I was thinking about fruitcake the other day.
Fruitcake is a really familiar symbol of Christmas.
Fruitcake is a little bit like Jesus, too.
1. Fruitcake is full of wonderful things that taste good and are good for you.
Cherries, pineapple, raisins, dates, molasses, eggs, flour, cake… all yummy things.
You could probably live a long time just on fruitcake alone!
You know, trusting Jesus Christ is full of things that are good for you, too.
Faith, hope, love, peace, purity, forgiveness, passion, courage, healing inside and out, a mission to save the world…
All good stuff that this world is dying to have, but only come from following Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ and the good news of the gospel is full of awesome stuff that can transform your life and make it worth living.
2. May contain nuts…
But… uh oh.. check this out… Caution - may contain nuts.
Now here’s the problem. Some people won’t eat fruitcake because it has nuts.
My daughter can’t eat anything with nuts because she has an allergy.
She could get really sick from it, even have a violent reaction and die.
Some people have had exposure to fruitcake and decided they don’t like it because it contains nuts.
Some people have had exposure to church and religion decided they don’t like it because it also can contains nuts.
But if you’ve had negative experiences with either fruitcake or church, maybe you’ve just not hit the right one yet.
Maybe your experience with some Christians or churches has given you a bad taste in your mouth about becoming a follower of Jesus Christ.
All I have to say about that is maybe you should give it another chance.
God loves you, he truly does, and he sent Jesus Christ to prove it. Taste and see.
3. Not everybody likes fruitcake, but people always serve it anyway.
Right beside the yummy stuff like lemon meringue pie.
I usually skip the fruitcake and go for the pie.
Some people just plain don’t like fruitcake, and some people will sadly never give Jesus a chance either.
The wise men in the Christmas story showed great passion and perseverance just to get a chance to see Jesus and worship him.
King Herod had a very different idea.
Herod was hated as a king so much so that he had decreed that on the day he died, one person from every other family should be put to death so that all Israel would be in mourning, Nice guy!
He even went so far to try and stomp out the Messiah by killing all the little boys in Bethlehem and the surrounding area.
Herod was worried about some other King moving in on his territory.
Here’s the point – Not everybody likes fruitcake, but people always serve it anyway.
The wise men didn’t worry about that nut Herod; they just celebrated and shared the Messiah anyway.
4. Fruitcake is a gift you can give anyone.
There is a joke that there is only really one fruitcake in the world, people just keep regifting it and regifting it without ever eating it.
Really good fruitcake becomes better when you share it.
My grandmother used to make delicious fruitcake.
I would never had known that except that she shared it with us all… she didn’t just talk to us about the recipe – she worked hard, made the cake and proved to us how good it was. She gave us a taste.
Jesus is like that too. He really only becomes Good News when you share it.
This world is dying for the Good News – and Jesus is totally re-giftable.
Share him with the people you know. Point them to Jesus Christ. Help them see where he has been there all along.
Knowing Jesus Christ is full of wonderful things that can transform your life.
Give him a try. Taste and see, just like fruitcake. You will be amazed!
