Recently Bernice and I finished watching The Umbrella Academy (creative, uneven, zany, sad, with a great sound track). It is a Netflix series where all the episodes are part of one long story.

In programmes like this, it is not helpful to start with Episode 3, for example. Without watching Episodes 1 and 2, you will not be able to understand the episode. Indeed, you may even misunderstand it without the proper context. Which may explain the reason for some of us finding it difficult to understand why the angels were so over the top when they announced the coming of Jesus.

Good news? Great joy? For all people? Seriously?

The full story

But the coming of Christ is at least Episode 4 in the story of humankind. It only makes sense if we understand the earlier episodes:

• Episode 1: God Creates Humankind and Blesses Them Overwhelmingly
• Episode 2: Humankind Rejects the Rightful, Loving Kingship of God and Loses Their Blessings
• Episode 3: God, in His Grace, Doesn’t Leave Humankind in their Predicament. (He promises to send a Messiah/Suffering Servant to make things right again. Indeed, He promises to step into human history Himself to make things right.)

Then, like a winter break, we had to wait for the continuation of the story. Boy, did we have to wait for a long time. Some of the messianic prophecies, in Isaiah for example, were probably uttered about 800 years before Christ finally came.

In comparison, Episode 3 of The Umbrella Academy, Crisis on Infinite Earths aired on December 10 and you have to wait till (horrors!) January 14 for the next episode.

I can imagine the angels and all creation in the know, holding their breaths: Now, finally, the Messiah comes! Time to exhale! Time for over-the-top joy!!!

Looking back to move ahead 

There is no way we can understand the joy of Christmas without understanding the backstory. God came through! God kept His Word! The Messiah has come to make things right again! It’s going to be OK!

We can sing with gusto:

No more let sins and sorrows grow
Nor thorns infest the ground
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found
Far as, far as the curse is found
(“Joy to the World”, Isaac Watts, 1719)

But all good stories have a twist. The coming of Jesus was only Episode 4.

There were other subsequent episodes:

• Episode 5: The Life and Teaching of Jesus
• Episode 6: The Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ
• Episode 7: The Pouring out of the Holy Spirit and the Witness of the Church
• Episode 8: Christ Returns to Finally Make All Things New

The last word

So, even as we celebrate the coming of Jesus, we realise we are only in Episode 7. We need to remember this as we look out at a world that is still dark and full of pain.

Episode 6 was the key episode: God did the heavy lifting of reversing the effects of sin. But we still await the final episode.

We have every right to be joyful at Christmas. God kept His Word! The Messiah came! So we know He will come again! Let’s remind each other to hang in there and to be faithful to witness to Him through word and deed.

We press on because we know how this story ends. (There may even be a second season with a new heaven and a new earth.)

This article was first published on Graceworks and is republished here with permission.