God Is Expectant?

Jessica LaGrone

The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:6–7 NIV

There is so much to love about the Christmas season—the colorful decorations, the festive music, the fun parties, the yummy food, and, of course, the television Christmas specials. I have loved classics like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and A Charlie Brown Christmas, with that cute, sad little tree, since I was a child. This year I was excited to share these Christmas specials with my own children, so my husband and I set the DVR to record all the specials that were coming on. Imagine our surprise to find that there were two hundred eighty-five programs available!

I was relieved to find all the classics there, but there were also all kinds of other characters getting into the spirit, too—Shrek, Elmo, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Barbie, and even Lady Gaga and The Muppets, just to name a few. It makes me laugh to think about what Charles Dickens might have to say about all the ways his story A Christmas Carol has been altered over the years. I'm guessing he didn't anticipate his tale would one day include mice and puppets and ogres.

Though Christmastime increasingly offers a barrage of different Christmas stories and specials, how reassuring to know that the real, true story of Christmas has not changed since it was written thousands of years ago. The original Christmas story is told in each of the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and though each Gospel writer's story is about a baby and a manger and shepherds and wise men, each writer tells the story a bit differently.

Surprisingly, Luke's Gospel doesn't start out with shepherds or angels or even wise men gathered around a nativity. Luke begins his Gospel with an expectant mother—but not the one we might anticipate. There's no pregnant teenager at the outset of the Gospel of Luke; instead we find a very mature woman named Elizabeth. Elizabeth has been married for decades to her husband, Zechariah, a priest. She had dreamed for many years of being a mother, but now she's no longer in the age bracket that expects little bundles of joy to arrive. And yet, here in Luke's Christmas special, Elizabeth unexpectedly finds herself expecting a baby. Instead of hot flashes, she's getting morning sickness. It's an amazing miracle that's happening to her, and God has special plans for the baby growing inside her; he will be the prophet known as John the Baptist, and he will point the way to the coming Messiah.

Then, when Elizabeth's much younger cousin Mary comes to visit, Elizabeth takes one look at her and, without the two even exchanging a word, knows that Mary is expecting too. Immediately Elizabeth knows something very special about Mary's baby:

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her."

Luke 1:39-45 NIV

That joyful greeting between these two women must have been followed by all kinds of questions. How could Elizabeth be pregnant at such an advanced age? How could Mary—a virgin—be pregnant at all? What was happening with all these angels showing up and announcing things? They must have been breathless at all the amazing things happening in their lives.

Mary and Elizabeth couldn't have been at two more different stages of life. Anti-acne cream meets anti-wrinkle serum. And yet here they are, both in the same wonderful and unexpected condition. And in all their surprise and wonder, there must also have been much rejoicing in their hearts, for the person they had been expecting for so long—God's promised Messiah—was on his way.

The Waiting Game

God's people—the people of Israel—had been waiting for the arrival of this special person for thousands of years. Now that's a long time to be expecting! God's people were waiting on one special hero—the Messiah, the Anointed One—who would show up and rescue them all. The gift of the Messiah had been forecast and broadcast and advertised for so long that people had their hopes up pretty high. The prophet Isaiah had written the prophecy,

For to us a child is born, / to us a son is given, / and the government will be on his shoulders. / And he will be called / Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, / Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. / Of the greatness of his government and peace / there will be no end. / He will reign on David's throne / and over his kingdom, / establishing and upholding it / with justice and righteousness / from that time on and forever. / The zeal of the Lord Almighty / will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:6-7 NIV

The people had imagined great things about this Messiah—that he would be strong and politically powerful and exceptionally wealthy. That he would ride into Jerusalem in a chariot of fire, overthrow the oppressive Roman Empire, and place their people in power over all the other nations. Prince of Peace, Almighty God, Wonderful Counselor, great leader. No pressure, right?

In addition to their expectations, the people of God had been waiting for this Messiah for a long, long time. They had put all of their hopes and dreams into the arrival of this hero. But still no birth announcement had arrived. No Messiah had come.

Like the barren Elizabeth, they must have almost given up hope that their dreams would ever come to fruition. The years of waiting had been long, and it was getting harder and harder for the people to fight the disappointment of their unfulfilled dreams. The knowledge that the Messiah was about to be born would have been thrilling to them. But the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, would turn out to be nothing like the people expected.

The circumstances of his humble birth were surprising, to say the least. The people of Israel were thinking palaces, not stables. They were hoping for crowns, not swaddling clothes. But Jesus' birth would only be the first of many ways that he defied everyone's expectations. Jesus was a Messiah who didn't match expectations. He was a friend to sinners. He sought out those who were the least, the lost, and the very people that everyone else had...