December 20th, 2023

When John the Baptist was born - his father Zechariah broke a nine month silence. with a joy-filled prophetic hymn. Interestingly, the “Benedictus" is remarkably Christ-centered: of the 12 verses, 8 describe the heroic work of God in the incarnation, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus; even the 4 verses dedicated to John ground his prophetic career of his son in light of the greater work of Jesus. Neither Zechariah, nor John his son, seem to be worried about playing “second-fiddle” to Jesus. When Jesus arrived at the Jordan to be baptized by John it signaled the end of John’s ministry, but instead of being resistant, John said “…this joy of mine is complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.” We tend to see John the Baptist playing an activist role in the Gospels - and parts of his ministry really do merit that perspective. But John, like Zechariah, is happy to receive, rest, and even retire in the presence of Jesus as the source of his hope. In Christ, we are invited to do the same. 

There is a lot of activity that goes into Christmas: choirs, dinners, family trips, gift shopping and the like. In their right place these are all good things - but I want to pause to remind you (and myself) of the wonderful passivity on display for us in this season of Christmas. God sent his Son to live the lives we refuse to live and die the death we could not endure so that he might bring us, anxious and restless as we are, into his presence through the forgiveness of our sins. My prayer is that our singing, cooking, and gift-giving would be signs of the fact that we have retired in Christ and found our rest and worth in Him alone. 

Christ has come, Christ is risen, Christ will come again - Merry Christmas!