether anyone else sees it or not. The bad news of Jesus bringing
justice is that our sins will carry with them punishment—even if no one else
knew what we had done.
Our verses this
morning remind us that though we often think of Christmas as being about a baby
lying in a manger, there is much more to the story. The baby lying in the
manger was also the judge of all the earth; the perfect, righteous,
all-knowing, and all-powerful judge. He was the One who had been promised to
the world to restore justice to the earth.
There is a scene in a
popular movie that takes place around a dinner table with a family praying
before their meal. The father of the family begins his prayer with, “Dear Lord
baby Jesus...” When questioned about why He was praying to baby Jesus instead
of grown-up Jesus, the father responds that he prefers to think of Jesus as a
baby.
I think for many the
notion of baby Jesus is more comfortable to us because babies are safe, cute,
and they are dependent on us—we can control them. It’s hard for us to picture a
baby as the righteous judge of the world—but that is exactly what He is. Jesus
is not “safe”. He will judge us justly. If we are honest with ourselves, we
know that being judged justly ends in condemnation, and that is bad news.
But it isn’t until we
understand the bad news of Christmas that we can truly understand the good
news. Jesus not only came into the world to judge the world, but also to take
on the judgment for those who would trust in Him. Those who truly believe in
Jesus will still be judged, but their punishment has been given to Jesus at
Calvary. Those who believe can face the future knowing that evil will
eventually be eradicated, but that our penalty has already been paid by the
judge of all the earth.
There is an image that
many have used before, but I think it captures the idea of this passage
perfectly. Imagine walking into a courtroom and seeing the judge sitting in his
elevated position, hearing the case of a young man. After hearing all of the
evidence, the judge renders his verdict, declaring that the young man is most
certainly guilty, and that he must pay a fine of tens of thousands dollars. The
young man realizes that the verdict is just, but also knows he cannot possibly
pay it. At the same moment, the judge comes down from the bench, removes his
robes, and puts his arm around the young man—his son. He takes out his
checkbook and pays the penalty his young son could not possibly have paid. The
judge loved his son, but he could not overlook the demands of justice. He
ensured that justice was served by taking the penalty upon himself.
This is what God does
for us in Christ. The verdict has been rendered, and we stand condemned. The
penalty is one far greater than we could possibly pay, but in the manger, we
see the Righteous Judge stepping down from his throne, becoming like you and
me, so that he might pay the penalty.
The Christ of
Bethlehem is more than a cuddly cooing infant. He is the Righteous Judge of the
universe. He will judge fairly. He will right wrong. He will punish sin in its
many forms. And He will make all things right. What makes Christmas special is
that He wants to start with you and me. He wants to pay our penalty and set us
free from the just consequences of our rebellion. He wants to take our burden
of guilt and failure and give us a new beginning. I don’t know about you, but I
think that is something worth celebrating.
©Copyright December 18, 2011 by Rev. Rick Goettsche www.unionchurch.com