Would Jesus celebrate Christmas?
Christmas is possibly the most religious time of year.
It is a time when people who don’t usually think much of Jesus, find themselves humming Carols and they even go to church.
Christmas is classified as a religious holiday.
holiday
noun 1 an extended period of recreation, especially away from home. 2 a day of festivity or recreation when no work is done.
religion
noun 1 the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. 2 a particular system of faith and worship. 3 a pursuit or interest followed with devotion.
Religion is spelt “d-o”; Christianity is spelt “d-o-n-e”
Mk 2:16-22 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” 17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” 18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?” 19 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. 21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.”
In this passage Jesus tells religious people some of the reasons why he came to earth.
He tells them
• that he came to save sinners not righteous people
• that he came to bring gladness not sadness
• that he came to bring the new, not patch up the old
As we look in more detail at what he said, keep our question in the back of your mind – “would Jesus celebrate Christmas?”
1. I have come to save sinners, not righteous people
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
a. This was said at a party held at Levi’s house
i. Levi used to be a tax collector. (nobody likes the tax man) – in Jesus day they were blatant criminals
ii. Levi had just been called by Jesus and he left everything (repented) and followed Jesus.
iii. The first thing he did as a Christian was to invite all his friends to a party so they could meet Jesus.
b. Jesus made his comment to a group of Pharisees
i. Pharisees were a major Jewish group who were very devout in their service of God.
ii. The name meant “called out ones”
iii. They prided themselves in the way they observed the law of Moses.
iv. They were so passionate to serve God that they added laws onto the law.
c. Why were the Pharisees there?
i. They were following him around
ii. Why were they following him around?
1. perhaps looking for ways of trapping him out?
2. perhaps they were jealous
3. perhaps genuinely interested
a. He had just healed someone with leprosy and a paralytic
b. Gamaliel (Act 5) “if what they are doing is of human origin, it will fail. But, if it is of God, you will not be able to stop it.
c. Nicodemus
d. To a Pharisee, what Jesus was doing was sinful
i. He was confusing them totally.
1. how could he have God’s approval (miracles), and yet mix with sinners
ii. Mt 9:13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
iii. Religious people think that their sacrifices score brownie points with God -
and Jesus says that what God wants is for us to be merciful
e. What does that mean to us … at Highway?
i. It means that we are to be merciful to sinners
1. Oh, but we are … by the way, who is that sitting in my seat??
ii. Church is the only organisation where non-members are more important than members.
iii. This is the ‘house’ where the family gather.
iv. How do you treat your guests at your home?
1. Do you leave them to fend for themselves?
v. So, we shouldn’t rush to the coffee shop and crowd out our visitors … we should serve them.
2. Jesus explained that he came to bring gladness not sadness
a. Scene: big party – everyone having a good time = feasting!
i. Everyone except John’s disciples and the Pharisees.
b. That fact tells us which day of the week the party took place … any guesses?
i. Either a Tuesday or a Thursday, cos those were the compulsory fasting days for Pharisees.
c. What they were doing was right.
i. Fasting is good because it helps you to discipline your body
ii. Fasting is good because it helps you to focus on God
d. Jesus used a vivid picture to explain why his disciples did not fast.
i. After a Jewish wedding the couple did not go away for a honeymoon; they stayed at home.
ii. For a week or so open house was kept and there was continual feasting and rejoicing.
1. Times were tough and the wedding week was the happiest week in a man’s life.
2. To that week of happiness were invited the closest friends of the bride and the bridegroom; and they were called “children of the bridechamber”.
3. Jesus was saying that his disciples were like these specially invited guests
4. There was actually a rabbinic ruling which said, "All in attendance on the bridegroom are relieved of all religious observances which would lessen their joy." The wedding guests were actually exempt from all fasting
iii. religion removes your joy!
1. Because it’s all about what you are not allowed to do and what you have to do.
2. Have you noticed how religious people remove the joy from Christmas?
3. There are many religious Christians who even refuse to celebrate Christmas, because all they know how to do is to find fault with everything.
iv. John the Baptist used the same illustration (wedding). He said that he was the best man and JC was the groom.
v. Eph 5:31-32 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
vi. At a wedding yesterday:
1. before yesterday Jason and Michelle knew each other, they loved each other, But they weren’t married.
2. then we went to this chapel and in less than an hour, they walked out as husband and wife.
3. the difference = the vows.
4. aren’t married because you know each other, or because you have strong feelings for each other … you become married when you make a commitment to each other.
vii. Aren’t a Christian because you know Jesus or even if you have strong feelings towards him.
You become a Christian when you make a commitment to serve him.
3. Jesus said that he came to bring the new, not patch up the old.
a. Wine was kept in bags.
As the bags got older they would need to be patched.
couldn’t make a patch with new material, because it would shrink and tear the old material.
b. At every wedding that I do, religious people get confused (some angry) because I don’t do things the way “it’s supposed to be done”
c. At first wedding the mother of the bride came and asked me “Are they actually married?”
d. At a wedding last year some time, just as getting into car one of the brides relatives felt it was her duty to correct me because I did not make the couple say “Until death do us part” – my notes – ‘until death separates us’
e. Jesus was saying that he had come to change things.
f. Not only a NT thing …
Is 43:19 “behold I am doing a new thing” …
This is a God thing. He is continually destroying the old and bringing in new
i. What does this tell us about God?
1. that he expects progress (growth)
2. if you keep doing what you’ve always done …
g. There are two ways to destroy a thing
i. Smash it with a hammer
ii. Allow it to fulfil itself
iii. Acorn – smash it or plant it. Either way, the acorn is destroyed.
iv. This applies to everything, even the way we do church
v. Jdg 15:17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.
1. we would keep the jawbone and use it for all future battles. We would form schools on the art of using a jawbone.
“how to deflect bullets with a jawbone”
vi. David couldn’t fight Goliath with Saul’s armour.
1. we shouldn’t expect the upcoming generation to use the methods we used.
vii. The goal of Christianity will never change
The values will never change, But the methods must always change.
CONC
Would Jesus celebrate Christmas? … YES
Christmas is a religious holiday. Jesus would give a thumbs up to the holiday part, but a definite thumbs down to the religious part.
We are called to have a relationship with Jesus, not to be observers of a set of religious practises.
I used to think that religion turned people away from church … but it actually attracts people more than a relationship.
Religion is attractive to normal people because:
• It is achievable
• It doesn’t involve lifechange
• It doesn’t require us to repent
Let’s celebrate without becoming religious. If you have any old patches that you’ve been trying to sew onto the new things, allow them to become fulfilled. Do with them what Samson did with the donkey’s jawbone.
