“Let it Snow!”
Luke 2:8-11
One of the reasons why the Jews and many others didn’t recognize Jesus as the coming Messiah was because he wasn’t what they were looking for. The Jews were sick of the Romans and the way they ruled the country and what they really wanted was a king. They were tired of living like Caesar told them to. They wanted a king who would take care of them who would come and set up a better government. They wanted someone who would come in and in all of their wealth and royalty, solve their problems. So when Jesus came as a little baby, and was born in a stable and placed in a pig trough with strips of linen wrapped around Him, he was hardly what they expected. This has been a problem for ages. Many of us want Jesus to be something He is not. We want to treat Him like a magic Genie and rub a lamp and get our 3 wishes.
What some of us want is for Jesus to be a career counselor because we need a job or a better job.
Or we want him to be a matchmaker because we really want a husband or a wife.
Or perhaps a financial advisor because we are broke.
But the truth is God knew exactly what we needed when he sent His Son. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. Because that’s what all of us really need-a Savior.
The angel could have introduced Jesus by saying “Today in the town of David, a miracle worker has been born and that would have been correct. In the scripture we see over 35 miracles recorded. He makes the lame talk, the blind see, turns funerals into family reunions, because every one He attends the dead get up and walk away. Turns water to wine. Calms the storm. And that’s what many of us want at this time of year—a miracle.
I am reminded of the man in Matthew chapter 9. He is crippled and is brought to Jesus for healing. Jesus sees that the man is crippled and he says to him….your sins are forgiven. It is not until later in the story Jesus says to Him…get up and walk. I sometimes wonder, how did the man feel between the time when his sins were forgiven and the time he was actually healed. Maybe he was disappointed. Frustrated. You know, great-my sins are forgiven. But what I really wanted was to be able to walk.
We’re like that. I’m glad Jesus forgives me but what I really need is a raise. Or what I really need is a wife or a husband. Or maybe a new job or at least a flat screen television. What we want is for God to come in and solve all of these temporary problems we have. But instead of being introduced as a peace maker, a counselor or a financial advisor, He was introduced as a Savior because that word describes Him better than any other word.
A Christmas card I saw recently says this:
If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator.
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent a scientist.
If our greatest need had been money God would have sent a banker.
If our greatest need had been entertainment, God would have sent a movie star.
But our greatest need was forgiveness. So God sent a Savior.
In the OT book of Isaiah the Bible describes this gift that was given for us in this way…”though our sins are as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow.” There is not a greater gift we could have than to know that our sins have been forgiven… that the stains all of us have, have been removed.
When our oldest son, David was about 3 or 4, he took his box of colors and colored all over the floor in his room. His punishment was that he had to get a sponge and soapy water and wipe it clean. And he did a good job and for the most part the floor was clean. Typically when we mess up that’s what we want to do is to somehow take care of it ourselves. After all we made the mess. We should clean it up pr hide it or just ignore it but we usually get found out.
When we bought our home the Living room and the kitchen both had carpet….white carpet. White carpet and 4 kids are not a very good combination. Friends were always over—in and out of the house and food gets dropped, spills and white carpet in the kitchen just isn’t ideal. So it was starting to look pretty bad and so my mother and father in law for our anniversary one year said hey we want to replace your carpet. We were like awesome. So my wife had this great idea. She got all of the kids together the night before the carpet guys were coming and she handed all of them a box of magic markers. Black, green, red, purple and she said have fun. Write all over it, draw pictures, whatever. They looked at each other like hmmm I think Mom’s lost it. So they started in. They drew stick figures, smiley faces, wrote their names. Our floor looked like a wall of graffiti. But the next morning the carpet guy came and I guess they thought now they really do need carpet and tile. They replaced that white carpet with black marks and stains all over it with a beautiful crimson colored tile. And man, were the kids surprised when they saw it! Because overnight everything changed.
Now here’s the thing with all of us. All of us…everyone in this room today….we all have our stains. Sin has been written all over our lives and you know as well as I do, stains come in all sizes. And some are much harder to remove than others. Some of them just seem more significant and harder to deal with. But when it comes to sin as much as we like to categorize it, there are no categories. The Bible puts it this way in Romans 3:23… for all have sinned; all fall short of God’s standard.” The Msg puts it this way Romans 3:23-24 (Msg) “Since we've compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, [24] God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.”
I was reading some Christmas cards that were sent to Santa by children. One of my favorites was from this little boy. He said, dear Santa, in our home we have 3 boys. Jeffrey is two, David is five, Norman is seven. Jeffrey is good some of the time. David is good some of the time. But Norman is good all the time. Then he wrote I am Norman.
Most of us like to think of ourselves that way. We compare ourselves to those around us and we look pretty good. But the truth is none of us are Norman. None of us are good all the time. We all have our stains. In fact, much of the OT is written so that you and I can understand just how deep our stains are and how great our need is for a Savior.
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born. ”Though our sins are as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow.” *
I read yesterday in the St Pete Times about a church that hired this company to create snow so that the people could have snow on the ground when they arrived for church. Cost is just over 5000 dollars. They use bagged ice and place it in a chipper like tree trimmers use, grates the ice and then using a large blower and a hose, it snows.
I wish I could tell you that when you leave here today there would be snow on the ground so you could really get a good picture of this. But you will have to just dream and as you do remember this scripture…..*
Today I say let it snow! For someone who needs forgiveness because he lost his temper this week, let it snow. For the teenager who has trouble telling the truth, let it snow. For the woman is caught up in what other people think more than what God thinks, let it snow. For the single person who keeps falling into the same sin, let it snow. For the Mom who yells at her kids all the time and for the dad who has stopped being the spiritual leader of his home, let it snow.
And for someone who has never accepted Christ this morning. Let it snow. Because God sent a Savior we can have a white Christmas… where grace falls on our sin and cleanses us and makes us white as snow.
