The Birth of the Hope of Israel

Even the most superficial reading of the Christmas story speaks of hope.  It is the story of a newly-united couple and the birth of their first child. A man and a woman begin a life together and a child takes his first breath; all three begin a journey of endless possibilities. For believers, this idea of new-life is, in some ways, the principle message of Christianity: Christ came so that we might “be born again” and “walk in newness of life.” And that rebirth is not limited to the baptismal ordinance, but it is repeated as often as necessary—God promises us that whenever we really want to, we can begin again (Mosiah 26:30). But even without that doctrinal significance of birth and new life, the story of Mary, Joseph and Jesus represents the hope of every life and new beginnings.

For believers, the birth of Christ exemplifies another aspect of hope. Since the days of Adam, believers awaited the coming of the Messiah. Most never saw their hope realized; as Paul says, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off…” (Heb. 11:13). Many people forgot what they waited for and many lost their hope. Christina Rossetti described the dreary and seemingly hopeless conditions into which Christ was born:

In the bleak midwinter

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter,

Long ago.

Into that metaphoric midwinter, Christ was born. This is another reason why Christmas is a holiday of hope—it represents the fulfillment of the long-awaited and hoped-for coming of the Messiah; the end of bleak winter. It is a celebration of the moment that the ancient saints saw “afar off” and a validation of their faithful lives. The hope with which they had both lived and died was realized that day.  Christmas says, “Hopes can come true,” and it assures us that winter will end.

The end of winter is also the beginning of spring, and Christmas is a celebration not only of the fulfillment of hope, but of its birth. In “Oh Holy Night,” we sing the words “A thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.” The hope of salvation and deliverance was born with the baby Jesus, and at Christmas we celebrate the break of dawn. Today, we naturally look at Christmas through the lens of Easter, but at His birth, there was only a lens of hope—Mary, Joseph and the shepherds looked at that newborn child and could only imagine and hope for what He would eventually do and become. Christmas then is a celebration not only of what Christ did, but the hope for what He would do—it is a celebration of the hope for Easter and for the fulfillment of all good hopes. At Christmastime we, like Abraham and Sarah and Anna and Simeon, celebrate that hope for what God will yet do. We still hope for deliverance, salvation and a day when there will be “peace on Earth, goodwill to men” in our own lives and in the whole world.

At Christmas, we celebrate the innate hope of each life and the fulfillment of our hopes. We are reassured that our own life is hopeful and that the good things we hope for will eventually come true. The British poet Charles McKay wrote about the hope of Christmas in his poem “Under the Holly Bough:”

Ye who have nourished sadness,
Estranged from hope and gladness
In this fast-fading year;
Ye with o'erburdened mind,
Made aliens from your kind,
Come gather here.
Let not the useless sorrow
Pursue you night and morrow,
If e'er you hoped, hope now.
Take heart,--uncloud your faces,
And join in our embraces
Under the Holly-Bough.