Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Isaiah 40:3-4 In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
HIS CHARIOT IS HUMILITY
"Be Prepared to Meet Him" -- so say the hangings newly placed on pulpit and lectern in our church. And their color, of course, is purple. Let there be no mistake about it, the one coming is a king. And not just any king either. For when the ancient prophet pictures far-flung villages making preparations to meet and greet him, they are urged by his herald to ready the road in extraordinary ways: "Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain" (Isaiah 40:4).
After all, this king for whose coming we also prepare -- prepare even our hearts -- is the very King of kings. And the roadway we make ready is "the way for the LORD . . . a highway for our God."
So the purple is surely in order -- and trumpets too -- along with proclamations and banners and hymns of praise:
"Hail to the Lord's Anointed, Great David's greater Son!
Hail, in the time appointed, His reign on earth begun!"
(The Lutheran Hymnal 59:1)
But our King is not born in the capital city of the nation where He makes His arrival, not in Jerusalem but in little Bethlehem. And as we in our homes unpack the historic scenes that depict His royal coming, we look in vain for a kingly carriage. There are bright lights. There are angels making glad announcement. There are peasants bowing before Him. But they kneel before a manger, a feed trough in a stable. What kind of royal chariot is this?
It is the one He chose. For our King has not come to lord it over us but to walk among us -- indeed, to be one of us; to finally be treated as the least of us, dying the death Rome reserved for rebellious slaves. And it is for us whom sin has enslaved so terribly that heaven's high King comes so humbly, comes to lay down His life to set us free.
The King of kings is drawing near, The Savior of the world is here.
A Helper just He comes to thee, His chariot is humility,
We praise Thee, Savior, now, Mighty in deed art Thou!
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 73:1-2)
