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After every Christmas some disappointed or cynical person will say, "Christmas came and went; nothing changed. No one really changed." It always makes me think of this rough, old guy who, one night at a revival meeting, went up and gave a testimony about his life. He said, "Brothers and sisters, you all know that I have not been what I ought to have been, and that I've stolen hogs, gotten drunk, and told lies. I've been playing poker and gambling and I've been cussing and swearing. But one thing I can stand here and testify to is that, through all of this, one thing I haven't done; I ain't never lost my religion." I am sure of that! I am also sure that the religion he followed and practiced was not Christianity. What kind of effect does Christmas make on our lives?

In Isaiah 61:1-4 we have the story of people asking the prophet the same question. They said, "You know, we have been hoping, waiting, and longing for the Messiah to come. We would like to ask one searching question. What kind of characteristics will this Messiah have? To whom will He come? The second question is: What makes this an Epiphany lesson? Isaiah answered, "Yes, that is a valid question. Why would you long for someone to come unless you knew that he could change your life and change the world?" So he begins in this 61st Chapter to tell them what the Messiah will be like. Most of us, when we study the book of Isaiah, pick up certain terminology. The term most of us usually pick up is "suffering servant." Isaiah portrays Christ and the Messiah as the "suffering servant." That is a good description. It is the same kind of description that Henry Nouwen, the famous Jesuit theologian, is trying to describe in his book, The Wounded Healer. Yes, God did suffer. The Messiah was a suffering human being, but one who in his suffering was concerned more about other peoples' suffering. He was a "wounded healer." Now some children of Israel were in captivity for almost two hundred years. They were slaves partially set free. A few had come back to Jerusalem. They thought getting to Jerusalem would be the answer to all their problems. But they discovered that Jerusalem was desolate; there was mismanagement in the local government. There was no holy Temple. They were disillusioned and disappointed. They were hurting.

Isaiah says it is to that kind of person in that kind of a situation, to whom the Messiah comes. He is a "wounded healer." He is a "suffering servant," one who serves those who suffer. So Isaiah tells them these are the characteristics the Promised One will have. Jesus accepted all these portraits of the Messiah. In fact, He was asked, "What and who are you? What kind of a Messiah are you going to be?" In the fourth chapter of Luke's Gospel, He answered by quoting these same four verses. "The Spirit of the Lord will be upon him and he will preach good news to the poor. He will heal the brokenhearted and those that are captive. He will set free and declare this is the acceptable year of the Lord." Later on, John the Baptizer sent his disciples to Jesus to ask, "Are you the One? Are you the Promised One or should we look for another?" Again Jesus quoted those same verses. "Go and tell John the poor hear the Gospel preached; the blind see; those with broken hearts are healed; those that are captured are set free." We know that Jesus understood himself as fulfilling these characteristics. First of all, he will be anointed by the Spirit of God so that he will preach good news to the poor and to the underprivileged. He will heal the broken-hearted. He will set free those who are prisoners and open the jails and prison cells of all those who have been captured. Last of all, he will announce and proclaim that this is the acceptable year of the Lord.

I. Bring Good News to the Poor and Afflicted

Isaiah says He will bring good news to the poor. Actually the coming of Christ, the Advent or what you and I call Christmas, is only for the poor! There is no message in Advent for the rich, only the poor and the afflicted. Who needs a Savior except someone who is lost? Who needs a healer unless they are wounded? Who needs one to bring to them what they need unless they are poor? Who but the poor would ever search and long for the answer to all their problems? Jesus said the same thing in the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the poor in Spirit for only they shall see the Kingdom of God." That always hurts me when I read it because I know I am rich. I have all I need to eat, more than one suit of clothing. I am rich and yet I am reminded that the story of Christmas has no meaning to the rich, only to the poor. It is good news to the poor only! The recognition of his coming was revealed to the poor, humble shepherds. It was a woman named Anna, who worked as a maid around the Temple, to whom the Christ-Child was revealed. It was to a Temple beggar, Simeon, who considered himself a prophet as he sat outside the Temple gate and begged for alms, that there came the revelation of who that Child was. He was revealed to kings from the east who were poor in spirit, suffering from depravity or spirituality.

Christianity is a faith for the underdog, the underprivileged, the needy. How does the Liberator come? How can he help us if we are so poor? He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, whose riches are unsearchable. The Talmud, writings which for Jews are the most sacred scriptures outside the Old Testament, talk about the coming Messiah, the longing for him. There is a legend in the Talmud to this effect:

Rabbi Joshua ben Levi came upon Elijah, the prophet, while he was standing at the entrance of Rabbi Joshua ben Levi's cave. He asked Elijah, "When will the Messiah come?" Elijah replied, "Go and ask him yourself." "Where is he?" "Sitting at the gates of the city," said Elijah. "How shall I know him?" "He is sitting among the poor, covered with wounds. The others unbind all their wounds at the same time and then bind them up again. But he unbinds them one at a time and binds it up again, saying to himself, 'Perhaps I shall be needed; if so, I must always be ready so as not to delay for a moment.' "

He is the suffering servant, the wounded healer. always wanting to heal. You know, the poor people today believe there is no way a rich man can go to heaven. That is not even a debatable question among poor people. Ask any deprived person on the street anywhere, "Will a rich person go to heaven?" They will tell you, "No!"

I remember the first time I preached in a prison. After the sermon I invited questions from the prisoners. Can you guess which question all the prisoners asked me? It was theologically rather profound, I thought. They wanted to know, "Can a prison guard ever go to heaven?" And I had to say, "No." Can a rich man go to heaven? No! Jesus said, "It will he harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to go through a needle's eye." I explained to the prisoners that only by the grace of God will anyone get to heaven. Only the poor, only those who may have worldly riches but realize their depravity, who live perhaps in a $125,000 residential section but know that they live in a ghetto of spirituality - only the poor who know they are poor - can be saved.

You have heard the story of the Methodist minister who died and went to heaven, and for his reward St. Peter gave him a little Chevette, a four-on-the-floor, stick shift. He enjoyed it for a while, "spinning off" at every intersection, until he saw a man down the street who, he thought, had not lived a very good life, but was driving a Buick. The Methodist minister was irate! He went to St. Peter and complained. The next day he saw a fellow he thought was even worse, riding around in a Cadillac. He really was upset about that. Every day he went back complaining. "It's not fair. I deserve better!" Finally, one day he stopped bothering St. Peter. A week passed and he had not come to complain, so St. Peter wondered what had made him satisfied with the Chevette. So he want to see him and asked, "Why are you now satisfied with your Chevette?" The preacher answered, "Well, I admit I was pretty upset, until the other day I saw my Bishop on a skateboard." It is only to the poor that He comes, only to the poor, and we need to understand that. "The last shall be first and the first last."

I was reading an article recently in "Good News Magazine." It is a renewal group in the Methodist Church for evangelical, fundamental, scriptural holiness. It was written by the executive secretary of "Good News." It is not from a social gospelist, my friend; it is from a fundamental evangelical who says that the church's only salvation is to get out there and care for the needy. The title of the article was, "Farewell to Welfare." He talks about the impact of the government's doing away with $18,000,000,000 worth of welfare and the effect it will have on the community. Who will feed them? Who will clothe them? He said the church must! It has one last chance to save itself. He makes the point that the government, from about 1920 to 1970, had to get in the welfare business because the church wouldn't do it. The church was more concerned with surviving as an institution and propagating the institution. But he pointed out that we have another chance, a second chance to feed all those out there now who are hurting and hungry. He said we have that chance for several reasons, and he is glad of it. First, the church can do it for less money and more effectively. Secondly, the social welfare system is impersonal and it takes human dignity away from people. And thirdly, it gives us a chance to witness to the Lord. So we must do it! Jesus said, "I have been anointed to preach the Good News to the poor."

One day when I got out of my Bible Study at 11:00, the secretary said there was no way I could see all the relief applicants which I interview every Tuesday and Thursday from 11:00 a.m. until noon. There were twenty-seven waiting. Most of them had light bills they couldn't pay, no food in their house. It doesn't take long every day from 11:00 - 12:00 to give away several hundred dollars. It is a joy to be able to say to everyone who comes in the office, "Good news, my friends, good news! Jesus came into our lives. Because he preached good news to the poor, we must also, and that is why we are helping you." Money pours in without any solicitation, because people want to follow him who preached good news to the poor.

II. Bind Up the Brokenhearted

Second Isaiah says that he comes to bind up the broken-hearted. Broken hearts exist everywhere - among rich, poor, educated and uneducated. You can't imagine the kind of grief that is going on in some people's lives. They grieve over a lost job, the inability to make enough money to feed their family, over a loved one who had died, over a child whose life has gone astray. Grief, all kinds of grief, over our failure to live up to what we know we could be and should be. In her famous book, Death and Dying, Kubler Ross says that perhaps the most important thing you could do for someone who grieves is just be there and comfort them by being a part of their lives.

Dr. Bob Nenno, a psychiatrist and a very good friend of mine, was speaking one day to our ministerial association about a matter he and I had discussed several times in private. He was speaking of how at Christmastime, as a result of a secular world's concept of Christmas, people are inflicted with all kinds of emotional problems that they don't have at other times during the year. Those are multiplied at Christmas. During the Christmas season about 90% of the people go around with their hearts filled with hatred, bitterness and hostility. Why? Because they didn't get everything they wanted. You give the wife a new Buick for Christmas and she wanted a Cadillac. You give her a washing machine and she really wanted a mink coat. Or did you ever see a child who, after he has opened all presents under the tree, has a facial expression that says, "Is that all?" It is the sort of mentality of our day. Or people suffer from all kinds of depression during the Christmas season because of the Christmas message of the secular world. In the beer and wine advertisements, crowds of folks come to your home. If that crowd came to your house, and you had that many people to feed, you would be miserable! But it makes you think that Christmas means being together with family or a crowd of people with a lot of noise. If you get in the crowd, you aren't satisfied. Or if you are a single person or a lonely person who doesn't have any family coming in at Christmastime, you make yourself depressed by thinking that you are supposed to be depressed because you didn't have any company at Christmastime.

Now, the problem is that the church has not proclaimed the Gospel about the coming of Christ. The secular world has introduced everybody to their concept of Christmas. We have never told them about the One who comes to bring peace. "Peace, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled." Not a crowd of people around you but the comfort of God who says, "Emmanuel, I am with you. You're not alone." Yes, the secular world's concept of Christmas is making people insane. We need to get the message of the Bible to them - the message of what the Promised One would be.

I was wondering how I could explain this to you as I was typing this message. The phone rang. A layman said that, if possible, he would like me to come out to the hospital and see a very prominent physician in our community. By all standards he would be considered the pinnacle of success, a wonderful person (although without any kind of church relationship). He couldn't talk with his professional peers. The only thing they knew to do was to treat his symptoms which were the physical problems of his wife who was dying in the hospital.

Everybody was treating the symptoms, not what was really wrong. He was suffering from a broken heart. I had good news to bring to him about the Promised One who comes to heal the brokenhearted. You can have everything in the world and still have a broken heart. Many of us overlook those things.

I heard of a little girl who had a doll that she had had since infancy. It was her favorite doll. But the doll's head got broken, crushed. So she went to the healing service at her church on Sunday night. When the minister gave an invitation for persons to come down to the altar and declare their request for healing, she walked up to the minister and, with tears streaming down her fat cheeks, held up her soiled doll with the broken head. He looked at her and said, "I'm sorry, darling, but we don't heal broken dolls." She said, "What I want to know is do you heal a broken heart?" You see, most of us when we hear the story, like the minister, think that the problem was a broken doll. We aren't sensitive enough to realize that what is hurting people is not the broken dolls, but the broken hearts. He comes to heal the broken heart.

III. Proclaim Liberty to the Captives

Isaiah says he comes to proclaim liberty to the captives, to release from prison those who are in prison. People are imprisoned by all kinds of things - inferiority complexes, prejudices, ignorance, enslavement by alcohol, drugs, sex. A week never passes that I am not talking with someone out in the psychiatric ward, and I say to them, "Hey, you need to try to stop putting on this big front about living in a certain kind of house and getting in such a financial bind. Why do you have to project such an image?" "Oh, I know that," they will say. (I have heard it a hundred times.) "The doctor has told me to turn it loose. But how?" Materialism is like an octopus that has gripped us all. How do we turn it loose? It is not that easy.

I used to go to Alcoholics Anonymous when I was a boy. My dad was a member of AA. We went three or four nights a week. I remember the twelve steps, the first of which is, "Admit we are powerless over alcohol, that our lives have become unmanageable." Everybody has to admit that. "Come to believe that a power greater than ourselves has come to restore us to sanity." Then finally comes the twelfth step: "Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we try to carry this message to alcoholics and other persons and practice these principles in all our affairs." In Dicken's Christmas Carol, the character Scrooge was imprisoned, locked behind bars, with his wealth, until that night the rescuer came to him and the doors were opened, and he was set free.

IV. Proclaim This the Acceptable Year of the Lord

The Promised One is not "way out there" in the future, not "yet to come," not tomorrow. No, he is now! Now is the acceptable year of the Lord.

I began by telling you the ancient legend from the Talmud, about Rabbi Joshua ben Levi. There is an end to that story. The rabbi went to Elijah and asked him, "When will the Messiah come?" Elijah explained to him that he could find the Messiah sitting at the gate with the poor. Rabbi ben Levi went to the Messiah and said to Him, "Peace be unto you, my Master and my Teacher." The Messiah answered, "Peace to you, son of Levi." Finally he asked, "When is the Messiah coming?" "Today," He answered. Rabbi Joshua ben Levi returned to Elijah who asked, "What did he tell you?" "He indeed has deceived me, for he said, 'Today I am coming' and he has not come." To which Elijah said, "This is what he told you, 'Today if you would listen to his voice.' "

That is the Epiphany lesson from Isaiah: today, right now is the acceptable year of the Lord. He who will preach good news to the poor and the afflicted. He who will heal the broken-hearted. He who will set you free from whatever it is that captivates and imprisons your life. He will come right now - this minute - if you will only receive him. For this is the acceptable year of the Lord.