What Do You Want for Christmas?
Isaiah 55
December 15, 2024
The question I’d like for us to reflect on today is: “What do you want for Christmas?”
We have a few videos of our kids when they were young. On one of them our daughter Sarah was about six years old. Sarah sang a special song while smiling broadly. It was a song she could only sing that one Christmas. This is the song she sang:
“All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, my two front teeth, see my two front teeth.
Gee, if I could only have my two front teeth, then I could wish you, ‘Merry Christmas.’
It seems so long since I could say, ‘Sister Susie sitting on a thistle.’ Gosh, oh gee, how happy I’d be, if I could only whistle (thhhhh)
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, my two front teeth, see my two front teeth.
Gee, if I could only have my two front teeth, then I could wish you, ‘Merry Christmas.’”
What do you want for Christmas?
We’re in the midst of a series of messages from the book of Isaiah. Today we’re looking at Isaiah 55.
What do you want for Christmas?
When I was young, it was easy to come up with definite ideas about what I wanted for Christmas. But as I’ve gotten older, I’m not so sure about what I desire.
Our culture diverts our true desires. We’re trapped today in America in a consumer culture. We notice it more during this season of the year, but it’s always with us. The marketing industry is determined to divert our desires to what they’re selling.
And over and over they succeed. The consumer culture tells us that what we have is not enough.
Our consumer culture also makes sure we know people who spend more than we do so we don’t feel so bad about what we spend.
The consumer culture turns what used to be luxuries into necessities.
The consumer culture finds ways to hook every one of us into diverting our desires from what we really want down deep to want they want to sell us.
The author of Isaiah 55 says, “Why do you spend your money on junk food, your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?”
Then the author points us to the solution: “Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best, fill yourself with only the finest.”
Fortunately, our Scripture today points to good news in the midst of this situation. The author of Isaiah 55 let’s us know that God meets our true desires. That’s the point of this message: God meets our true desires.
This is the season of Advent. We’re preparing for the birth of Jesus in our world. I find there is a strong connection between Isaiah 55 and the portrait of Jesus found in the Gospel of John. I’m going to go back and forth between Isaiah and the account of Jesus for I find so many parallels.
Isaiah says in Isaiah 55:1a. (read it)
The gospel of John chapter 4 has Jesus meeting a Samaritan woman at a well. Jesus tells her, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again. But no one who drinks the water I give will ever be thirsty again. The water I give is like a flowing fountain that gives eternal life.”
Jesus meets our desire for water, for living water.
Isaiah goes on to say in the rest of that first verse.
Read Isaiah 55:1b
The gospel of John chapter 5 has Jesus meeting a blind man at the pool of Bethzatha. Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be healed?”
The man intimates that he doesn’t have the resources to get healed. He can’t make it into the pool on his own. In a sense, he’s penniless when it comes to his health.
Jesus tells the man, “Pick up your mat and walk.”
Right then the man was healed. His healing was a free gift from God.
Jesus meets our desires even if we come empty-handed. It’s called grace, amazing grace.
Isaiah goes on to say in the second verse:
Read Isaiah 55:2
John 6 has Jesus performing the miracle of feeding the 5000. Later Jesus is talking about this. He says, “Don’t work for food that spoils. Work for food that gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give you this food, because God the Father has given him the right to do so…I am the bread that gives life! No one who comes to me will ever be hungry.”
Jesus meets our desire for something that truly satisfies, the bread that gives real life.
Isaiah goes on:
Read Isaiah 55: 3-5
Jesus says in John 10:10-11, “I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest.”
Jesus fulfills our desire for true life, life lived in its fullness.
Jesus wants to give us the deepest desires of our heart, those things that we really want – down deep.
Read Isaiah 55:6-7
John 8 starts with Jesus finding a woman brought by the Pharisees accusing her of adultery. The story ends with Jesus’ words, “Where is everyone? Isn’t there anyone left to accuse you?”
She says, “No sir.”
Jesus tells her, “I am not going to accuse you either. You may go now, but don’t sin anymore.”
Jesus meets our desire for forgiveness for our sins and a right relationship with God.
Isaiah concludes this chapter with this:
Read Isaiah 55:12-13
Jesus says in John 8: “If you keep on obeying what I have said, you truly are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Jesus meets our desires for both truth and freedom. We no longer have to be the slaves of anyone or anything because we are free in Christ.
Jesus says in John 14: “Don’t be worried. Have faith in God and have faith in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I wouldn’t tell you this, unless it was true. I’m going to prepare a place for each of you. After I have done this, I will come back and take you with me. Then we will be together.”
Jesus meets our desire to go home, to our true home. As Isaiah said, “When you are set free, you will celebrate and travel home in peace.”
Jesus went on to say in the 14th chapter of John, “I give you peace, the kind of peace that only I can give. It isn’t like the peace that this world can give. So don’t be worried or afraid.”
Jesus meets our desire for peace in the midst of the storms. Jesus meets our desire for freedom from worry or fear.
The good news we find in Isaiah 55 and amplified in the gospel of John is this: God meets our desires.
God will grant you the deepest desires of your heart.
What do you want for Christmas?
What do you really desire?
Are you thirsty? God brings living water.
Are you not well? God brings the gift of healing.
Are you hungry? God brings true bread.
Are you struggling with past sins? God brings forgiveness.
Are you dying? God brings life in all its abundance.
Are you in any type of bondage? God brings freedom.
Are you away from your true home? God brings you home.
Are you worried or afraid? God brings you peace.
The good news we celebrate today is this:
God will grant you the deepest desires of your heart.
