We often say Christmas isn’t about getting, it’s about giving. This is an understandable response to the consumerism that seems to dominate what should be a sacred season. It is with selfish hearts we cry “gimme, gimme, gimme,” not only this time of year but throughout the year. Often that which we desire is sadly not for our ultimate good but merely an attempt to satisfy our lusts and cravings with things that can never provide lasting satisfaction. It’s why we keep asking for more.
Of course, we are not the first to be looking for love in all the wrong places. We aren’t the first to get no satisfaction. No, we stand in a long line of spiritual wanderers in need of direction, in need of healing, in need of a king.
Read 1 Samuel 8
That the Israelites demand changes makes sense. Samuel’s sons aren’t spiritually fit for leadership. The old ways of doing things won’t do for this struggling, yet aspiring, people. Why they want what they want, however, is a different matter. They cry out for a king not merely as a salve for their ills but so they can be like the other nations.
This is highly problematic. To be like the other nations is at odds with the purpose of God’s people. The Israelites weren’t called into being to be like other nations. They were set apart from the nations to be a kingdom of priests! Instead of embracing this noble task, they seek conformity and security (Arnold).
At the heart of the matter, then, is this notion of being like other nations. They want a king that will bring “power and political influence.” They are acting, as one commentator calls their demand, “cowardly in spiri.” (Arnold). Instead of saying, “Not by might nor by power but by the Lord’s Spirit” (see Zechariah 4:6), they are saying, “We prefer earthly might and earthly power to the Lord’s plans and promise.”
Their request may not be unlike the calls of support Donald Trump gets from many conservative Christians.
Wait! What?
How’s that for a Xmas morning bomb? Do I have your bleary-eyed attention yet?
Let me be clear, I’m not suggesting whether or not Trump is the better alternative in a slate of bad and immoral candidates, or whether or not you should or shouldn’t vote for him, nor am I even making a case for whether he should or shouldn’t be impeached. But as Christians we must acknowledge there is much in his behavior that should make a Christian do more than blush. And it seems when Christians cling uncritically to this administration (or any administration for that matter) they are much like the people of Samuel’s day. They seem to desire the prestige and privilege of power and political influence. They seem to be “cowardly in spirit,” placing their hopes not in the Spirit of the Lord but in earthly power. It is a hope that will ultimately disappoint. Like the people of Samuel’s day, we must simply be careful and cautious about what we ask for. (There, now you have your conversation starter, or ender, for Christmas dinner, as if you needed it in this charged political climate.)
Well, the Israelites have asked for a king with the intent of being like the other nations. The prospects of such a possibility aren’t too good. “This kind of king will make you beholden to him,” Samuel argues. “You’ll give everything to get nothing in return. Your children will be slaves to him and to his state.”
Samuel so warns and pleads with the people but they’ve made up their mind. The call of God—living by faith—has been found difficult. “Let us be like the other nations,” they continue to cry.
Again, we are not so different. We share much with the people of Samuel’s day. We reject God’s plans and look to things that can’t satisfy, that can’t provide what we need. And then, in the midst of the mess, a mess we’ve made at worst and contributed to at best, we ask God to fix the problem.
I sometimes wonder if we even know what we should ask for in such times of trouble.
If that is indeed the case, there is still good news for us. Jesus tells us our Father in Heaven knows what we need before we ask. And Paul tells us in Romans, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God” (Romans 8).
In other words, maybe we do need a king, but maybe we need a kind of king we haven’t been looking for.
Enter Christmas. Enter the babe—a king—in a manger. Enter angels and miracles and hope and promise.
Indeed, the first herald of this king is an angel, which provides a kinglike-enough welcome into the world, but the heralded baby born to be king comes to us through a lowly girl of little note from the backwaters of Nazareth.
And the king who comes, comes in simplicity and humility. These aren’t the things the Israelites were asking for in Samuel’s time. And, if we’re being honest, they’re probably not what we are asking for either. This king doesn’t start a political revolution or take an earthly throne. He doesn’t lead a conquering army. He doesn’t take up residence in a grand palace. He doesn’t seem to run with the popular crowd or the influencers. He’s possibly poor but more likely regular old middle-ish class. He’s not even a politician looking for a vote. Instead, he works with his hands as a a carpenter. He spends his time with people, not lording his position and authority over them, but teaching and healing and reminding them to keep their eyes on that which is most important. He says things like seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, love your neighbor as yourself, to find your life you must lose your life, and you must be born again.
The good news of Christmas, the beauty of Christmas, in other words, is that God has given us and continues to give us what we need, even when we have asked for the wrong thing or asked with the wrong motives or intent. At Christmas we get a gift not wrapped in paper and bows and placed underneath the tree. We don’t get the promise of political power or influence or even the promise of earthly security. But we do get the gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love.
At Christmas we get the gift of God himself, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in the manger. At Christmas we get truth. And we get grace. At Christmas we get the king not that we asked for but the king we need.
So at Christmas let us learn to surrender and submit to his reign for his kingdom and our participation in it has no end. Amen.
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