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In just over a
couple of week’s time the whole world will be celebrating Christmas. In
many countries of the world, the celebration of Christmas on December
25th is a high point of the year. From November onwards, it is
impossible to forget that Christmas is coming. Everywhere we look - in
the streets and shops - we see Christmas lights and decorations,
Christmas trees decorated with lights and ornaments, images of father
Christmas or Santa Claus, reindeers and many other things associated
with our modern idea of Christmas. In the large shops you can also hear
Christmas carols and traditional Christmas songs being played in the
background. By mid-December, most homes will also be decorated with
Christmas trees, coloured lights and other decorations around the rooms.
These days, many more people also decorate garden trees or house walls
with coloured electric lights, and Santa climbing up the wall, a habit
which has long been popular in USA and which we have jealously copied.
For the
majority of people Christmas is a time for giving and receiving
presents. Children especially look forward to receiving presents from
their parents and demand that these presents cannot be cheap or
practical like clothing or a pair of shoes, gosh no, these are things
they expect their parents to provide anyway, children want the latest
mobiles and electrical gadgets, a computer, or whatever new technology
is available on the market. And they demand these things without
thinking if parents can actually afford them. Christmas should be a day
of great joy and celebration but for many parents Christmas can be a
time of sorrow and stress. After buying new brand named clothes for
their children which are not the presents but part of the duty they have
to clothe their children, then the Christmas shopping to feed the family
over the holidays, they just don't have the extra money to buy the
expensive presents demanded by their children, but they don’t want their
children to feel that they have less than their friends so very often
Christmas is a time when they borrow money just to please the needs and
demands of modern day children.
Christmas, has
become a commercial holiday. The shops are staying open later and later
so that they can take our money. For them it is a time to cash in on the
seasonal madness that has taken oven everyone. We has been brainwashed
with a western commercial idea of what Christmas is. Commercials on the
television continually tell us that we need to buy their products and we
can buy them at a discount of 50% off or buy one and get one free. Much
of our brainwashing comes from the Christmas films that we see over the
Christmas season which have nothing to do with the Christmas story but
are centred on children’s letter to Santa Claus and what they want to
receive from him. Film makers have dreamed up a fantasy character which
keeps growing every year with various stories of Santa, his wife, his
children, his elves, reindeers and now we have Santa’s brother and I’m
sure that soon we’ll have Santa’s sister.
More children
believe in Santa Claus than in Jesus. The real meaning of Christmas has
been completely forgotten and it has become a non-religious holiday
celebrated not only by Christians but also Muslims, Jews, Buddhist and
Hindus. Christmas Day has become a day just for opening presents, for
family to get together for the Christmas Turkey lunch, to have a few
drinks and then watch television or play card games. All these things
have got nothing to do with Christmas? Of course we should celebrate
Christmas, we should give presents, but we shouldn’t demand or expect to
receive them. Christmas is a very special day of celebration, but we
should celebrate it understanding why it is a special day and not for
the commercial holiday that it has become.
Christmas is
not just a remembrance of a historical event or the annual celebration
of Jesus’ Birthday: it is much much more. For humanity to celebrate this
event for 2000 years means that Jesus was a very special and
extraordinary person with a very special mission and message for each
and everyone of us. Why was he special and what is this message? We are
told this by the angels who appeared to the simple shepherds who were
watching their flock. He told them “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you
good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is
born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”
The key words in this message are Saviour and Christ the Lord. A saviour
is born. But for a saviour to be born it means that we are in need of
being saved. Christ the Lord means the Messiah who is God. God has
become a man. But again why did God become man?
The answers to these questions will not be found in the Nativity story
but in the first Book of the Old Testament - in Genesis. Here we are
told how God created the heavens and the earth and all the universe and
how he created life on earth and then how he created man whom he created
above everything else and made him in his image and likeness. If we do
not understand the story of Adam and Eve then we cannot understand
Christmas or any other religious event in the Church’s cycle. Everything
we believe in has its roots in the story of the first man. We have
spoken of Adam and his fall from grace many times so I’m sure you all
know the story and the consequences of the fall. In short, God created
man as an immortal being, but he lost immortality when he disobeyed
God’s commandment. This was man’s rebellion against God and as a result
he could no longer live in paradise with God. His separation from God
and his expulsion from paradise resulted in him losing immortality. He
could only live the immortal life as long as he was with God, but now
distant from God his body changed and was in a state of death. In other
words his body began to age and this eventually brought about his bodily
death. But man was not created to live and die but to live eternally
with God. This is man’s ultimate destiny and God promised man that he
would save him and return him to his intended state of immortality. The
Old Testament is the Book that tells us of this promise and Christmas,
or rather the Birth of Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of this promise.
It is the event which put into motion man’s return to paradise, his
original and intended habitat.
Although today’s talk
in centred on the Nativity of man’s Saviour, it is not about the meaning
of this event but, rather on the promises God made to man through the
Old Testament prophecies. The prophecies themselves are the greatest
proof that the Book of the Old Testament is God inspired. The prophecies
concerning the Nativity are also proof that they were not adulterated.
The greatest evidence that the prophecies are genuine is that they were
in the hands of the Jews who crucified Jesus. Is it possible for the
Jews who crucified him because they did not accept him as the expected
Messiah to have adulterated the prophecies found in the Old Testament to
be in favour of Jesus as the Messiah? Of course not, and this gives us
the certainty and the sure foundation that the prophecies are genuine
and have not been tampered with, at least not is the Septuagint version.
The prophecies
speak of Christ as the expected Messiah. He is the only person who
exists throughout all the centuries as expected and come and again
expected to come again. He is the only person who not only has a history
but also has a prehistory. He has up to date a history of two thousand
years, but he has a prehistory from the creation of the world because he
is the only person that was expected to come. Not Plato, Aristotle or
Napoleon had a prehistory; they only have a history from the time they
were born and after. Christ existed before he was born as the expected
through the prophecies. Let’s then look at these prophecies.
The first
prophecy is given to us by God himself immediately after the fall. God
said to the serpent “I will put enmity between thee and between the
woman, and between thy seed and between her seed: he shall watch thy
head, and thou shalt watch his heel” (Gen. 3:15) The Church calls this
verse the Proto-evangelion or the First Good News because it is the
first mention of someone who will be born to destroy the power of the
devil. Let’s then analyse this verse and see what it is actually saying.
It is clear that here is mentioned the seed of a woman who will watch or
bruise the head of the serpent, in other words the devil and the devil
will watch or bruise the heal of this seed. What escapes people’s eyes
when they read it is that it speaks of the seed of a woman and not of a
man. How can a person be born with only the seed of a woman, without the
seed of a man? This is clearly a reference to a saviour who will be born
of a virgin who will conceive without coming together with a man. This
seed of a woman, this saviour will trample under foot the head of Satan.
The bruising of Satan’s head means that Christ will completely crush
Satan and destroy his power whereas the heel that Satan will bruise is a
reference to Christ’s crucifixion. The heel means that the bruising that
Christ will receive from Satan will be minimal; Satan will only manage
to have Christ’s human nature nailed to the Cross. This then is the
first of the prophecies concerning the coming of a Saviour which was
given to man more that five thousand years before the actual event.
Through the first woman Eve came the fall and only through the seed of
another woman will come the correction.
As we move on from
Adam to his descendants, the prophecy of this seed will grow and unfold.
Let’s now come to Abraham. God said to Abraham: “Get thee out of thy
country and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house, and come into
the land that I will shew thee. And I will make thee into a great
nation, and I will bless thee and magnify thy name, and thou shalt be a
blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that
curse thee, and in thee shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed.
Later God says to Abraham “I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will
multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is by
the sea shore; and thy seed shall inherit the cities of their enemies.
And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” (Gen 22:
17-18) Here is mentioned the blessing of the Gentiles by a descendant of
Abraham and that his descendants will be many as the stars of heaven.
This descendant of Abraham is Christ who will come from the line of
Abraham’s son Isaac because in Genesis is says “for in Isaac shall thy
seed be called for thee” (Gen 21:12) St. Paul interpreting this passage
says “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not,
And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is
Christ.” (Gal. 3:16) Thus in this prophecy is determined Abraham’s great
family from which shall descent the Saviour from his Son Isaac and not
from his other son Ishmael. Abraham’s descendants according to the flesh
are the Israelites and according to the spirit are both the Jews and
Christians. Therefore the prophecy concerning the coming of the Saviour
is supplemented with new details: we are given the family from which he
will descent and the multitude of the descendants this family will have.
Next in line
is Jacob. Jacob is in Egypt as is about to die. Genesis tells us that
“Jacob called his sons and said unto them, Gather yourselves together,
that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.” (Gen.
49:1) In the last days means some time in the future so this is
certainly a prophecy. Jacob blesses his sons and when he gets to Judah
he says to him: “A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a ruler from his
thighs, until there come the things stored up for him; and he is the
expectation of the nations. (Gen. 49:10) Here Jacob prophesies that from
the tribe of Judah will come forth the Kings of the Jews who will
continual to reign until someone comes, meaning the Saviour, in whom all
people shall put their hopes in because he is the expectation of the
nations. It is noteworthy that when Jacob said these things the Jews
were strangers in Egypt, without possessing any lands not even in Egypt.
They didn’t even have a royal line because the royal line of Judah
appeared to them after about a thousand years. Not even the high
Sanhedrin of seventy judges existed because this came about in the time
of Moses after five hundred years. These were still a very long way off
and Jacob had no clues to guess the future flourishing of his son’s
tribes. In his humble condition Jacob was on his deathbed waiting to die
when he blessed his sons and told them that they would become great land
owners and that from the tribe of Judah would come the kings who would
rule Israel and that from this tribe will come the Messiah, Christ, the
expectation of the nations. What is of primary importance is the fact
that Jacob not only foretells the dynasty of the kings which will last
for a thousand years, but also the downfall of this glory and that the
Jews will be without a king. Then will come the Messiah, the expectation
of the nations. The tribe of Judah ruled about 1000 BC in the time of
David the King until the Idumean ruler Herod who was only the ruler of
Galilee and not of all Israel thus when Pilate said to the Jews “Shall I
crucify your king?” they replied: “We have no king but Caesar.”
With this
prophecy by Jacob there is now added more details for the expected
Messiah. It is determined he will descent from the tribe of Judah and we
are given the approximate time of his arrival, when there will be no
more a king from the tribe of Judah. Slowly we see the prophecies
concerning the Messiah slowly unfolding and revealing the person.
In Deuteronomy
Moses writes: “The Lord said unto me… I will raise them up a prophet of
their brethren, like unto thee, and will put My words in his mouth; and
he shall speak unto them as I shall command him. And what man soever
will not hearken unto whatsoever words that prophet shall speak in My
name, I will take vengeance upon him.” (Deut. 18:18-19) Who is this
prophet that the Lord will raise and who will be like the prophet Moses
and in whom God shall put his words into his mouth? No other prophet of
the Old Testament was like Moses. Moses was a lawgiver, a miracle worker
and the mediator between God and the Israelites. Moses led Israel from
Egypt to the Promised Land. Moses spoke with God face to face. No other
person had the same attributes except Christ. Christ was a lawgiver, a
miracle worker, a guide and mediator between God and man. Christ is a
lawgiver and in the New Testament he gave his laws which were superior
to the Old Testament Laws. He is a miracle worker because he performed
countless miracles in his life as did Moses in his time. Christ is the
leader and guide of the new people of God who leads the new Israel, in
other words Christians, from the bondage of sin to the Promised Land
that is the heavenly Jerusalem. Christ is the true mediator between God
and man because he redeemed sin in his flesh. According to the Jews the
prophet of whom Moses is writing of can be no other than the Messiah
because from the text it appears that this prophet will be superior to
Moses. The Jews considered no other person superior to Moses except the
Messiah. That is why the Lord said to the Jews: “For had ye believed
Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me.” (John 5:46)
So with this
prophecy we now have even more details of the expected Messiah: He will
be like Moses, a lawgiver, a wonder worker, a guide and mediator. The
law that he shall give will be different from the law of the Old
Testament. Later the prophet Jeremiah will add to this by saying:
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to
the covenant that I made with their fathers… I will surely give My laws
into their mind, and write them on their hearts; and I will be to them a
God, and they shall be to Me a people. (Jeremiah 38:31-33)
We have
already seen that the Saviour of the world will descent from the royal
line of Judah, the royal line of David. The prophet Isaiah writing a
long time after David and Solomon says the following concerning the
Messiah: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse
(Jesse was the father of King David) and a blossom shall come up out of
His root: and the spirit of God shall rest upon Him… He shall judge the
cause of the lowly, and shall reprove the lowly of the earth; and He
shall smite the earth with the word of His mouth; and with the breath of
His lips shall He destroy the ungodly… And in that day there shall be a
root of Jesse, and He that shall arise to reign over the Gentiles, in
Him shall the Gentiles hope.” (Isaiah 11: 1-10) Thus here it is clearly
confirmed that the Messiah in whom the Gentiles will place their hope
will be a blossom of the seed of Jesse, in other words from the house of
David.
Apart from
Isaiah who speaks of the line of David is also the prophet Nathan, a
contemporary of David. After David tells Nathan of his desire to build a
great temple, Nathan approves the king’s decision without first
consulting God, but God warns Nathan that not David but his son Solomon
will build the temple. He then tells Nathan that the throne of David and
Solomon will be eternal saying: “And his house shall be made sure, and
his kingdom before me for ever; and his throne shall be set established
for ever.” (2Kings 7:16) Given the fact that both David and Solomon are
mortals and will die and also the fact that in Jacob’s prophecy the
kings of Judah will come to an end, we ask “who is he that will
establish the throne of David for ever if not the Messiah.”
The prophet
Isaiah gives as many more details of the expected Messiah from his birth
until his Passion and crucifixion. As Isaiah’s prophecies are so many
that we would need a separate talk just on Isaiah, we will limit
ourselves only to the prophecies concerning the Nativity. Isaiah says
the following: “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign:
behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and
shall call His name Emmanuel. (Isaiah 7:14) Here in no clearer terms we
are told that the birth of the Messiah will be from a virgin. That which
we saw with the first prophecy “the seed of a woman” is now verified and
made clear, “behold, the virgin shall be with child.”
Isaiah also
gives us details of Christ’s humble birth in a stable and the manger
that will be used as his baby cot: “The ox knoweth his owner and the ass
his master’s crib but Israel doth not know me and the people hath not
regarded me” [Isaiah 1:3]. The ox and the ass, known for their
unintelligence and stupidity, recognized their creator through plain
instinct, but the people of Israel, gifted with free will, logic and
intelligence far above any animal, who as God’s chosen people were
blessed with all the prophecies and signs to help them recognize the
Messiah, when he would come, actually failed to recognize him because
they did not understand this prophecy concerning the lowly birth, they
were waiting for him to be born in glory as a king in a palace. How
could they even conceive that the person who they saw as their deliverer
from the tyranny of the Romans would begin his life in a stable and be
placed in a manger where the animals took their feed?
Isaiah even
gives us where Christ will live: “O land of Zabulon, land of Nephthalim,
and the rest inhabiting the sea coast and the land beyond Jordon,
Galilee of the Gentiles. O people walking in darkness, behold a great
light: ye that dwell in the region and shadow of death, a light shall
shine upon you.” (Isaiah 9: 1-2) Nazareth where Jesus grew up is in the
land belonging to the tribe of Zabulon and together with the land of
Nephthalim which stretched along the eastern side of the Jordon and all
the area beyond was called the Galilee of the Gentiles because the
majority of the inhabitants were idol worshippers. Capernaum where
Christ dwelt after leaving Nazareth and where he first started preaching
in public is also within the same area. St, Matthew mentions Isaiah’s
prophecy saying: “And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum,
which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet,
saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of
the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; The people which sat in
darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow
of death light is sprung up. From that time Jesus began to preach, and
to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The great light
is of course Christ who, living in the midst of this people who were
spiritually dead and in great darkness, gave hope of salvation even to
the gentiles.
The Prophet
mentions many more noteworthy characteristics concerning the Messiah, he
says: “For unto us a Child was born, and unto us a Son was given, Whose
sovereignty was upon His shoulder: and His name is called Messenger of
Great Counsel, Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Potentate, Prince of
Peace, Father of the Age to Come.” (Isaiah 9:6) These epithets or
descriptions especially the “Mighty God, Prince of peace and Father of
the age to come” cannot be assigned to just any common mortal. The only
person worthy or such names can only be the Messiah, the Son of God.
The prophet
Jeremiah, not prophesying on the actual event of the birth of the
Messiah, but of an event that immediately followed as a consequence of
the birth – the slaughter of the innocent children that Herod had put to
death says: “In Ramah was there a voice heard, of lamentation, and
weeping and mourning; Rachel would not cease weeping for her children,
because they are no more.” (Jerem. 38:15) In the New Testament Matthew
mentions this prophecy concerning the slaughter of the innocent saying:
“Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,
In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great
mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted,
because they are not.” (Matth. 2: 17-18). Rama means a high place and
was a hill on the outskirts of Bethlehem. The prophecy mentions Rachel
weeping for her children and presents her as a mother representing all
the mothers who wept and mourned for their children because Bethlehem
was given to Benjamin, the youngest son of Israel and Rachael was his
mother who was also buried on that high place in Bethlehem.
The next
prophet to give us details of the Messiah is the prophet Michaias or as
his name is known in the KJV Micah. He writes of the town in which the
Messiah will be born: “And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou art
very few in number among the thousand of Judah, yet out of thee shall
come forth unto Me He that is to be ruler in Israel; and His goings
forth have been from the beginning, even from everlasting.” (Micah 5:1)
The interpretation for this passage is given to us in the New Testament
from the Great Council of the Jews. When Herod heard that the Magi from
the east had come searching for the newborn king of the Jews, he and all
Jerusalem were troubled and he gathered all the chief priests and
scribes of the people together, and demanded of them where Christ should
be born. “And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is
written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not
the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a
Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.” (Matt. 2: 5-6) Thus
according to this great council of the Jews the little town of Bethlehem
is to be the birthplace of the Messiah.
There is also
an important prophecy from Daniel that gives us the approximate period
in which the Messiah would come, but it would take too long to give all
the details. In short King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream which he couldn’t
remember and Daniel told him the dream and its interpretation. The
interpretation concerns four great kingdoms or dynasties that will come
after Nebuchadnezzar. These are probably the Medes and Persian Empire,
the Greek or Macedonian Empire and the Roman Empire After these God will
set up a kingdom that will grind to powder all other kingdoms, and it
shall stand for ever. This kingdom that will come is the coming of the
Messiah who kingdom shall be for all eternity.
Let’s now do a
recap of the prophecies concerning the Nativity of Christ the long
expected Messiah. He will be born from the seed of a woman, in other
words a virgin who has known no man, he will stem from the line of
Abraham from his son Isaac and not from his other son Ishmael. From
Isaac’s two sons Esau and Jacob the ancestor of the Messiah is not the
firstborn Esau, but the second born Jacob. Of the twelve sons of Jacob
the ancestor is not Benjamin of whom Jacob had a special love for
neither Joseph the glorious governor of Egypt, but Judah who had many
shortcomings. It was he who suggested to his brothers to sell Joseph
into Egypt and yet we see that of all the brothers he is chosen as the
ancestor of the Messiah. This is a great confirmation that the prophecy
concerning his line was not by Jacob’s preference or desire, but through
Divine inspiration. If it was left up to Jacob to decide he would have
chosen one of the two sons he loved most – Joseph or Benjamin. We are
then given many other details concerning the Messiah by various other
writers – he will be like Moses a lawgiver, a miracle worker, a guide
and mediator, he will be from the house of David, he will be Mighty God
and the Father of the age to come and he will be born in the little town
of Bethlehem. We have not mentioned the many prophecies that concern his
passion and crucifixion or the return of the nations and the disloyalty
of the Jews.
If only one
man prophesied the time and place of the coming of the Messiah as it is
revealed to us in Holy Scripture and then everything he said was
fulfilled, we would say that that man was indeed a powerful and
incredible prophet. But in the Old Testament we see that the prophecy
concerning Christ is not given to us by one man but by a series of men
from the beginning until near the time of the fulfilment. For 5000 years
a nation had been waiting and anticipating the Messiah. The prophecies
came slowly but surely, one after the other, each speaking about the
same person, each adding new details to fill in the puzzle so that when
the time finally came he could be easily recognized and there would be
little room for doubts as to who he was.
In just a few
days we will be celebrating the coming of the Messiah, the birth of the
Saviour of mankind and as I said in the beginning of this talk, is not
just a remembrance of a historical event or an annual celebration of
Jesus’ Birthday. The Church teaches us that we should live the events of
two thousand years ago as though they are actually taking place today.
That is why all her hymnology is written in the present and not in the
past tense: Today the Virgin comes to the cave, Today the Virgin gives
birth, Today Christ is born. All the events are referred to as taking
place now, because for the Church the historical remembrance is of
little importance. Many like the Jehovah’s Witnesses accuse the Church
and say that Jesus was not born on 25th December so we shouldn’t
celebrate it on that date. They don’t understand that for us it doesn’t
matter if Christ was born on the 25th December, the 25th April or the
25th August. What is important is that Christ was born and is
continually being born every day in the Church. If we place a date to a
certain historical event, it is purely for liturgical and festive
reasons so that the Church as one body can celebrate the holy and great
feast. The feasts of the Church are not just festive where we are given
the opportunity to be joyful for an event but are stations of divine
grace, they are days in which God gives his grace bountifully to men.
That is why the fathers express this experience as “Today”; they say
“Today those above co-celebrate with those below, today the angels
rejoice.” These are not just expressions of speech; it is a reality that
on these great feasts of the Lord there is a special grace, a special
joy and a special blessing upon the body of the Church.
With this
understanding we await with anticipation the coming of the Lord. The
prophecies we heard today are just as valid for us today as they were
for the Jews all those thousands of years before the historical event of
the Lord’s birth. We should see in them the signs given to us by God to
recognize his incarnation and then seeing the fulfilment of these
prophecies to rejoice with the angels and all mankind that salvation has
come into the world.
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