The Christmas Story

Lights, shopping, cold weather, carols, trees, parties,airports and traveling. This time of the year can be extremely busy and crazy. It seems like every single night there is a party or some event. I am filled with joy at how my peers remember those in need during this time and have gone well out of their way to raise awareness and support in an effort to make a difference in people's lives around the world. But even as good and important as these things are, if they are not tethered to the meta narrative that is in the gospel of Jesus Christ then I think we are missing a rather large part of our commission. It would almost be like someone taking all the time, work, effort to investment in Christmas lights but never actually plugging them into the power source. We have to open our mouths and proclaim the gospel as a reminder to ourselves of the hope we have in Jesus and to others and not just rely on our actions. Jesus asked his disciples who do people say I am, Peter steps forward and says You are the Christ the Son of the living God and it is on that confession of WHO Jesus is that the church is built and the gospel lives. And so I want to remember the story and remind ourselves of why we do the things we do.

I'm reading a book right now called "How football explains America" and basically its a book written to explain why and how football became America's sport and how it captured the hearts of the American people and why it didn't take in other parts of the world. One thing that stuck out to me was this idea centered around how most people live their lives through the stories of others... and so if this is true and I believe to a large degree it is very true, all you have to do is look at the news/magazines and tabloids to see what the latest hot gossip is, but if this is true then there is no better story to live through than the one given to us in the bible as God Himself reconciles the world back to Himself. But before we get to that let me tell one of my own...

When I was a little boy I believed in Santa. My parents told me about Santa and how each year he got on his sleigh, flew behind magical reindeer led by one with a red light for a nose and delivered toys to boys and girls all over the world all in one night. I had such a strong belief in him because in my mind he was clearly real. I would give my Christmas list to my parents to mail to the North Pole and would then receive the presents I had asked for. To me that was evidence of his existence, end of story. Now because of my fascination with Santa and his reindeer, I had decided we were friends and I needed to meet him. But he was a busy man and so therefore I needed to catch him in my house. After many failed attempts of setting traps I decided this one year to just stay awake and witness him myself. However I knew that by myself I wouldn't be able to stay awake so I convinced my mom to remain up with me. She must have been thinking I'll give him an hour at the most and he'll pass out...oh no not me, nope I was determined and as traits hold true can be very discipline or stubborn, however you look at it, when I need to be. I made conversation with her til midnight, 1, 2, 3 and finally after she realized I wasn't going to go to sleep, my mother looks at me and says "Jason, there is no Santa now go to sleep!" ....and just walks out of my room. She leaves me in my room, open mouth, wide eyed with a disappointed broken heart! There was no Santa...but I still had the Easter bunny.

Ok so now compare all of that to the scriptures. In Genesis 17:1-8 We see God shows up, pursues man in Abraham and says look at the stars so shall your offspring be and I will be there God. The bible follows this group of people throughout history from slavery to the promise land to king after king and victory after victory, rebellion to repentance and in this meta narrative God sends prophets as His mouth piece to remind the Israelites of all God's done and to turn from their ways lest He get angry and destroy all of them. But God remembers His covenant and as we find in Isaiah 59:16 He works salvation with His own arm and points to the coming of the Messiah...A time is coming, don't lose hope set your eyes on God because He is sending a Savior. Then everything just goes silent. For 400 hundred years all they have is their history, the Law and a prophecy about the coming of a Messiah. And I can picture a father and son on their way to sacrifice a goat and the son looking at his dad and asking how much longer do we have to do this and then hearing the hope in the father's voice as he says one day son, one day we won't have to do this anymore because God is sending someone who will bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor...I understood and believed in Santa for maybe 3 years and my happiness and excitement each Christmas was based on whether or not a Fat man dressed in a red jump suit brought me presents. Can you see the difference in my hope and belief compared to all of the Jews history, all they had been through, seen and heard about? Divine miracles were no mystery to them so their belief and hope for a Messiah would far exceed anything we can relate to presently.

And then as prophecy foretold, it happens. The whole story begins to take shape as the God of the Universe steps off of His throne in Heaven is born of a virgin, walks among sinners and then is eventually killed by the very people who have longed for His coming for generation after generation after generation.

But for the most part, this divine birth goes virtually unnoticed. And then even when Jesus begins and gets well into His ministry He is still rejected and not accepted as the Son of God. What's wrong with this picture? The Messiah, whom they have been waiting for is in the flesh standing in their midst and instead of following Him they want to kill him...? But are we really that much different? It's easy for us to sit here, read about this story and say how could they be so dumb. Because you see, the Jews had created a version of their Messiah, what they wanted and what they thought they needed in order to make them happy and serve their needs. They were looking for a physical relief to their current situation. A change in their circumstance as they were being oppressed by a very large Roman Empire. A king to actually free them physically from bondage. They had set their expectation on the idea that they knew best what would bring them the most joy. But as we saw with the woman at the well and how she was looking for physical water, Jesus didn't come to just change things on the outside but with His kingdom He gave us victory from the inside out. And they didn't get the Messiah they thought. They got Jesus. Who hung out with the poor, the sick and the sinners and always challenged their heart instead of performing every time they rang a bell. And we do the same thing. We create a version of what God can and can't do based on how we see the world and how it should work. And when God challenges those things we say that's not God He wouldn't ask me to do that or how could God allow that to happen.

I mean look at our life, what kind of things have we placed our hope in, created, hoping that it would bring about happiness or some type of relief from our current situation? All those things will eventually let us down. My belief in Santa let me down, my hope in football let me down, alcohol, girls you name it. Everything that I pursued on my own outside of the gospel led no where but to more anger and loneliness. And it wasn't until the gospel was birthed inside my heart did I finally find true peace and hope and that is why despite having much or nothing at all we, we can find solace and rest in Him. Our joy is not dependent upon our circumstances, health or social status but everyone whether rich or poor, single or married, sick or healthy can rejoice knowing that this story is real. It's not another fairy tale made up to make us feel good. Jesus did come and because of that we have hope and life.

And just as the Jews looked for the first coming we can now be certain of His second...

Revelations 22:12"Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Kinsman Redeemer

The mountain before me great and tall
Could I go over or would I be afraid to fall
My heart is in this the King I know
Has called me to press on even through the deepest snow

The enemy advances and weighs heavily upon me
I use my sword to defend my territory
Resisting the urge to give in now
Because at the name of Jesus every knee will bow

He has chosen this for me that I may suffer with glory
Before the foundations of the earth He had written my story
That in my trials my faith would not waver
as Jesus came to die and became my Savior

And so I look at this mountain before me
with joy in my eyes to give Him the glory