4th Sunday of Advent Year A – Homily (2025)
4th Sunday of Advent, Year A
Isaiah 7:10-14
Psalm 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6 (7c, 10b)
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-24
December 21, 2025
The Lord spoke to Ahaz to offer him a sign. One might wonder why God is offering Ahaz a sign.
Judah is under attack. Ahaz is king. God offers Ahaz a sign, saying, “let it be deep as the netherworld or high as the sky!” A sign from God could be great assurance in Judah’s fight against its enemies. A sign from God could tell them what they should do. A sign from God could be wonderful.
Yet Ahaz refuses the sign! What is he thinking? Is his faith so great that he doesn’t need a sign from the Lord? Even if his faith was great, he could still ask for a sign to know what God wants him to do! I would like, scratch that, I would love a sign from God to tell me what to do.
So why does Ahaz answer, “I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!”?
Ahaz wants all the credit for saving Judah from their enemy. He has a plan. If he follows a sign from God, then God gets the credit. The thing is Ahaz’s plan fails.
Even though Ahaz refuses, God still offers a sign, “the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmauel.
“Emmauel” means “God is with us.” God dwells among his people and cares for them. Well, He does if they “let the Lord enter” their lives.
Ahaz did things his way and it ended in the fall of Judah. We cannot “ascend the mountain of the LORD” on our own. We have to be sinless, our hearts must be clean, and we must desire what is good.
Do you?
Fast forward around 700 years. The prophecy of a virgin conceiving a son reaches its ultimate fulfillment in the birth of Jesus. This is where we find ourselves. It is almost time to celebrate Christmas as the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
How was it that a virgin gave birth? Matthew tells us “how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.”
Mary was the one chosen to be the mother of Jesus. She was betrothed to Joseph but it was “before they lived together.” Matthew is careful to point this out. Keeping the Sixth Commandment, they had not had sexual relations yet. Yet, Joseph finds out Mary is pregnant.
No child had ever been born of a virgin before. Joseph assumes Mary’s pregnancy means she has been unfaithful to him. In accord with Deuteronomy 22:23-25, Joseph could have had her stoned.
He did not. “He was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, he decided to divorce her quietly.” He could have sought her death. He did not. He cherished life as we all should cherish life. God had chosen well for the man who would serve as Jesus’ adopted father.
While Joseph “decided to divorce her quietly,” this was not God’s Will. God sent an angel to Joseph in a dream to tell him how Mary had conceived, “it is through the Holy Spirit.”
Nothing like this had ever happened before. Yet, there was the prophecy of a virgin bearing a son. As a devout man, Joseph did “as the angel of the Lord had commanded him.”
Joseph would take Mary and her son into his home as his wife and his child. Following what the angel had said, he named the child Jesus.
The name “Jesus” means “God saves.” Jesus came to save us from our sins.
As I said earlier, we need to be sinless to ascend the Lord’s Mountain. One cannot enter Heaven with sin in their heart. Only one with a clean heart can enter Heaven. We cannot cleanse our hearts from sin ourselves. We cannot save ourselves.
We become slaves to sin when we desire what is vain.
What are we to do?
It had long foretold that a “descendent from David” would come to restore Israel. Paul speaks to the Romans of how it is God’s own Son who fulfills the prophecies. Jesus comes as one who is fully divine as the Son of God and fully human to save those who belong to him.
Do you belong to Jesus? Or do you belong to sin?
It is far better to be “a slave of Christ Jesus” than to be a slave to sin.
Jesus comes to save you from your sins.
Joseph and Mary chose to follow the Sixth Commandment by not engaging in sexual intimacy before their wedding. Do you keep the Sixth Commandment>
When Joseph chose not to have Mary stoned, he chose life in accord with the Fifth Commandment. Do you choose life at its beginning? Do you respect life as earthly death draws near? What about in between?
These are but two of God’s Commandments. How do you do with the others? Don’t steal. Don’t lie…
“Do not be afraid.” There is hope. There is great hope.
We are about to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We can look at baby Jesus in the manger and see our hope and our salvation.
Jesus came to save you from your sins.
Give all your sins to Jesus and share the good news of his forgiveness with those around you.