I Would Do Anything (By Any Means Necessary, part 1) - December 24, 2000
{Using the song "Love Song" by Third Day is an excellent lead in to this sermon}
Introduction
At Christmas there is a lot of talk about the Incarnation, which has been described in many ways. J. Robert Oppenheimer, inventor of the atomic bomb said, "The best way to send an idea is to wrap it up in a person." Ignatius, an early church father, wrote, "by the Incarnation God broke His silence." I read about a little girl who summed up the Incarnation by saying, "Some people couldn’t hear God’s inside whisper and so He sent Jesus to tell them out loud." The Gospel of John puts it this way, "The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood (The Message)." All of these are great, but I think Malcolm X, unintentionally, said it best with, "By any means necessary." You see, brothers and sisters, the Incarnation is the point at which God said, "I’ve tried everything else. They’re just not getting it. I’ll do whatever it takes to reach my children, including becoming one of them." Though Philippians 2 is generally not regarded as a "Christmas scripture," due to the fact that it is not in the Gospels, I think it perfectly states how at Christmas God lived out, "By any means necessary." Let’s look together at Philippians 2:5-11.
This passage makes it pretty clear that God went to some pretty extreme measures to show us His love. Our culture is all about extremes. This is why ESPN’s X-Games are among their most popular shows. MTV has a wildly popular new show (I won’t mention the name since there are children present) which is only about guys doing crazy, extreme stunts such as shooting themselves with tazer guns, running through a car wash, and crashing shopping carts while they are riding in them. Malcolm X has seen a huge resurgence of popularity because of his famous statement. Everyone wants to be the most extreme, but no one has even dreamed of extreme like we see from God at Christmas. I want to explore God’s Extreme Christmas by looking at three questions which have often crossed my mind at Christmas: Was this planned or just a reaction? Did He really go through all of this? Why did He do it?
1.) It Was Pre-Meditated
Often we hear in trials about "pre-meditated" actions. Was this a crime of passion, circumstance, or did the criminal take the time and energy to plot out the crime well in advance. I’ve often wondered the same thing about God. Was the Incarnation a pre-meditated action or did God just get so tired of the suffering and injustice in the world that He decided to do something about it? I think it had to be extremely difficult for God to sit in heaven and watch the way His children treated each other, as well as the way in which He was consistently ignored by His chosen people. It’s easy for me to picture God sitting in heaven and declaring, "I’ve had enough! I’m going down there to do something about this." It is less easy for me to imagine God knowing of our sin, still deciding to create us, and having the plan all along that he would one day come to earth as a human and die for those who have treated Him so badly. Yet, that’s exactly how Scripture describes it.
Most scholars agree that Genesis 3:15 is the first reference to the Messiah when God says to the snake, just moments after the first sin, that, "He {the woman’s offspring} will crush your head and you will strike his heel." John declares in Revelation 13:8 that Jesus is, "the Lamb who was killed before the world was made." If you explore the Old Testament you will find, depending on who you talk to, as many as 400 prophesies of the coming Messiah. The Jewish people were certainly on the look out for Messiah. He just didn’t come quite as they expected.
But isn’t that the way it usually is? God never comes quite as we expect. Reading Philippians 2 is no big deal for Christians because we’ve heard the story so many times that it’s become old news. We don’t realize just what an extreme thing God did. Paul calls the Incarnation "a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. (1 Cor. 1:23)" Neither could fathom God doing what is described in Philippians. God can’t die! And God doesn’t care enough about people to share in their experience! Even if He did, He would come as a King, getting what He deserves, rather than as an itinerant preacher who was so poor he had to borrow a food trough to be born in, a boat to preach in, food to do a miracle, and pretty much everything else in his life. This isn’t what God does, is it?
2.) It Was Real
Did Jesus really come to earth and make himself a slave? Surely he could have pushed the "God button" anytime he wanted. Besides, Jesus was God so he must have had some special advantage while on earth, right? Someone once wrote that God set certain safeguards to make sure that no one could accuse Him of using His divine powers for an unfair advantage. He was born a Jew in an occupied country, and a backwoods, poor Jew at that. The legitimacy of his birth was questioned. He championed a cause so just, but so radical, that it made him so hated and condemned that every major traditional religious authority tried to kill him. He tried to communicate God to people - that which has never been seen, tasted, heard, or smelled. He was betrayed by his closest friends. He was brought up on false charges, then tried before a prejudiced jury and a cowardly judge. He experienced what it was like to be totally alone and abandoned. He was tortured and put to death in the most humiliating of fashions. It’s no wonder that the message of Christ was a stumbling block. Born in a food trough not a palace? Born to peasants not royalty? Is this really God? Did God really suffer all of this?
The manger scene has become too anesthetized in our culture. In my last appointment in Kentucky most of my church members were farmers. As a result, I became quite familiar with the smell of barns and animals. It’s not the serene, beautiful, holy site on our Christmas cards. This past July I witnessed the birth of my first child. It’s not the quiet, peaceful, pristine thing we seen in the pictures. I mean, Mary’s clothes are perfectly in order, with not a drop of sweat on her brow, and baby Jesus is cuddled up all smooth, clean, and perfect. When my son came out he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, but he still looked like Yoda!
The reason we find it hard to believe all of this is real is because of the pictures we’ve been given of Jesus. We see Jesus moving about like some robot saying and doing exactly what he was programmed to do, as if it were no big deal. This has been perpetuated by movies where we see a lily white, wussy little Jesus, who looks like he could be broken in half if you thumped him, randomly walking around, making great statements, then staring off into space as if contemplating the universe. He never looks worried or troubled. He never treats anything as if it is a big deal. He’s kind of like a 1st century Mr. Rogers and, as Philip Yancey says in The Jesus I Never Knew, no one would murder Mr. Rogers. Some people, called Gnostics, have claimed that Jesus was not really human, but merely appeared human. Some people have claimed that Jesus didn’t really die.
Beloved, Paul tells us in this passage that Jesus was quite real. He didn’t just come down and pretend to be human, as the Gnostics would say. He didn’t fake his death, as others would accuse. The disciples were there during all of this. If they knew Jesus’ death and resurrection to be a lie do you think they would have changed like they did? Dr. Jerry Walls, my philosophy professor at Asbury, once asked us if we would die for a lie. Would any of you? If you knew something to be totally false and all you had to do was admit that for your life to be spared, wouldn’t you confess pretty quickly? I would! Yet, all of these disciples who had lived and learned from Jesus died horrendous deaths still claiming the Gospel to be true. Paul is saying in this hymn that God became human, in every way. He was born just like we are, he sweated just like we do, he had to eat and drink, and he could feel pain, joy, sorrow, and anger. He wasn’t some lily white wuss. He was a carpenter!! The man would have had muscles on muscles. This is evidenced by the fact that he survived all he did. Most men died from the beatings and never made it to the cross, and yet Jesus survived multiple tortures before hanging for six hours on the cross.
But why did God do it this way? God could have chosen to come at any time in any form. He could have come as an earthly prince, born to any race. He could have had the best earth had to offer. Why did he do it as Paul describes, humbling himself by becoming a slave and dying a criminal’s death? That’s easy...he did it for you.
3.) It Was All For You
Before I had a child I used to think parents were a weird breed. Who in the world would want to knowingly choose to lose sleep and have every waking moment tied to this little creature who can’t feed himself, can’t clean himself, or perform any of the tasks needed for survival. Why would you choose 3 a.m. feedings, sickness, terrible 2’s, potty training, broken hearts and bones? Well, I still have no idea why we choose it, but I certainly know why we don’t mind it when we’re going through it. It’s because you made this little person. Even though the child can’t do anything for you, is totally dependent on you for his very survival, you love the child like nothing you can describe because he’s yours. I used to hate it when my mom would say, "You’ll understand when you have a child of your own." I thought she was full of it. I owe her an apology because she was exactly right. I would do anything for Caleb. I would suffer anything, give up anything - including my own life, just to see him safe and happy. If he ever turned away from me I would never rest until I brought him home again. It’s not rational, and someone who isn’t a parent will never understand, but I understand why God did what He did at Christmas.
God came down to earth because He had tried everything else. He had given us the perfect environment and we messed that up (Adam and Eve). He let us live life as we choose and we messed that up (Noah). He gave us His Law and we messed that up (Moses). He performed huge miracles and spoke in the still quiet voice. He gave us judges, prophets, and kings. Still, we didn’t get it. So, he did the only thing He hadn’t done yet...He became one of us. No longer would He tell us, but He would show us. Many scholars assert that Paul’s saying Jesus was in the form of God in verse 5 draws a comparison to Adam being made in God’s image. Adam, who was made human, sought divinity. His sin, as the serpent said, was wanting to be like God by eating the fruit of the tree. Jesus, on the other hand, was divine but gave it up to become human, thus a reversal of the earlier sin. Hebrews also picks up on this theme by calling Jesus the second Adam. Rather than destroying as God did at the flood, this time He sets out to redeem - to set right that which has gone wrong.
But why did He come as He did? Well, how many of us can identify with a king? How many of us have servants waiting on us hand and foot? How many of us have more money than we know what to do with? He wanted to come in a form we could understand. He came to a hard-working, blue-collar family who had little more than their faith in God. That’s something we can understand.
Conclusion
Did He have to do things this way? No. Did He plan it this way? Yes. Did He really go through all of this? Yes. Why? Because you’re His child. Because He loves You more than you can possibly comprehend. Caleb doesn’t understand right now how much I love him or that I would do anything for him. He does know that I’m his daddy and I’ll take care of him. That’s enough. We can’t comprehend the expression of love God gave us at Christmas. We didn’t deserve it, and certainly didn’t earn it, but that’s what grace is all about. Caleb has never earned anything I’ve done for him, but he’s my son and that’s enough. God said on the first Christmas, "I’m doing this because you’re my child, and that’s reason enough." God would do anything to help you understand how much He loves you. That’s why He set aside all the powers and comforts of heaven to come find you. That’s why he’s never given up on you, no matter how many times you’ve turned your back on him. That’s why he lay in a borrowed animal’s food trough, wrapped in strips on clothing, on that first Christmas Day. Amen.
