To celebrate the birth of Jesus, God’s promised Messiah, we decorate our homes and churches with Christmas lights and Christmas candles, Christmas trees and Christmas wreaths, Christmas stars and Christmas angels, Christmas bells and Christmas bows. But there’s one decoration that we don’t use to celebrate Christmas. One decoration that’s not beautiful like the others, one Christmas decoration we’d like to forget about. What is this Christmas decoration? It’s the one in Luke 2:27-35:
When the parents brought the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God saying, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised now dismiss your servant in peace for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all the people, a light of revelation to the gentiles and for glory to you people Israel.
The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that is spoken against. So that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own heart also.”
Do you see the Christmas decoration? It’s the Christmas sword, the sword Simeon says will pierce Mary’s heart because of Christmas. No, it isn’t a physical sword but an emotional sword.
- It is a sword that pierces her heart when she returns home, and Jesus is called Mary’s son, not Joseph’s son.
- A sword that pierces her heart when Jesus is rejected by his own people in Nazareth.
- A sword that pierces her heart when Jesus is rejected by the religious leaders and then by the people who cry, “Crucify him.”
- A sword that pierces her heart when Jesus hangs on the cross and dies in agony and pain.
Mary knows all about the Christmas sword.
We feel the Christmas sword
We also know about the Christmas sword. We’re all alone on Christmas Day and we feel the Christmas sword of loneliness pierce our heart, and it hurts. We gather as a family for Christmas and there’s an empty place because a father, a mother, a son or a daughter has passed away, and we feel the Christmas sword of death pierce our heart, and it hurts. Other times we feel the Christmas sword because family members choose not to gather with us because of broken relationships.
Sometimes there’s pain and sickness at Christmas and we feel the Christmas sword pierce our hearts because we don’t know what the year ahead will bring. Then there’s the Christmas sword that comes from disappointment of one kind or another at Christmas and we feel the sword pierce our own heart.
Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. But often we feel the Christmas sword pierce our hearts, and it hurts so much.
So how do we find joy when the Christmas sword pierces our hearts, and we hurt? Joy comes when we remember the promise God made through the prophet Isaiah: “Behold a virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son and will call his name Emmanuel, which means ‘God with us’” (Isaiah 7:14).
There it is. This is why we can celebrate. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus is with us in our sorrows and joys, with us in our sadness and celebrations, with us in our sickness and pain, with us when the Christmas sword pierces our own heart, and we hurt.
What happens because Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us? 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 tells us: “Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion, the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our trouble….”
When we hurt and feel the Christmas sword pierce our hearts—not just at Christmas but any time of the year—Jesus is with us. Jesus is the father of compassion for he understands; he felt the Christmas sword pierce his heart. He experienced our hurts and pains, our sorrows and sadness. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
Jesus knows; Jesus cares. Jesus is the God of all comfort who comes alongside us to comforts us in our sorrows. Jesus puts his arms around us and says, “My daughter, my son, I know you are hurting, but I love you and I am with you.” Jesus is our Emmanuel, our God with us.
Yes, we can have joy at Christmas even when we feel the Christmas sword pierce our hearts, because Jesus, our Emmanuel, comes alongside us to comfort and encourage us. But there’s more. 2 Corinthians 1:4 continues, “(God) comforts us in all of our trouble,” and here it is, “so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”
Yes, Jesus loves and cares so much he comes alongside us to comfort us when the Christmas sword pierces our heart, and we hurt. Then he sends us to come alongside others and show them love, care and comfort when the Christmas sword pierces their hearts, and they hurt.
A Christmas accident
In December of 1983 we traveled from Balko, Oklahoma, where I was pastor, to Dinuba, California, for Christmas. We celebrated Christmas with my parents Saturday morning then drove to visit my wife’s uncle in Kingsburg that afternoon. It was raining lightly and just as we were leaving Dinuba, a drunk driver came across the road and hit us head on. Our van rolled and landed on its side in the ditch.
Because there were so many people involved Peggy, my wife, and our four children were taken to the hospital in Reedley, 10 miles away, while I was taken to the hospital in Dinuba. I had a gash on my forehead and an injured spine and was transferred to a specialty hospital in Visalia.
The children were all ok, so my parents took them to their house, but Peggy was in the Reedley hospital with a broken arm and a flap laceration on her head. Peggy’s glasses were lost in the accident so when she woke up Christmas Day morning all she could see was white everywhere, but it was not a beautiful white Christmas.
John and Freda Regier, a deacon couple from Dinuba MB Church, my parent’s church, were on their way to church Christmas Sunday morning. They heard about the accident and Freda said, “John we need to go visit a young mother named Peggy. She’s in the hospital on Christmas.” They didn’t know Peggy, but they went anyway.
As they visited and prayed with her, the nurse aide brought lunch and left even though Peggy’s right arm was in a cast and her left arm was strapped down with an IV and she could not eat.
Freda told John, “You go on to church and sing in the choir. I’m going to stay and feed Peggy her Christmas dinner.”
Freda gave up her Christmas celebration in church to help, comfort and encourage Peggy. Later Freda and John took a deacon offering to pay for all six of us to fly home since our van was totaled in the accident.
John and Freda came alongside us to love, care, comfort, encourage and help us when the Christmas sword of an accident pierced our hearts, and we hurt. Over the years we have enjoyed a special relationship with John and Freda because they came alongside to help us just like God’s Word says.
The Christmas sword. We all know what it’s like to have the Christmas sword pierce our hearts. But the tidings of great joy at Christmas is that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us! With us to come alongside to love, care, comfort and give us joy when our hearts are pierced by the Christmas sword. Jesus our Emmanuel is with us so that we can come alongside others to love, care, comfort and bring them joy when their hearts are also pierced by the Christmas sword.
Gaylord Goertzen is a retired Mennonite Brethren minister living in Hillsboro, Kansas. He and his wife, Peggy, have served congregations in California, Oklahoma and Kansas
