In 2009, a 47-year-old woman named Susan Boyle auditioned for Britain's Got Talent. As she took the stage, Simon Cowell gave the side-eye, thinking this would be another "so-bad-it's-good" audition. The audience snickered as well.
Then Susan sang.
The audience went wild, and Simon was left speechless. No one expected such a mighty voice to come out of this ordinary, unassuming woman.
We are in week 2 of our Advent series, looking at the names Isaiah gave to the Messiah he prophesied about:
For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His government and its peace
will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David
for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven's Armies
will make this happen! (9:6-7)
Today, we are considering what it means for Jesus to be our Mighty God.
The Christmas story is full of unexpected events. Just as Simon couldn't believe Susan Boyle had an amazing voice, it's hard to fathom a Mighty God wrapped in the flesh of a baby. As the song "Do You Hear What I Hear?" puts it:
A Child, a Child shivers in the cold
Let us bring him silver and gold.
How could this fragile little child be a Mighty God?
Still, the promise of a Mighty God would have been welcomed by Isaiah's original audience. As we saw last week, Israel was being brutalized (and would eventually be conquered) by the Assyrian nation.
And 800 years later, when this child was finally born, their situation hadn't improved much. They were back in their homeland but were now under Roman rule.
For people facing oppression, the promise of a Mighty God is a sweet one.
When we call Jesus Mighty God, we affirm he is fully divine, even in his frail human state. And this Mighty God cares about the weak and vulnerable. He cares when people use their might to oppress others. And he does not turn a blind eye or shrug his shoulders at evil.
This is good news!
And yet, too often, a Mighty God is not what I want. Not really.
Last week, I said Jesus the Practical Problem-Solver sounds more appealing than Jesus the Wonderful Counselor. And now I confess that even though a Mighty God sounds nice, I'd much prefer a Personal Genie.
Remember the movie Aladdin? Near the end, Jafar, the villain, takes possession of the magic lamp. He uses his wishes to destroy anything that gets in the way of what he wants. The Genie's mighty power became Jafar's mighty power. And the best part for Jafar? It didn't matter what the Genie thought. Like a bulldog on a leash, Genie had all the power, but he could only do what his master allowed him to do.
I think we sometimes treat Jesus this way.
Now look, I would never openly say Jesus is my Personal Genie. I would never even think of it that way consciously!
But if I'm not careful, I can begin to think Jesus and I are always on the same page about everything. Instead of praying to become more like Jesus, I make him more like me. He shakes his head at the same people I shake my head at. He gets annoyed at the same people I get annoyed at. And since Jesus is a Mighty God, I can unleash his power against anyone I want.
As the disciples saw Jesus' power, they also started to think this way.
One day, Jesus passed through a Samaritan village to get to Jerusalem. But the people who lived there didn't welcome him because Samaritans and Jews did not get along. So James and John come up with this idea:
When James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, "Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up?" (Luke 9:54, NLT)
"Um... No," replies Jesus.
It might sound outrageous, but this was a perfectly reasonable request to James and John. Jesus had mighty power. And the Samaritans were enemies. So why wouldn't we just use that power to zap them off the face of the earth? Besides, they started it!
And yes, I joke about this, but I also understand where the disciples were coming from. They were tired of being kicked around, and the Messiah had finally arrived. They saw his power and wanted him to use it to take back control. If I were them, I'd probably be expecting the same thing.
(And I'm sure that at some point during Christmas dinner, somebody will say something to give me the urge to call down fire from heaven...)
So what do we do when we feel tempted to turn Mighty God into Personal Genie?
We remember the way Jesus used his power and might. This man, who was fully God, went to battle with Death itself and defeated it.
But he did so in the most unexpected way possible. Instead of hanging on to his power, "rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness" (Philippians 2:7). He came as a humble child and walked among us messy, broken people. He showed us what Love looks like. He taught us that sacrifice is not weakness but strength.
And in the end, he gave his life for both his people and his enemies. For the powerful and the powerless. For those invited to the party and those not invited.
And he did it in a way that left the world as stunned as Simon was at Susan Boyle.
That is a Mighty God!
So, as we continue the Advent season, let's reflect on Jesus our Mighty God. We live in a broken world where heinous things happen. We need a God who is mighty enough to defeat evil.
But we also need to remember the way he chose to defeat it. It's probably not the way we would go about it if we had access to a Genie who gave us three wishes.
Even after Jesus defeated Death through suffering, his followers still had power on the brain:
So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, "Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?" He replied, "The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:6-8, NLT)
Jesus' answer was yes, they would receive power. But it was a kind of power they weren't expecting. It was the power of the Holy Spirit who gives us the strength to love as he did.
It's the power to go tell it on the mountain that this Mighty God is born.
Questions of Ponder:
What does Jesus our Mighty God mean to you? How have you seen his power in your life?
How does Jesus our Mighty God differ from Jesus the Personal Genie?
It's been said that if God has all the same opinions as you, you've probably created him in your own image! When are you most likely to "call down fire from heaven" (metaphorically, of course!)? In those moments, how can you ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to become more like Jesus?
—
Thank you for reading! If you'd like to support me as I continue writing, a donation through Ko-Fi would go a long way.