The Wish List of Jesus
Matthew 11:2-6
December 24, 2006
It wasn’t too long after Halloween when I received the annual call from my mother. I’m getting started on my Christmas shopping. What do your kids want?”
By this time, Christmas lists all around the world have been compiled either to be sent to Santa Claus or passed on to parents. This is a time of dreaming…what will we find under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning?
Will it be a new sweater or a bright red sled? Will it be one of those slick new scooters? Will it be a new computer? I don’t know about all of you women out there, but diamonds are usually on my wife’s list. The worst thing for a kid is to get underwear. I remember when I was in junior high school; the first package I opened on three Christmas mornings in a row was underwear.
The people of God have had their own Christmas wish lists for generation upon generation. When the people of Israel were in slavery in Egypt, they cried out for relief, for release, for salvation. God heard their wish, raised up Moses, and led them to freedom.
Hannah wished for a son. Unable to bear a child, she went into the Temple and, through her tears, implored the Lord to be granted the privilege of having a son. God heard her wish. Her son Samuel was born to be a prophet to the nation.
King David wished to build a magnificent Temple for God. God did better than that. He told David not to worry about building the Lord a dwelling place, for he would be granted the privilege of building a nation dedicated to worship and service to God.
When Solomon became King, he realized that it was an almost impossible task to follow in the footsteps of his father David. He wished, not for riches or wealth, but for wisdom. God was pleased to grant his wish, and Solomon grew wise beyond anyone’s expectations. Because of his humble spirit, he was also granted wealth unimaginable and riches beyond comprehension.
When the nation was conquered and found itself once again enslaved…this time in Babylon…the people wished for deliverance. They wanted to again sing to the glory of the Lord, but cried out, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137). God granted their wish and brought them back to their nation. Jerusalem was rebuilt. The temple was consecrated again. The wish for deliverance had become reality.
They wished for release from the consequences of their sins. God granted them their wish and spoke through the prophet Isaiah, telling them to:
“Comfort, comfort my people…Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins…in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low, the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together…”
They wished for a Messiah, and God granted them their wish. “Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.” That wish was granted on a cold, winter night in Bethlehem. In a stable, among the dirt and noise of the animals, in the midst of a city which neither knew nor cared much what was happening; the Messiah was born. God indeed became Immanuel…God with us. Under the star of Bethlehem, the most profound wish of God’s people was granted. The Christmas story is a story about God who keeps his promises…promises of forgiveness, deliverance, love, steadfastness, and eternal life.
John the Baptist was wishing for the coming of the Messiah. John was the one who was sent by God to proclaim the coming of the Lord. He lived in the wilderness preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people came to him out of the wilderness of their lives; people who knew something was missing in their lives, but weren’t quite able to put their finger on it; people who longed for the freedom from the weight of sins that was promised by John; people who were tired and broken and who needed good news.
John baptized them with the acknowledgment that his baptism was only the beginning…following him was one who would baptize not with water, but with fire and the Holy Spirit.
Even this great man of God experienced his dark night of the soul when former certainties became questions and hope was threatened by stark realities. John found himself in prison. He had spoken the Word of the Lord to King Herod, who, rather than pay attention to the correction that Word offered; found it easier to extinguish it. It was easier to imprison and finally behead John and so be rid of his bothersome morality than it was to look deep within him to try to understand how that Word spoke to him.
So John found himself in prison, facing the nearness of the end of his life. And he wondered if he had been right. Was his ministry truly of God, or was he just a mistaken, would-be prophet?
So he sent messengers to Jesus asking him a simple question. “Are you the One who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” That was John’s wish list…a very short one…a list with only one request. What Jesus truly the Messiah?
Jesus sent back this response. “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those whom have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” John’s wish list has been fulfilled.
So we all have our wish lists for Christmas. But I wonder…what do you suppose Jesus wants for Christmas? I believe that Jesus simply wants Christmas back.
This Christmas, I believe that Jesus wants us to come back to the manger and realize that it is a very small place. In the manger, there is no room for pious pride and self-righteousness. In the manger, there is no room for human strivings after power and prestige. There is no room in the manger for bigotry, or prejudice, or hatred. There is no room in the manger for bitterness or greed.
There is room in the manger for only one thing…the realization of who and what we are…human, very fragile, very vulnerable human beings who desperately need the gift of love and grace which God so powerfully desires to give us.
This Christmas, I believe that Jesus wants us to return to the very simple message. The great German theologian Paul Tillich, left Nazi Germany and came to the United States in the 1930’s. He was teaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City when, one Sunday morning, he visited a small, storefront church pastored by one of his students. Tillich has had a profound influence on theological dialogue and inquiry in the last century. His writings are some of the most profound ideas coming out of his generation. He was troubled when he heard his student preach.
The student preached an eloquent Advent sermon in which he spoke of how “the divine transcendent has become immanent.” Following the service, Tillich took his student aside and, with tears in his eyes said, “Son, just tell them that God became a man in Jesus of Nazareth.”
This Christmas, I think Jesus wants us to cut through all the glitz and glamour, and give up our notions that the Christian faith is somehow mysterious and difficult to comprehend. This Christmas, I think Jesus simply wants us to remember that, in him, God has come to us.
Finally, this Christmas, I believe that Jesus would have us remember, as we sit with our families under the Christmas tree or around the Christmas dinner table, those for who such an idyllic setting is only a wish. I believe that this Christmas, Jesus wishes that we remember that our popular celebrations of the season tend to leave out the very people to whom he came.
As he said to John, his good news was being preached to the lame, the deaf, the sick, the blind, and poor. If those were the people among whom Jesus found his ministry, how then should we live?
In Medieval times, legend had it that on Christmas Eve, the Christ Child wandered throughout the world, looking for places where he would be welcomed. Those who loved him and hoped that he would find their homes placed lighted candles in their windows to advertise their hospitality. No one knew for sure in what guise Christ might come.
Perhaps he would come as a beggar. Perhaps he would come as a poor and lonely child. Perhaps he might appear incognito in the form of the disabled, the blind, or the homeless.
So it became customary for Christians to welcome into their homes all who knocked on their doors on Christmas Eve, because to turn anyone away would have meant to reject the Christ Child. As the book of Hebrews says, “Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it” (13:1-2).
I am convinced that one of the most morally dangerous Christmas songs ever is “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” At the end of that song come that word…”then.” “Then” how the reindeer loved him. Not until he proved that he could be useful was he loved. Not until the others found out that he could provide something for them was he loved. Not until he provided a way to indulge humanity’s thirst for stuff and our desire for more stuff by leading Santa’s sleigh through the fog, did the others love him.
That is dangerous because it is completely contrary to the message of Jesus. He came for the blind, the lame, the outcast, and the poor simply because they needed him, not because they could offer him anything. I believe that this Christmas, Jesus wants us to recapture that spirit. He came for all of us, for we are all needy, and we are all equal before the manger.
This Christmas, I hope that we might focus less on our own wish lists and more on the wish list of Jesus. He desires that we receive his gifts of love and grace. Instead of getting more “stuff” for Christmas, he wishes that we receive the gifts that really matter…the gifts that last to eternal life.
A former church I served had a custom of “marching to the manger” on Christmas Eve. Their hearts were in the right place, but I believe that God wants us to realize that we do not have to go to him because he has come to us. I believe that Jesus’ Christmas wish list includes the reshaping of our attitudes into ones of simple openness and willingness to receive him into our homes and hearts when he comes to knock.
The greatest wish list of history has been met in the birth of the Messiah. Now, as we move toward this very important evening and very important day tomorrow, may we focus on is wish list for us, for it is better.
