December 9th 2025

She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Matthew 1:21

The angel proclaimed that Jesus would save his people from our sins…did it work? If this is how we sometimes read it, then why are we all still mired in sin? Why are we left here in “sin and error pining”? I think a careful reading of YHWH’s messenger shows us what good news it actually is as we meditate upon it during advent.

The command to Joseph didn’t include a promise that sin would stop at the birth of this baby boy. The promise is that we, His people, those who choose to belong to Him, will be saved from our sins. Sin still exists because our free will still exists. That is not what Jesus came to extinguish. But, in Christ, because of Joseph and Mary’s grand and cosmic “yes” to YHWH, we can be saved from our sins. Jesus takes sin’s ability to name who and what we are if we choose something he offers us. His peace. 

Before his execution, Jesus said to his disciples “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid”. This, to me, is a culmination of the promise made by the angel to Joseph in his proclamation of Mary’s immaculate pregnancy.

As we wait to celebrate the birth of Jesus, think about how His peace can save you from sin, both your own and those around you. 

- Matt Fisher