Logout
Lectionary blog for Dec. 21
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19;
Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25
Like many families, my wife and I have a “Covid baby” (a baby born during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic). Giving birth and bringing up children is never easy. But it can be made even more difficult by wars, international crises—such as a pandemic—and governmental mismanagement and malfeasance. This is what characterized the births of at least two babies in the books of Isaiah and Matthew. And God’s attention to these births is meant to be a source of great comfort to people in the lectionary readings for this week.
To understand why Isaiah’s announcement of a birth was meant to provide such comfort, we must analyze the context a bit. Ahaz, the King of Judah, was terrified, rightly. His two main rivals—the Kingdom of Israel, with its capital in Samaria, and the Kingdom of Aram, with its headquarters in Damascus—had teamed up and were threatening to take over his kingdom if he refused to join their coalition against Assyria. Ahaz was stuck. Fighting Assyria was a losing proposition, yet he didn’t have enough forces to take on the combined might of Israel and Aram. He was, in effect, “damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.”
And then along comes Isaiah, with a word from the Lord: Don’t worry about these threatening kingdoms, Ahaz. Instead, make a shrewd play—have them fight each other. Assyria can fight Israel and Aram, and Judah will become a vassal. That, in turn brought trouble of its own, but that’s for the next king to worry about.
Speaking of the next king, God-through-Isaiah promised that Assyria would fight Judah’s battles before a soon-to-be-conceived child was old enough to make good decisions (Isaiah 7:15-16). Most commenters see the promised baby as Prince Hezekiah. I think it makes more sense to keep reading a few more verses and see that the baby is Isaiah’s own son (8:3-4). In either case, a couple makes love amid a major crisis, and a child is born. And that child is a sign that God desires peace and justice, rather than conquest, for God’s people. The child’s name will be Immanuel, which means “God is with us” (7:14).
Several hundred years later, the world is again filled with danger and political intrigue. Because of the civil wars fought by Hasmonean siblings, Rome has come to Judea. And instead of any ethnic Jews being chosen to help shepherd the people, Rome installed the Idumean (Edomite), Herod. Giving Herod his due, he was an excellent builder and competent administrator. But he was also a murderous conspiracy theorist and did not hesitate to have anyone—even members of his own family—killed if he even suspected that they were less than 100% loyal. So, with a homicidal puppet madman ruler on the throne, God announced the birth of another baby.
This time, a not-yet-married woman was found to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Joseph, whose name is a dual pun on “taking away” and “adding” (Genesis 30:23-24), experienced his own taking away and adding. His almost-wife, Mary, was pregnant by someone else. In a dream, he was told that God had done this thing, and that the child would be named Jesus—“The Lord saves”—because he would save the people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).
That’s a lot to absorb! Amid major, and worsening, political crisis, with the threat of violence never far away, Mary has become pregnant, and her son is going to perform some kind of salvific ministry? Joseph could have opted out, seeing that his hoped-for future with his betrothed had been taken away. Instead, he chose to embrace how God had added to the world. He married Mary and he named the baby Jesus, as instructed. The child was a second Immanuel, whose ministry showed even more clearly than the first that God is with us.
There’s no perfect time to give birth. We could always be more financially secure. We could have better relationships with friends and neighbors so that a community support system is fully in place. I think about politics and what passes for statecraft these days and I throw my hands in the air in frustration. Whether it’s Israel and Aram, Rome or even the United States, threatening neighbors, it is never the wrong time for the Lord to remind us that “God is with us.”
