Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
for he has come to his people and set them free.
Jesus was born to give us true freedom. This was not necessarily freedom from occupying forces but rather freedom from sin. People like the Pharisees had a hard time accepting this because it took humility to admit the fact that one was not free.
"you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?""
Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin" (see John 8:31-34).
But for those who welcomed him Jesus would indeed save them from the hands of their true spiritual enemies, the dark forces of the Devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (see Ephesians 6:12).
The point of Jesus coming to set us free was not only or mostly about what we were being saved from but especially about that for which we were being saved: relationship, "to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life". He was going to transform our relationship with God from one that was necessarily based on fear to one that was based more and more on love. It would first be based on the love of Jesus for us and then on our own confidence in that love which would engender reciprocal love within us. He came to make us sons and daughters of his heavenly Father able to cry out with confidence to "Abba" just as Jesus himself did.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
If our world seems increasingly to be dark and like the valley of death it can only mean that we are more than ever in dire need of the light of Christmas and therefore the light of Christ himself. Only he is the light which the darkness cannot overcome or even comprehend. He really does want to shine on us and to rise in our hearts like the morning star (see Second Peter 1:19). Let us look to the radiant beams shining from the face of the holy infant Jesus so as to be filled with the peace, joy, and love we need to realize the promises of which Zechariah sung.
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