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For the past four weeks, we have reflected on the season of Advent, remembering that we are in a time of waiting, watching, looking for Jesus to come. Advent is a word that means coming or arrival. And today, Christmas Day, is the day we celebrate a dimension of the arrival we have been waiting for: Jesus Christ is born!
We have sung songs and prayed prayers that have helped our hearts as we wait for Jesus. We, like the neighbor boy in The Incredibles, have been waiting “for something amazing, I guess.” But today, on Christmas, we don’t wonder if something amazing can or will happen; we know and celebrate that something amazing has happened. We sing confidently that the long-expected (and unexpected) has been born for us!
Now I’ll be honest, sometimes it feels less risky for the Incarnate Jesus Christ to remain an infant. His incarnation changes everything, but a non-verbal baby confronts my life a little less. Can a baby really “tear your kingdom down”?
The hymn “Joy to the World” helps me remember that Christmas is far more than a baby in a manger, but it is about Jesus, the right and true king coming to rescue his people and reign in grace. “Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus,” a favorite Advent hymn, teaches us that Jesus is “born a child and yet a king” and “Joy to the World” squarely puts us under the rule of that good King Jesus.
God did not take on flesh to be quaintly ensconced in a charming nativity scene. Jesus took on flesh to bear the crushing weight of the reality of my sin. His incarnation is a necessary part of God’s movement towards the cross and the empty grave. The Christ child becomes the Christ man who dies and rises for you and me. As Luci Shaw writes:
that He
has invaded our lives with purpose,
striding over our picturesque traditions,
our shallow sentiment,
overturning our cash registers,
wielding His peace like a sword,
rescuing us into reality
This is good news of great joy for all people, indeed!
“Joy to the World” was not intended as a Christmas song. In 1719, Isaac Watts published a collection of poems that were based on the Psalms of David. His poems reflected on the Psalms and how they pointed beyond themselves to Jesus Christ and the New Testament. Watts’s reflection on Psalm 98 is what we now know as the Christmas hymn “Joy to the World.” Psalm 98 is a psalm that encourages God’s people to “make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth,” and this rejoicing over God’s rule and reign has become an anthem for the Christmas season.
I hope that we see that “Joy to the World” is an anthem for not only our Christmas season but for our on-going Advent season—a song for the in-between. We are still people who are waiting, watching, looking for Jesus to return, longing for our Savior to come again in the fullness of his power and glory. “Joy to the World” assures me of the safety and security that is mine because Jesus is the King who makes “his blessings flow far as the curse is found.” It is a song for us as we live in the in-between of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem and Jesus’ return to earth in the future. This deep joy of Christmas and longing of the second Advent is a Joy beyond emotion and a hope beyond time.
Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her King! Merry Christmas!
(Written by Meg Haden)
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