What A Happy Time Of The Year

Our family was sitting around the table at my daughter's home a couple days ago. Cheryl Lee reminded us of what we always said to one another as we began our prayers before our meals in the days leading up to Christmas. We smiled in remembrance. 

"What a happy time of the year. Jesus' birthday is almost here!" 

And so it is, in less than a month. All over the world Christians—and non-Christians—will gather in various ways to celebrate Christmas. All around us there is a sense of expectancy.


That's the way it was in Jerusalem in the days of that momentous Passover celebration that led to the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus. There was a buzz about Jesus of Nazareth among the thousands gathered in Jerusalem. Many were asking whether he was the long awaited Messiah or not. The Gospel lesson for the first of the four Sundays in Advent tells the story. Find it in Matthew 21:1-9.
The Lord Jesus rode that wave of anticipation right into the heart of the city. He did it by acting out an ancient prophecy by Zechariah:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey (Zechariah 9:9).

Zechariah preached and taught from 520 BC to 518 BC in Jerusalem, about 2500 years ago. Many Jews had been released by Persia from their slavery in Babylonia. They were allowed to rebuild Jerusalem and the destroyed Temple. Zechariah, the son of Iddo, helped to inspire his fellow Jews to rebuild the Temple and the city (see Ezra 6:14).

In his preaching Zechariah spoke about the promise of a long awaited king who would ride humbly into Jerusalem on a common beast of burden. When he came a new era of prosperity and blessing would come to the land.

By his actions, Jesus indicated to the assembled crowds that he was that Messiah. The prophecy was about to be fulfilled in him. The people shouted and sang songs. A new day was coming.

We Christians believe that with the coming of Jesus something new has indeed come. By his life, death and resurrection, he opened a path to the very heart of the heavenly Father. Through him we now receive forgiveness and with that the certain hope of the resurrection from the dead, a renewed creation and an eternal life of bliss.

So as we enter yet another year of worship we review that hope and we rejoice in the promises. Ours is not a hope based upon political promises. Ours is a hope made certain by the death and resurrection of God's Son and his promise to return—soon.

What a happy time of the year indeed. Jesus' birthday and the celebration of the beginning of the great story of salvation is almost here.