You can still go to Bethlehem. Even though it has been over 2000 years since the first Christmas we could get on an airplane and fly to Israel and travel to the town where Jesus was born. And we can even go to the place that for centuries has been considered the actual location where Jesus was born. Of course, no one knows for sure if that is the precise place where Jesus was placed in a manger. But, none the less, we would very close to the birthplace of our King.
There is a relatively small church built there. And behind a high altar in that church there is a cave, a little cavern lit by silver lamps. We would enter the main edifice and admire the ancient church. Then we could also enter a quiet cave where there is a star embedded in the floor recognizing the birthplace of the King. There is one stipulation, however. People of average height have to stoop down to get in. The door is low so that most people can’t go in standing up. In addition to that the actual spot marked as the birthplace of Jesus is under a ledge that also requires a person to kneel down to see it.
We don’t know if those who built the church and preserved that spot as place of Jesus’ birth did all of those things deliberately, but they sure seem appropriate. Wouldn’t you agree that those who would worship Christ at Christmas must bow and kneel? No, we don’t have to literally kneel down. But to receive what Jesus came to give us it will require a humble heart and mind that get on their knees in humility. Tonight, let’s leave behind our pride and our thoughts about ourselves and witness the glory of the One and Only—God’s Son—who became human to give us life, and light, and hope. All those things we have been singing about and speaking about this evening are found in Christ alone. The baby in the manger wants us to have them. May we:
“SEE THE HIDDEN GLORY OF GOD’S SON”
I. He comes from the Father full of grace
II. He comes from the Father full of truth
I imagine that many of you have heard the ancient description of John’s Gospel. It has been said that John’s Gospel is like the ocean. In some ways it is shallow enough that a child can wade in it. But in other ways it is so deep that a person can never touch the bottom. The first chapter of John’s inspired record about Jesus’ life is the perfect example of those two extremes. On the one hand John states simply and clearly who Jesus is. He is God. He is the creator. Yes, a child can understand the words he wrote and put his or her faith in Jesus. But John’s words also boggle the mind of even the most intellectual adult. No matter our age or intelligence may all of us see the glory of God’s Son. He is the One and Only who came from the Father full of grace and truth.
I.
Once again, if we are going to see the glory of God’s Son and receive the grace that he brought to earth it will require humility on our part. Just as we would have to stoop and kneel if we were in Bethlehem in the Church of the Nativity so to our hearts must stoop and kneel to receive grace.
Although he hasn’t been in the news in a long time, I imagine that many of you remember the man nicknamed, “The Mouth of the South.” Since Ted Turner is now 84 he doesn’t make the regular splashes in the headlines that he used to make. But about 20 years ago he was interviewed for a USA Today article. Of course, the article spotlighted the multi-billionaire as the largest landowner in the U.S. and the owner of CNN and the Atlanta Braves. Toward the end of the article, Turner explained his motives for the philanthropy that he did. “You know, I’m not looking for any big rewards. I’m not a religious person. I believe this life is all we have. I’m not doing what I’m doing to be rewarded in heaven or punished in hell. I’m doing it because I feel it's the right thing to do. Almost every religion talks about a savior coming. When you look in the mirror in the morning, when you’re putting on your lipstick or shaving, you’re looking at the savior. Nobody else is going to save you but yourself.”
Before we shake our heads at Ted let’s look inside our own hearts. Did we come here tonight because we need a Savior? It’s tempting to think we can save ourselves by being good, or at least doing more good things than bad things. Maybe, we think of Jesus as a good teacher that shows us a better way to live so that then God will love us. Perhaps we see Jesus as the one who gives us some of God’s forgiveness and love but then it’s up to us to finish what he started. All of these ideas mean that we really haven’t seen the glory of God’s Son!
Jesus came from the Father with the fullness of God’s grace. That is God’s undeserved love for us that has completely dealt with our sins. It might make us uncomfortable to talk about it on Christmas Eve but if we are going to see the glory of God’s Son then we must talk about the purpose of Jesus birth. He was born to live a perfectly sinless life in our place. And he was born to die in our place. It’s easy to get distracted by all of the literal and figurative “shiny objects” of Christmas and miss the great message of this night. A Savior has been born for you. And to actually do the saving he came to do it would require all of him. This important thought is expressed in a poem by Joseph Bayly entitled, “From Heaven’s Threshold.” “Praise God for Christmas. Praise Him for the incarnation, for the word made flesh. I will not sing of shepherds watching flocks on frosty nights, or angel choristers. I will not sing of a stable bare in Bethlehem, or lowing oxen, wise men trailing star with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Tonight I will sing praise to the Father who stood on heaven’s threshold and said farewell to his Son as he stepped across the stars to Bethlehem and Jerusalem. And I will sing praise to the infinite, eternal Son, who became most finite, a baby who would one day be executed for my crime. Praise him in the heavens, Praise him in the stable, Praise him in my heart.”
Yes, when we see the glory of God’s Son it means we know that we are fully forgiven because Jesus brought us the full grace of God. We don’t have to speculate about how to be in a right relationship with God. There is no reason for us to wonder about how God looks at us or if he loves us. Jesus says to us, “24 I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” In Mark’s Gospel he said, “16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” When we see that kind of grace in the face of Jesus we see the true glory of God’s Son. That is why he was born. As we celebrate his birth tonight may we receive that grace by faith.
C.S. Lewis, the great Christian writer of the mid 1900’s described what Jesus did for us as he came from the Father full of grace and truth, “One may think of a diver first reducing himself to nakedness, then glancing in mid-air, then gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down through green and warm water into black and cold water, down through the increasing pressure into the deathlike region of ooze and slime and old decay, and then back up again, back to color and light, his lungs almost bursting until suddenly he breaks the surface again, holding in his hand the dripping, precious thing he went down to recover. That dripping, precious thing is you and I, and Advent is when we celebrate his coming down to us.” That is a great way to picture what Jesus did when he came from the Father. Into the darkness of this world he dove to recover us and save us. Or as the Lutheran hymnwriter Paul Gerhardt described it, “O Jesus Christ, your manger is my paradise at which I am reclining. For there, O Lord, we find the Word made flesh for us—your grace is brightly shining.” Yes, when we see the glory of God’s Son we see that he comes from the Father full of grace—undeserved love for sinners like us.
II.
Perhaps you have heard the story about the six blind men that all lived in the same village. One day the villagers told them, “Hey, there is an elephant in the village today.” They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, “Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway.” All of them went where the elephant was. Every one of them touched the elephant. “The elephant is a pillar,” said the first man who touched his leg. “Oh, no! It is like a rope,” said the second man who touched the tail. “Oh, no! It is like a thick branch of a tree,” said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant. “It is like a big hand fan,” said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant. “It is like a huge wall,” said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant. “It is like a solid pipe with a sharp point at the end,” said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant. The six blind men began to argue about the elephant and every one of them insisted that he was right. It looked like they were getting agitated and angry. A wise man was passing by and he saw this. He stopped and asked them, “What is the matter?” They said, “We cannot agree to what the elephant is like.” Each one of them told what he thought the elephant was like. The wise man calmly explained to them, “All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently is because each one of you touched a different part of the elephant.
The moral of the story is that humans often see only part of something much bigger. Within the limits of what a person can observe he or she may grasp some truth about something but not see it for what it really is. And of course the story makes the point that it is the epitome of foolishness to claim to know something when you have explored only part of it.
The story of the blind men and the elephant can very easily be applied to spiritual truth. Since the Fall into sin mankind has been like a bunch of blind men trying to grasp the truth about God. Using the natural knowledge of God humans have latched onto some true things about him. But they have only found bits and pieces of truth. All people know there is some “great being” in the universe that is powerful, wise, and holy. As they observe the work of God’s hands in the natural world and in the vast universe people figure out that somebody immensely smart and strong made it. And in every human heart there is an awareness that things are not right between the Supreme Being and us. That knowledge comes from the voice of God we call a conscience. But in the end the natural knowledge of God that all people have is a lot like the blind men touching the elephant. We humans can know some things about God but we can’t get a complete and accurate picture of him.
If we take a closer look at the ways humans have speculated about God in their spiritual blindness we see that they usually take one of two extremes. On one hand, throughout history humans have confined their understanding of God to a block of stone or an object made of gold. They may have expressed their ideas about God in the form of an animal, or a man, or at times a combination of the two. On the other end of the spectrum many people have made God into an impersonal force that is so abstract and distant that he is unreachable and cares little or nothing about mankind.
What a different picture of God we find when we hear the WORD who was sent from the Father. “14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” God walked among his people to teach them the truth about himself. God ended the speculation and the wondering. He made the truth about himself known through Jesus.
Some might wonder about Jesus’ name, WORD. Did he live up to that name? Someone who is named WORD must bring a message, right? As the WORD from the Father did Jesus reveal the truth about God? Consider the truths we know about God through Jesus. Does God care about all creatures great and small that inhabit the earth? Jesus said, “29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Does God love us? We hear the true answer to that question from the WORD who came from the Father. Jesus said, “16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” To a confused Philip who wanted to see the Father Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” Yes, Jesus lived up to his name WORD. He came from the Father full of the truth about God. He provided a clear and true picture of God for all people to see.
An ancient theologian named Origen tried to simplify the message of Advent and Christmas something like this: “Suppose there were a statue so large that the eye of man simply could not take it in with one look. How best to grasp the essential form and substance of this statue? Would it not be wise to make a small copy to an exact scale but much reduced? Then humanity could see what the greater statue was like.” If you have ever been to a large national park, or a battlefield, or a museum you may have experienced something like this. In the visitor center their was a model that allowed you to see on a small scale something much larger. Origen went on to say this is what God has done in Jesus Christ. He shows us what He himself is like within the bounds of our human ability to understand. Here, then, is the first glorious truth about Advent and Christmas. God has come down to our level. When we could not ascend to God, God came down to us.
The inspired writers of the Scriptures who didn’t quote Jesus directly give the same testimony about him as the WORD. The Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1:15, “15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” And later in Colossians 2:9 he added this thought, “9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” Everything that God is Christ brought to earth so mankind could know the truth about God. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews declared, “3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.” As John the Disciple quoted John the Baptist we hear the same truth, “15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, ‘‘This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’” Both Johns were led to a true understanding of the WORD that came from the Father. He came from the Father to reveal the truth about God to mankind. He was able to do that because the WORD was, is, and always will be fully God.
In light of the fact that Jesus came from the Father full of the truth about God I guess the question for us today is whether or not we are willing to humbly accept what he says. If we do, we have what we need to know about God. He loves us very dearly. He is concerned about us in the greatest detail. Jesus has all the wisdom, and power, and glory, and majesty of God. The better we know him and the truth he has revealed the better we know God and grow in our relationship with him.
Yes, we could literally go to Bethlehem. But we don’t have to. Through our readings and our hymns tonight we have gone there by faith. And like those who go to the place in Bethlehem where it is said that Jesus was born we have bow and kneel to take in the message God has for us. With humble hearts and minds, we not only see the glory of God’s Son we receive it and believe—the grace and truth he brings from the Father. Amen.
