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Emmanuel
John
1:6-9, Matthew 1:22-23
Christmas
Eve 2006
“Meaning
of Christmas” video.
Upper Room-
December
24:
When I was growing up,
December felt like the longest month of the year. I circled
December 24 and 25 on the calendar and marked off the days in
anticipation of Christmas Day. It was always worth the wait.
In a much deeper sense, for thousands of years, the Jews waited for
the coming of the Messiah. After human beings and God were
separated by sin, God promised a redeemer who would bring
reconciliation. The people of God waited for this promise to
be fulfilled.
In the gospel of John, we are told of the
Messiah’s coming, as John the Baptist proclaims that “The true
light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.”
We have read and heard about this glorious
news coming to the shepherds in the fields through a choir of
angels, and to the magi through a star.
This news, however, was not good news for
everyone.
You see, Joseph got the news in a
different way—he was told that his fiancée Mary was pregnant.
In his eyes, this was not the coming of the promised Messiah,
but an act of adultery. But
the angel Gabriel comes to Joseph to reassure him, to let him know
that the child in his fiancée’s womb was indeed the Promised One.
As we heard in our reading, Gabriel said,
“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and
they will call him Emmanuel”—which means “God with us.”
“God with us.”
Since the beginning of time, people have thought that God had
abandoned us, or that God is too distant for us to relate to, or
that there is no God.
This reminds me of the sign I saw that was
in front of a church at Christmas time:
“Merry Christmas to our Christian friends. Happy Hanukkah to our
Jewish friends. And to our atheist friends, good luck.”
You see, what we celebrate in this season of giving gifts is that
God has given us the greatest gift of all in the person of Christ,
because it is the Gift of God Himself. God could give anything, but
He chose to give Himself.
The greatest act of giving is the giving
of oneself, and God did it in the truest sense of the word –He
gave Himself in the Person of His Son, the little baby in the
manger.
What does this mean for us?
It means that the eternal, timeless One entered
time. God, who is spirit, took on flesh. The one who created all
things became subject to His creation.
The Bible says in Hebrews that in doing this Jesus opened Himself up
to everything you and I experience: pain, sorrow, joy, pride in a
job well done, human love, rejection, and even temptation to sin.
Why would He do that? Was He just looking for something else to do?
“Okay, I’ve got everything created for a while. Baseball season
doesn’t start for a couple thousand years yet, so what should I do
to pass the time?”
Why would God voluntarily take the form of a human? And why did He
come as a helpless baby? Listen, take it from me, babies are
helpless: they need to
be fed, burped, changed, put down for naps, and all sorts of stuff.
Can you imagine God Himself as a baby, babbling and slobbering all
over the place while He was teething?
He couldn’t even talk in the beginning of His human life.
So, why would God do this? The
Bible tells us why: He came so we could be saved from our sins.
And He didn’t save us from our sins at
Bethlehem
, folks. He saved us from our sins at
Calvary
.
But
Bethlehem
had to come first.
And so we celebrate Christmas.
Many years ago, I saw a Sunday morning newspaper comic strip that
depicted a father and son, on a snowy day, looking in the front
window of a department store. The display in that window was of a
Christmas tree, surrounded by all the toys and trappings of the
commercial season. A sign posted on the inside of the window said,
“Come in and shop! Let’s make this the best Christmas ever!”
The caption of the cartoon was of the father saying to the son, “How
are they going to top the first one?”
But how do we grasp all this? How can we really get our brains
around this wonderful concept of God becoming a man?
The truth of the matter is that we can’t. It’s beyond our finite
human comprehension.
One of the great things about God is His mystery. He chooses to let
some things about Him remain a mystery, at least while we’re on
earth. Without mystery
there is no faith.
So here’s the wonderful mystery of Christmas: the Creator invaded
His creation. He left His glory in heaven and came to a dusty, dirty
planet filled with decay, hate, and despair.
And He did it for one reason: you.
He loved you so much that He came to earth, knowing what was ahead,
because He would rather die than be separated from you for eternity.
1 John 4:9-10 says,
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only
Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love:
not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an
atoning sacrifice for our sins.
God did not have to do that. He could have stayed in heaven.
Instead, He chose to show His love for you and me, because He wants
us with Him for eternity.
But now that you have this truth in front of you, that God did
indeed become a man, “God with us,” you need to respond to
Emmanuel, just as the world did when He came.
A small cathedral outside
Bethlehem
marks the supposed birthplace of Jesus. Behind a
high altar in the church is a cave, a little cavern lit by silver
lamps.
You can enter the main edifice and admire the ancient church. You
can also enter the quiet cave where a star embedded in the floor
recognizes the birth of the King.
There is one stipulation, however. You have to stoop. The door is so
low you can’t go in standing up.
The same is true of the Christ. You can see the world and all of its
trappings standing tall, but to witness the Savior, you have to get
on your knees.
Perhaps this Christmas it’s time to consider the fact that God
became a child so you could become a child of God.
Perhaps this Christmas it’s time to consider why you come to
church on Christmas Eve before you open your presents.
I pray for each of you, and for many who are exposed to the gospel
message during this holiday season, that you will be filled with the
true Christmas presence: Emmanuel. God with us. God with you.
Welcome His presence with you and in you today, and may your
Christmas be especially blessed with the everlasting presence of the
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, the Prince of
Peace, the baby in the manger. |
