DEC. 14 IS GAUDETE Sunday, which means “Rejoice” Sunday in Latin. There are less than two weeks until Christmas.
Jesus is coming! Rejoice!
The coming of the promised Messiah to redeem the world should bring joy to everyone. But it didn’t. Not in His day. The Pharisees feared someone unveiling their hypocrisy. The Romans feared someone fomenting rebellion to their authority. Even His own disciples were disappointed at first that He wasn’t going to overthrow their worldly oppressors like they had imagined.
They all only wanted a savior on their own terms, one they could control, one who wouldn’t challenge them, demand anything of them or shake their self-image. It’s easy to rejoice when people agree with you.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus quotes Isaiah to the disciples of John the Baptist: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: ‘The blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.’ And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.” (Matthew 11:4b-6)
So of course, the only ones who took no offense, who could truly rejoice at the Messiah’s coming without holding back, were the blind, lame, lepers, deaf and poor. Those who were willing to admit that they needed healing and were willing to accept change in their lives.
Now it’s 2025, and we’re quickly approaching Christmas. Shopping, wrapping, baking. Enjoying movies and cocoa in front of the fire with our loved ones, caroling. Tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy!
But why are we rejoicing today? What are we rejoicing in? Gifts, food and a vacation from work? Or the coming of a savior who frees us from slavery to sin and asks us to accept healing from our spiritual blindness, deafness, sickness and poverty?
I think often it’s the former.
We’re so busy enjoying the comfort that we fail to evaluate the joy. All the trappings of Christmas do remind us that “Jesus is the reason for the season.” That something special happened in that stable in Bethlehem. The Son of God humbled Himself and incarnated as a man to rescue us from our sins and make us holy. But it might involve uncomfortable change. The apostles let their lives be changed so dramatically that they died for the Gospel.
Are we willing to let our lives be changed by the coming of the Messiah?
It might get messy. After all, He said, “I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” (Matthew 10:34)
Are we willing to rejoice in a Messiah who challenges us? Who might be asking something of us that we weren’t expecting? Are we ready to let Jesus change our lives?
He was born 2,000 years ago but He’s still here among us, in the faces of the blind, the lame and the poor. We’re being asked to humble ourselves, die to ourselves and become poor in spirit so that we can take no offense in Him. Take Him at His own face value and let His will guide us in surprising ways.
And rejoice! The kingdom He proclaims is not the one we expected, but He is there to guarantee that no step taken in His service will be in vain. Trust is hard, but He never fails us.
As Christmas approaches and we prepare our homes to celebrate the birth of Christ, I pray that we may all prepare our hearts to welcome the Christ child as well and allow Him to transform our lives in new and surprising ways.