A misunderstanding has occurred among many over the last few centuries. Throughout the last century, the meaning and understanding of the greatest gift in human history has been missed and may be lost all together. Every year that passes by brings with it the negativity and lack of truth that the years before it had gathered up. Today we stand on the eve of the biggest history changing event ever. Of course, today we also stand on the busiest and craziest last minute shopping day in the universe. On that note there is a story about one harried woman and some last minute shopping. “I heard a story about a woman who was doing her last-minute Christmas shopping at a crowded mall. She was tired of fighting the crowds. She was tired of standing in lines. She was tired of fighting her way down long aisles looking for a gift that had sold out days before. Her arms were full of bulky packages when the Elevator door opened. It was full.
The occupants of the Elevator grudgingly tightened ranks to allow a small space for her and her load. As the doors closed she blurted out, “Whoever is responsible for this whole Christmas thing ought to be arrested, strung up, and shot!” A few others nodded their heads or grunted in agreement.” – K. Edward Skidmore
Frustration and weariness occur for many throughout the season known as the happiest of the year. Maybe you’ve felt flustered and frustrated this year in the face of all the craziness that has been going on. We hear in the news of horror stories where people start riots and attack other people for the last tickle-me Elmo or the last 500 dollar laptop at Wal-Mart. I wonder what went wrong with this holiday we enjoy each year. Somewhere along the lines a misunderstanding has taken place. The joy and passion of the Christmas season has faded behind a misty veil of Santas and packaged gifts with wrapping paper covering each one. They now make the manger scene in almost any form you could ever want it in. I am waiting to see dancing elves and maybe even a beach scene as the scene of the birth of Christ.
God knew this would happen. He knew mankind would soon forget the most momentous occasion in all of history. John 1:5 tells of how Jesus would come and would be received. “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” They could not possibly fathom how Jesus would come and work. However more can be said about man’s misunderstandings. Paul tells the Corinthians that many would not understand and for obvious reasons. “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has no God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” I love this passage because of what it reflects about the human heart and what I see in it. This sounds exactly like my brother Jeremy. He has tried and tried to understand intellectually and has always failed. The works of God make absolutely no sense to him. Why did he die to save people when he could have just stayed alive forever healing people in the world? He did stay alive forever, Jeremy just doesn’t understand that. How can God be a human and why would he? Maybe you have these same questions. I hope today we can correct some of these misunderstandings of the gift of Christmas.
You may be thinking that I am referring to Jesus Christ, and you are not entirely wrong. In a world filled with evil and darkness where anger and frustration abound and people are constantly being hurt and abused both emotionally and physically, one man brought light and hope and joy. However, he brought something a little more powerful and little more life changing that just hope. He brought forgiveness. God’s gift to mankind was not a cross, and not a tomb. Jesus didn’t run around in a red suit with a beard and a belly handing out gifts and listening to Christmas lists. God sent down to earth on that infamous day, a baby that would bring forgiveness to the world. So many people in the Bible have something to say but none say anything other than the purpose of the birth of Christ.
Zacharias, a relative of Mary, was a priest in the temple. God had promised him that he and his elderly wife would have a child. He doubted the information he had just received and God then muted him until his child was born. He was to name his child John. We know him as John the Baptist. After his boy was born and he named him as God had told him to, Zacharias spoke out and prophesied. Listen to what he said. “Blessed by the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people and raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant…” Think about the implication of his words. Zacharias didn’t say redemption was coming. He didn’t say that the forgiveness of ours sins might not happen. He says forgiveness has already been achieved just by the coming of Jesus Christ. What an amazing proposition! He could have said anything when his mouth opened and this is what he said about Jesus.
Zacharias wasn’t the only one. Angels in heaven glorified that day as well. The day salvation came down from Heaven to take the sin of mankind away. As some shepherds sat with their flocks, an angel appeared before them and said, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” The savior was born that day. “A Savior from what?” you might say. Well a savior that gives you a clean slate from the guilt and shame of the sins you’ve committed. Every error you have ever made can be wiped from your slate in a single instant by accepting and obediently follow the Savior born as a baby. An older man named Simeon also worked in the temple during this time as well. He had been waiting for God to fulfill His promise to send a Savior. His story says the same about Jesus. “And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said, “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bondservant to depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples…”
Jesus Christ came to cleanse the sins of man if we so choose to accept Him. He came to forgive and he did so freely, never asking anything in return for Him going to the cross to die a horrible death. He never asked anyone, “So how much will you pay me to do this?” He never said “I’ll only do it if they do it first.” He did it for free. He freely forgave your sins and loved you. Today I want you to think about this misunderstood gift. It’s not just a day to remember a baby in a manger. It’s a day to remember the purpose and life of Christ. The gift of God wasn’t Jesus as a baby but Jesus as a Savior. The misunderstood gift I am referring to today is forgiveness.
The New Year will be here sooner than we’d like to think about. Before the New Year comes maybe we can do a little work to make our new year start just a little bit better than it would normally. Jesus once said to the disciples “Freely you have received, freely give.” Jesus freely gave forgiveness to you. Freely give forgiveness to others. If you remember anything from today, anything at all, please remember this. Freely give forgiveness to others. Peter once asked Jesus how forgiveness worked. Matthew 18:21-35 records the entire conversation as Jesus tries to explain the idea of forgiveness to the hard headed Peter. He even illustrates how it should work all the time. “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.” The NIV says 77 and although it might be possible for this interpretation, it’s wrong. Now, for every single one of you who multiplied that out to 490, know you are not alone. The real problem is that Jesus isn’t saying a definite number but a number so large that we should forget the limit. This doesn’t mean you continually trust and allow someone to hurt you but it does mean releasing your grip on the previous event.
You can play these events back in your mind and run them over and over again and every single time you run them, you get angrier and angrier because how dare they do that. How dare they tell you off! How dare they chew you out! How dare they talk about you like that behind your back! They eat away at your patience and resolving the matter gets that much worse because you say, “They would never listen to me anyway.” How do you know that? Have you tried? What if God has been poking at their conscience? Maybe they think you hate them and never want to speak to them? Before Amy and I were married I conflicted greatly with her family, especially her father. He had the attitude that he was right and I was wrong unless I agreed with him. Childishly I decided that I was right in opposing him and he was wrong for trying to control and manipulate others. I finally realized my error and tried to apologize. It took me forever to actually get to the point of apologizing for acting the way I had. I assumed that he would never forgive me and that we could never reconcile our differences. I was wrong. I am not saying we are on a lovey dovey basis but we at least tolerate each other. It seems that even through the foolishness on both sides of the issue that God used those to help both sides grow and learn. It only took a little over 3 years for those wounds to heal. It probably could have happened sooner if I would have just given up my pride and he would have given up his. I personally should have been forgiving him each time he did something to me but I was usually counting each one so I would have a record of wrongs I could list against him. That’s not Christian love. Look at 1 Corinthians 8 and you will find between verse 4 and 8 that it says Love does not count failures. Love does not keep a tally book.
Maybe you have had a fight with your in-laws. Maybe you have fought with your spouse. Maybe you have angered your children numerous times for foolish reasons. Maybe you have something against me; something I said made you mad. Maybe you have something against Gary Fifer. What’s keeping you from reconciling? What could be so eternally significant that you can’t get past it? Your pride doesn’t count. I’m sorry but God doesn’t look kindly on the proud. He gives grace to the humble however. It’s better to eat crow hot, but cold isn’t too bad when you think of the benefits; getting rid of the bitterness in your heart. Renewing an old friendship that went cold or even repairing your marriage or your family ties. Wouldn’t that be worth giving up your pride to forgive and ask for forgiveness? A couple of months ago I got a phone call from one man here and he took the time to tell me several things and suggestions on some items that had come to his attention. The way he presented that information did not appeal to me and slightly irritated me. He came off the way my grandfather came off and I hated that. After another event involving said man I personally voted that some discipline would be in order. I realized soon after that the only reason I was being so harsh was because I was still upset over the previous phone call. How foolish of me to continue to be upset even though he didn’t necessarily do anything wrong! I could have caused a lot of problems if God hadn’t have corrected me. I could have cause him a lot of problems even though he wasn’t wrong if God hadn’t of shown me my error. I had a heart problem and I was blaming him for it. I gave a hundred reasons why it wasn’t my fault. You know what, I was wrong.
Jesus continues to answer Peter with an illustration of sorts. Read with me through the story of the unmerciful servant starting in verse 23 of Matthew 18. “"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. This guy owed the King like one million dollars. He could never pay this back.
"The servant fell on his knees before him. ’Be patient with me,’ he begged, ’and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii He grabbed him and began to choke him. ’Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. This guy owed him like 10 dollars and he is getting all riled up over it after his huge debt was cancelled.
"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ’Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
"Then the master called the servant in. ’You wicked servant,’ he said, ’I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."”
Hopefully our misunderstanding has cleared up a bit. This story should make the reason why even that much clearer. The King in the story may as well be God. The servants are people just like you and me. On the Day of Judgment God will want to settle accounts with us on our sins. When we stand before God on judgment day, we have only one hope of having our debt forgiven. His name is Jesus Christ and if he doesn’t intercede for us because we haven’t accepted him, we will be in a lot of trouble. On that day, when we give account, we will have to answer for those who we haven’t forgiven. Why did the servant get thrown in jail? Oh yeah, he didn’t show the same forgiveness he had gotten to his fellow man. God through Jesus sent the gift of forgiveness for you and me. He gave it to you and me freely. He forgave our debt of sin, one that we ourselves could never pay off and yet we get mad at someone who has hurt our feelings and we sit and stew on it until we are about to explode. The gift Jesus brought has great eternal significance. Not only does it allow you into heaven but if you don’t share it you will quickly find out that not sharing forgiveness will be the first thing to send you to hell. Do you know what the verses after the Lord’s Prayer say. Matthew 6:14-15 say, “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”
We are going to be starting a new year soon. The frustration of today will be a thing of the past. We can start the New Year fresh and renewed or we can carry last year’s baggage with us. It’s up to you what you do with the forgiveness you’ve received. When we started I referred to a lady complaining in the elevator. She said whoever started this Christmas thing should be hung and shot. From the back of that crowded elevator one small voice said, “Don’t worry. They already crucified him.” The one who started this whole Christmas thing died for you and me to bring forgiveness for our sins. This is the real gift of Christmas day. Please don’t misunderstand any longer the real meaning for Christmas. Forgiveness is one of the greatest assets we have. Freely Jesus Christ has given you forgiveness. Freely forgive and start the new year off right.
