It's A Wonderful Life Ii

Every year about this time television stations bring out of their vaults an old black and white film that is still popular today. They have already shown it this year. The film is It’s a Wonderful Life.

In the film, George Bailey never felt like he amounted to much in life. He had dreams of becoming a famous architect and traveling the world. Instead he fells trapped in a humdrum job in a small town. Then a crisis occurs that strains his every resource.

He is faced with unjust criminal charges. Although he has a fine family and a lot of friends in the community, the injustice of the situation plunges him into despair. Faced with the crisis, George Bailey breaks down and leaps off a bridge into a river.

That’s when his guardian angel, Clarence, comes down to show him what his community would be like without him. The angel takes him back through his life. He shows George how his job has benefited many families, how his little kindnesses and thoughtful acts have changed the lives of others, and how the ripples of George’s love will spread through the world, helping to make it a better place.

George Bailey is played in the film by actor Jimmy Stewart. In the making of the film, Stewart said that things happened to him that never happened in any other picture he had ever made. For instance, in one scene, George Bailey, broke and in despair, sits in a little roadside restaurant. In this scene, Jimmy Stewart, playing George Bailey, raises his eyes and, following the script, pleads, “God … God …dear Father in heaven, I’m not a praying man, but if You’re up there and You can hear me, show me the way. I’m at the end of my rope. Show me the way, God.”

Stewart said, “As I said those words, I felt the loneliness, the hopelessness of people who had nowhere to turn and my eyes filled with tears. I broke down sobbing. This was not planned at all, but the power of that prayer, the realization that our Father in heaven is there to help the hopeless, had reduced me to tears.”

I wonder how many people have been touched by this simple film. People who have seen it have testified that it gave them hope. Hope is what Christmas is all about. The Scripture passages we read this morning are all about hope.

So as we near Christmas and the celebration of Christ’s birth, we began to see that Christ’s coming into the world means hope for the hopeless. The George Bailey’s of our world have a reason to go on. Christ has come into our world.

Our passage this morning comes from Matthew 11:2-11. READ from the Bible.

In this passage, John the Baptist was in prison. We should note that John the Baptist was a wilderness wanderer. So, imprisonment must have been especially hard on him. When John heard in prison the news of what Christ was doing, John sent his followers to ask Christ, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”

And Jesus’ reply is interesting. “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”

Notice his didn’t say, “Go back and tell John, 5,000 people came to hear me preach the other day—so many it was difficult to feed them all.” He didn’t say, “The word’s spreading about my miracle crusades. I should really draw the crowds in Jerusalem.” No, he says, “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear … and the good news is preached to the poor.”

If you look closely, you can see that each of these—the blind, lame, deaf, those with leprosy, the poor—are people facing challenges. These are people who have major obstacles to overcome. These were people living, generally, on the charity of others. But these were the people for whom Jesus came. Jesus came to bring hope to the hopeless.

Jesus sent word back to John to assure him that Jesus was beyond question the Messiah. Actually He gives John five assurances.

1. Jesus spoke as the Messiah. His words and the power of His message were evidences that Jesus was the Messiah. There were no greater words and no greater lessons than the words and the lessons that Christ taught. He is the greatest teacher of all times.

2. Another assurance was that Jesus demonstrated the power and works of the Messiah. Sight to the blind, Lame to walk, Cleansed the lepers. Hearing to the deaf, the dead brought to life. All of these are demonstrations of Jesus’ great power.