More than was expected

Written by Marv Thiessen

Pastor Marv Thiessen

Calgary First Mennonite Church

December 25, 2009

 

MORE THAN WAS EXPECTED

Part One: The expectation

The Psalm we just read assumes that God takes a close interest in the king of Israel. The title of the Psalm, not part of the original text, seems to credit Solomon with the authorship of the Psalm. If that is correct, then the Psalm was likely written as a prayer either for Solomon’s own rule as the king of Israel or for his son as he moved toward kingship. He prayed that God would enable the king who was in mind to rule with power and justice and that the rule of that king would result in prosperity for the nation. He prayed that other nations would be favorably impressed by the king and would respond to him with gifts and service. This was truly the expectation of a golden age with power, justice, grain and fruit abounding.

If it’s correct to assume that Solomon wrote this Psalm, then it would have been written around the time of 930 BC, long before the time of Jesus’ birth. I wonder if you thought of Jesus when you heard the Psalm read. Do we think of this Psalm as speaking of the Messiah? It’s very difficult to assess the amount of expectation that Israel would have had for a Messiah from God at that time. We find many more references that seem to predict someone coming from God to Israel in the Old Testament period of the exile of Israel beginning in 722 BC. There was almost certainly some expectation already when Psalm 72 was written but there is not much written about such an expectation before the exilic period. We do know this, however. As time went along, Israel developed a strong expectation that God was going to send a special person to Israel who would bring salvation to Israel. We recognize that especially in the messages God gave Israel through his prophets. They called this person, Messiah. It seems quite clear that Israel developed the idea that this Messiah would free Israel from its oppressors that had numbered many from the time of the exile and make Israel a great nation once again. We also know this. The Jewish Targum adds the name, Messiah, to the king in verse 1 of Psalm 72 and there are rabbinic allusions to Psalm 72 that reveal the opinion that this Psalm referred to the Messiah.

My conclusion is this. Although the Psalm was likely written about an Israelite king, the fact that Jewish religious leaders viewed it as Messianic means it revealed something about the expectation that Israel had concerning a Messiah. As we noted earlier, the Psalm depicts a powerful, prosperous and just reign for a king of Israel.

With that as a background, then, think of how a Jew living in Israel and under Roman oppression at the time of the birth of Jesus would have heard this Psalm. That person knew that at least some religious teachers understood this Psalm to refer to the Messiah. That person would likely have listened to the Psalm and would have been enthralled with the possibilities and promise for the future of Israel if God would just send this Messiah. Since the Psalm predicted that all kinds of nations would come to Israel and offer gifts and service, this Messiah would surely free Israel from Roman rule and cause Israel to become a world power. This Messiah would end corruption and oppression and bring about justice and equality in the nation. This Messiah would end hunger and poverty, enabling all the people of Israel to live in prosperity. Good homes, good food, and good clothing would abound. If Psalm 72 was seen as a description of what life would be like in Israel under the Messiah, then those speculations make sense. That was the kind of expectation Israel held for the Messiah’s coming to Israel.

Part two

The year was 1970. Christmas promised to be quite different than previous Christmases for our family. We had just moved to the Blue Ridge Mountain district of Virginia that September so that my father could attend college at Eastern Mennonite College in Harrisonburg. This had been an upheaval for us. We had to adapt to a significantly different climate than the one to which we had been accustomed in Burns Lake, BC. The September heat had almost been more than we could endure at times. We had to adapt to a significantly different culture. We had a hard time understanding the English spoken by some of the residents and neighbours in the little town of Singers Glen. We children had to break into the tight circles of a small town school. We were also aware that our family finances were limited. This was nothing new; we had lived on a shoestring all our lives, but it now had a different effect than we had experienced earlier. This was true in several ways. One was that we qualified for government sponsored free food in the school cafeteria. Another was that Dad went to work at the Walker Pipe manufacturing plant. He worked the evening shift and we saw little of him during the week. Living very frugally, we children didn’t expect much as the family prepared for that Christmas. I remember that we children crafted things for each other and our parents for Christmas. I know that many people value handcrafted items as gifts quite highly but that really wasn’t the case for us as elementary aged children. This was not a Christmas accompanied by any great expectations.

Then something happened that went way beyond our expectations. I believe we had our traditional Christmas Eve family event where Scripture was read, prayers were made, and gifts were opened. When the gifts were presented, there were more than expected. The Walker Pipe company gave Christmas gifts to all the children of their employees. The gift I received was something that my parents likely would not have thought of giving but turned out to be an excellent gift. It was a basketball hoop and basketball. Dad mounted the basketball hoop on the wall of the old barn on the property on which we lived and my brothers and I proceeded to spend many hours shooting baskets. The gift had been much more than expected.

Invite sharing about Christmas gifts that were more than expected.

Can we say that God does more than has been expected when it comes to giving gifts to his children? This written piece that I gleaned from an internet site called Rumors speaks to us about Jesus being a gift of God that surpassed human expectation. It describes this gift that was more than expected as a practical joke from God to his people. We won’t focus on the practical joke part but that idea does add some richness to this reflection on a gift that was more than was expected. This piece relates to Part one of this morning’s service where we remembered the Messianic expectation of the people of Israel at the time of Jesus’ coming.

Rumors – A Practical Joke
It’s a marvelous, wonderful, wise, loving, practical joke.
Christmas! The nativity.
There’s God, down through the centuries, listening to the prophecies about the Messiah.
Some of them were wonderful and beautiful and spoke the mind of God.
Others thundered away about the Conqueror, the one who’d come in on a white horse, with sword and shield, a leader that would be better and tougher than King David.
So God gave them the gift they so badly needed. But not the gift they expected.
It was King David II they wanted. It was a tiny baby they got. What a hoot!
They wanted power. So God gave them the power of weakness.

They wanted a conqueror. So God gave them love that conquers all.
That must have been good for a heavenly chuckle or perhaps even a belly laugh, if a belly laugh is possible for a God who is spirit.
It was not the laughter of derision. It was the laughter of a loving, gentle parent waking up long before the kids on Christmas morning, waking up in anticipation of the face of the child when that special gift is opened, the child who receives so much more than it ever dared ask for in the letter to Santa.
And the laughter of God is the laughter of a pleased-as-punch parent who receives the Christmas thank-you hug of a delighted child.
The joke comes back every year.
From "Sermon Seasonings,"
Wood Lake Books, 1997

This piece reminds us of how differently the gift of God turned out from what had been expected and desired and speculates on God’s response to the reception of his more than expected gift. Do you think God was laughing?

I wonder if my parents laughed on that Christmas of 1970. I suspect they must have in some way. Their children who had expected little received so much more. Their children who had been somewhat pessimistic had experienced an unanticipated joy that Christmas. If my parents laughed, that would not have been the laughter of a practical joke. It would have been the laughter of joy at the delight of the children.

It’s interesting that the writer of the piece we read describes God’s laughter in this case as similar to what parents who see the delight of their children at Christmas do. It’s interesting to me because I don’t think that the people of Israel responded to their more than expected gift with universal delight. Some were impressed with Jesus but others disdained this gift from God who didn’t bring them political greatness but rather talked to them about turning from sin and loving God and their neighbours. Some disdained his humble birth to a carpenter and his wife who went on to live in Nazareth. This was a gift other than was expected for many. If God truly was laughing the laughter of the loving, gentle parent anticipating the faces of his or her children when a gift is opened, then he was laughing in anticipation of all the people throughout the ages who would respond to his gift with gratitude and love for him. The initial response was hardly positive enough to bring this parent to pleasurable laughter. This gift came to the recipients in too humble a package for some of them to respond positively. It did not inspire confidence and further expectation for them. While the gift could be said to be more than expected, that would not have been uttered in a positive way by those who were less than impressed. They would have seen a baby, born in a manger, then raised by a carpenter and finally becoming a teacher of ideas that did nothing about Israel’s deteriorated geo-political situation. They wouldn’t have seen the goodness that this gift would bring to the world.

Part three

We wondered if God could possibly have been laughing the laugh of a delighted parent when the recipients of the gift were less than impressed. In some ways, that seems doubtful. Perhaps, though, it’s helpful to think of God laughing the pleasurable laugh of the delighted parent in anticipation of people’s responses to his more than expected gift throughout the ages. This more than expected gift would do something grand for humanity in the years to come. Forgiveness of sin brought about through the death of Jesus and relationship with God effected by the Holy Spirit living in those who trust in God would be a much better gift and would result in far better things for people than a successful political leader. And this is the good news we declare, especially so at Christmas. God came to earth in the form of an unassuming baby named Jesus who grew up to become the Saviour of the world.

We have a very different perspective of the gift of Jesus than did those who were alive at the time of his birth. We have the Bible explaining the purpose for which Jesus came to earth. We don’t think of Jesus as someone whose purpose was to bring geo-political change. We have believed that his purpose was to restore humanity to relationship with God and to teach humanity to live as God desired. We have experienced his life-changing power and recognize that the gift of Jesus is extraordinarily good, more than we could ever have expected.

So how do we respond? In a moment, we’ll sing the Christmas carol, "O come all ye faithful." As we sing it, think of it as your response to God for his more than expected gift. Think of how we come in a figurative sense to Bethlehem to see Jesus. Think of how God did not turn his back on humanity, but gave himself to humanity. Think of how we see Jesus as God coming to earth in human flesh. Think of how we have bound ourselves to the message of peace and reconciliation with God that Jesus came to bring and for how that message brings meaning and purpose to our lives. Think about whether you truly adore Christ the Lord, God’s more than expected gift.