With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Every child ought to have at least one mystery package. At least one package whose contents cannot be figured out. Some things are hard to conceal; there’s not much you can do to disguise a football, and even less you can do to hide a bicycle. But there ought to be under every Christmas tree at least one mystery package, at least one thing that the recipient cannot figure out ahead of time. Most children find it just about impossible to wait for Christmas morning, and, in addition to that constant cajoling about an ever-earlier unwrapping time, they will snoop around the house, poke around under the tree, shake, rattle, and roll the packages, all to see if they can find out what’s they’re getting.
But I have news for the children this evening. I have news for you. We’re on to you! Moms and dads know what you are doing! And we do have a plan, a plan to go beyond all your little attempts to figure out what you’re getting. It’s called the mystery package.
When my children were young, they did what I suspect a lot of children do. They dug around in closets and attics, in those out-of-the-way places in the house, where their mother had carefully tucked away the Christmas accumulation. Now she did make it a little challenging; not only did she put things in out-of-the-way places, she also wrapped them almost as soon as she bought them. She would wrap Bryan’s and Karen’s gifts and would just pencil, very lightly, in one corner, the initials “B” or “K”, until she could tag them properly. Well, B and K not only found the packages; and not only found out the B and K system, but also mastered the art of carefully opening one end or one corner of the package, so that they could see whether we had been good Santas. By the way, make no mistake, in our commercial culture, it is not only that Santa makes a list and checks it twice, trying to record who’s naughty and nice; it is also the consumers of Santa’s services who give him a performance evaluation at the end of the delivery season! So, anyway, the game went on: we would get and wrap and mark packages; Bryan and Karen would sniff them out, semi-unwrap them in order to find out what was coming, and then rewrap them. On Christmas morning, everything would go as scripted – handing out gifts, pretending surprise, joy and glee all around.
But – ah, we parents are smarter than you think – but, usually we had managed to keep back, in ultra-secret hiding, at least one mystery package for each child. At least one very special gift. Because, you see, we were on to you! We knew you snooped. We knew your curiosity overcame you. We knew you had opened and reclosed those packages; you cannot reposition Scotch tape without leaving a clue! We knew! We went along with the game! But we kept something back, for a real surprise. We kept a mystery package, the really good, special gift, so that we could, indeed, inspire joy and delight in your child souls on Christmas morning. Oh, you see, we didn’t get to be parents by being idiots, now, did we? A mystery package, to be opened and discovered only at the right time, on Christmas morning.
God has kept back a mystery package. We thought we knew all there was to know about God. We thought we had Him figured out. But God has kept back a mystery package, to be opened when the timing is right.
With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Israel’s elite thought they had figured God out. After all, Israel was God’s child, chosen of Him centuries earlier. Israel had unwrapped the package of liberation, and had been freed from slavery in Egypt. Israel had unwrapped the package of conquest, and had been given the land of Canaan. Israel had unwrapped the package of nationhood, and had been given a line of kings, just like all the other nations. And even when Israel’s and Judah’s toys got broken, and they were sent into exile, even then they thought they had God’s gifts figured out, because He brought them back. He fixed it. He made it work again. Israel’s elite – the priests, the Pharisees, the top people – they thought they had all they were going to get. But God had held back a mystery package for Israel.
Rome thought she had figured God out, too. Rome had everything figured out. Rome knew – absolutely knew – that power and wealth were the answers to everything. Might makes right, that was Rome. Rome had long since given up her belief in Santa Claus sorts of things. Rome knew that if you were going to have something, you had to get it for yourself. And so Rome had unwrapped the package of military muscle, bought and paid for by the blood of enslaved nations. They had it figured out. Rome had unwrapped the package of political power, bought and paid for by lawyers and statesman, solidified by the Caesars and stabilized by an efficient network of civil servants, tax collectors, and the army. They had it figured out. Rome did not expect a mystery package. In fact, Rome did not want a mystery package. Rome, and Rome’s minions, like Herod, would have preferred to throw out and destroy a mystery package. But God had, even for Rome, a mystery package.
Many of the ordinary people of the day, too, supposed that they had God figured out. The kind of people who go to church, pay their bills, feed and clothe their children, go to work every day, do what they’re supposed to do – they supposed that they knew the routine. They, people like us, they supposed that they knew what the rules were. Just do what you’ve got to do. Just take care of business. Just plod along life’s weary road, with painful steps and slow, carrying your part of the load. Good, average, ordinary people thought they had figured God out. And if we just keep on keeping on, well, somehow God will work it out, in His way and in His time. But miracles? No. Breaking in to our time, our lives? No. I don’t think so. In the very ordinariness of our everyday, get it done, lives, we really think we already have all we’re going to get from God. Or at least that we know what it will be when it gets here. Ho-hum. No mysteries for us. But God – but God – has held back a mystery package for us too. God has something special, just for us.
With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
This child in the manger – who expected this? Who could have suspected that in such innocent wrappings the greatest gift could be given? Who could think that in this package was the mystery of God’s will, a plan for the fullness of time?
Israel thought she would be getting a king of majesty and might, a prophetic wonder-worker, a towering figure of strength. The mystery package came instead as a tiny infant, the word made flesh.
Rome thought only in terms of more and more and more. More land, more wealth, more people in subjugation. The mystery package came instead as one who would put down the might from their seats and send the rich empty away!
Average folks, you and I, didn’t expect much at all. We were tired of looking for a rescue around the corner, only to have to wait and wait some more. But the mystery package contained for us so much, so much more; Mary’s boy-child, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, tested in all points just as we are, yet without sin. A savior who was one of us. And yet, wonder of wonders, one in whom it was and is God’s will to gather up all things, all things.
With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
When the delights of Christmas morning were ended, in my household, and, in addition to all the we-already-know-about-this packages, the mystery package had been unwrapped, there was always that poignant moment when all the scraps of paper and ribbon, tape and tags, had to be gathered up and taken out to the garbage can. What only a few moments before had been so lovely, these wrappings, were now unceremoniously scooped up and thrown away. We did it because the wrappings were no longer needed. And we did it so that we could concentrate on admiring, using, and showing off our gifts. Even the wrappings on the mystery package had to be taken away so that the special gift could be shown.
One day they took Him out to a green hill outside a city wall. There, cold-hearted and angry, not knowing what they were doing, they stripped Him of His wrappings. They took His human life, they tore at His flesh, they made fun of His bedraggled appearance. One day they took the word made flesh out to a place called the place of a skull, and there they destroyed His flesh, His wrapping. But I tell you, they did not and could not destroy God’s mystery package. I tell you, three days later, He came forth, more glorious than ever before, more beautiful than on the night of His birth, more awesome, more powerful, more cherished, more radiant. You and I, three days after Christmas, cannot even find the wrappings for our presents, but the gifts remain. God’s mystery package, the wrappings for a while torn and bleeding, has come to stay.
With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
