Silent Night
It wasn’t really a silent night was it. Mary and Joseph, tired from a long journey, no doubt frustrated about the lack of accommodation. Words spoken. Conversations had. Frustrations vented. About the long journey. About what happens next. Mary, pregnant and weary, uncomfortable from the travelling, with aches and pains from carrying the child in the womb. And no birth happens in silence. It happens in groan and cries and weeping. And the trial and labour of childbirth culminates in the cries of a newborn.
It was not a silent night.
And yet, there was something very different about this night.
Christ’s birth — Jesus — fully God, fully man — broke through the darkness of the world, and let the world know sin will be silenced.
There will be no longer any place for murder, for hate, for injustice, for abuse, for war, for crime. There is no place for greed, jealousy, bitterness, factions, drunkeness. There is no voice for violence, destruction, selfish ambition, and pride.
The birth of Christ silences the volume of sin.
The sound of Christ’s arrival, burst through a still night, not with empty pomp and circumstance, but with a clear and decisive sound of victory. The victory in His arrival would resonate throughout all of the past, present and future. An eternal sound of triumph.
Darkness was silenced that night.
And yet, you and I, even when hearing the clear sound of Christ’s victorious triumph — the declaration of his victory over sin — the forgiveness from sin in our lives — still too often we turn a deaf ear to His words.
“He who has ears, let him hear.” Do you hear? Do you hear what I hear? Or do you hear what you want to hear? Do you hear the voice of our Lord, our friend, as He whispers “I am with you, even til the end of the age?” Do we hear Christ say, “I come to give life, and life to the full?”. Do we hear Him say to us, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men?” Do we hear him say, “your sins are forgiven…”
Or do we, drown out his voice, ignoring His words, so we can listen to ourselves?
Telling ourselves things to make us feel better. The selfish words to soothe our itchy souls : Live for yourself, do what you want, it’s not hurting anyone. The pitiful words borne from our prideful insecurity : you’re no good, no one loves you, you’re ugly…
Whilst Christ, continues to declare around you, that He is King. He is Lord. He is Victorious. “Come to me and I will give you rest, “ he says in Matthew 11. “With man this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible,” Matthew 19:27. “ I no longer call you servants, instead I have called you Friends,” John 15.
Why would you choose to silence Christ, to only hear yourself? What sound can come from within that is greater than the voice of God?
The sound of Christ comes in a powerful voice commanding the storms to cease, and in the joyful words encouraging the children to come to Him. It is the sound of clear and true teaching, and soft and gentle promises saying you are forgiven. It is the voice saying Father forgive them, and the voice saying I will come again.
Why turn away from that voice? The voice that spoke the universe into creation. The powerful triune voice of God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit. That speaks and reverberates from the beginning of time to… the voice that says I Am … the voice that says, It is Finished.
Don’t turn away from the voice of God, from the triumphant declaration of his victory — instead let the triumphant sound of God’s victory tear down the walls around your heart that keep you shut off from him, trapped by your own fears and failing.
Listen. Listen for His voice. Let sin in your life be stilled by the glory of God.
