Today is simply called the “First Sunday After Christmas”. Because Christmas Day roams throughout the days of the week from year to year, the first Sunday after Christmas could arrive anywhere between one and seven days after Christmas Day. In churches that observe this day, you may well hear this passage from Isaiah being read:
The nations shall see your deliverance,
Isaiah 62:1-3
and all rulers shall see your glory;
Then you shall be called by a new name
which the mouth of God will give.
You shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
When I first read this passage many years ago, I’ll admit I assumed a diadem was like a diamond. It turns out it’s not. It is a wreath-like crown reserved only for the king to wear. If you do a Google image search for “royal diadem” you’ll find all manner of crowns, many of them English, and this won’t particularly help you identify the kind of crown Isaiah is talking about. But I’ll also find several pictures of crowns with this verse emblazoned over them, often accompanied with words about embracing your identity as royalty in God. Which is an encouraging thing to tell someone, except that it’s not really what Isaiah is saying. Actually, rather than being crowned with a diadem, and this becoming royalty ourselves, we are the diadem. We declare and illuminate God’s royalty.
Is this a step down from being royalty ourselves? Possibly. If we want to think of ourselves as kings or queens, it might be a letdown to find ourselves being the jewellery of the king. But it’s actually quite amazing that this is what we are. You see, Isaiah was writing to a people in captivity. The kings who had defeated them, to their agonising shame as God’s people, would have worn royal diadems. And here was Isaiah telling them: These fake kings with their earthly diadems won’t have the final victory; I will. And when I do, I’m putting you all on my crown, as the beautiful jewellery I deserve to show that I am king.
If we aren’t astonished by this, I think we’re missing something. Yes, we are called children and heirs of God when we trust in Jesus; yes we become a “royal priesthood”. And this is extraordinary too, and deserving of our attention. But just imagine a conquered people being told that their God hadn’t failed; He was still king, and when He came back to power as king, he’d be bringing back the ones he had disciplined, and putting them in prime place on his head to show everyone His royalty.
Can you imagine God doing that? Can you imagine God doing that to you? I certainly can’t. It contradicts everything I think about myself, everything I fear about God.
But then, we are still in Christmas season, and so it is not so long ago at all that we remember the king of the universe coming to visit His people, not on a golden chariot flanked by servants, but as a baby, born into poverty and disgrace, lying in a feeding trough for animals, omnipotent but a helpless baby all the same.
When I think of this, then I can start to imagine a God who would place me in pride of place, as His royal crown.
The Consolations of Writing 