From Then Till Now
12/24/02
Have you ever noticed how Christmas a very polarizing holiday? People either really love Christmas or they really dislike it. Let me give you a few examples:
For every person that says, “I can’t wait to be able spend some extra time with my family”, there is another person saying, “Ok what is the perfect mix of alcoholic beverage to get me through the night.”
For every wife that says, “I love decorating the house for Christmas, especially all the lights”, there is a husband that says, “I hope I don’t fall off the roof.”
For every parent that says, “I’m going to take the kids over to get their picture taken with Santa” there is a terrified child saying, “I’m going to have nightmares for a year over that really creepy old guy in the red suit.”
For every student that says, “It’s December that means that Steve is going to put on a Christmas Lock-In” there is an adult leader saying, “there isn’t enough aspirin in all the world.”
For the sake of total disclosure….I love Christmas time. I’m really not even that ashamed to admit that I don’t mind the consumerist aspects of Christmas. I enjoy getting presents and giving presents. I enjoy the lights and the tree, and I definitely enjoy the food.
Having said that, I understand completely that is not what Christmas is all about. I think that whatever side of the Christmas coin you fall on you probably understand that the true meaning of Christmas is not about Santa and reindeer, and presents.
I want to spend some time this evening answering not just a good question, but answering the main question. Here it is, for those of us living in the 21st century with jobs, debt, and families why does Christmas matter at all….really what difference does a baby in a manger make to me. Let me phrase it a slightly different way….where does Christmas past intersect with Christmas present…..where does Jesus journey meet up with my journey.
To answer that question we have to go back 2000 years ago. You can feel the stress as you read Matthews account of the story. Mary and Joseph are not yet married and she becomes pregnant. Joseph knows by the laws of nature that the baby is not his, so he plans to divorce Mary (in those days and engagement was important and could only be broken by divorce). As he plans to do this an angel comes to him in a dream and says that Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from his sins. Matthew gives a little historical commentary and says, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel which means, God with us.”
For 33 years that is exactly what Jesus was: God with us. I like how Rob Bell from Mars Hill Bible Church explains this concept he says that Jesus was this heavenly invasion into earth, and I think that’s true. You can see it in a couple of stories.
In John 11 Jesus goes to a funeral for his friend Lazarus. The family is there and they are mourning….there’s a lot of tears. The text says that Jesus was moved by their mourning and he begins to cry as well. It’s at that moment that I think Jesus came to a realization: he didn’t really like funerals that much. So, he decides to raise the dead guy from his grave—that’s certainly one way to end a funeral.
There is a large crowd following Jesus, and in that crowd is a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. The Bible says that she’d been to all the doctors and spent all her money trying to get better, but instead of getting better she just got worse and worse. So, she hears about a healer named Jesus and just wants to touch him in hopes that she’d be healed. She does touch Jesus and Jesus realizes it and says, “who touched me” and his disciples say, “who touched you! You are surrounded by people, what do you mean who touched you.” Jesus turns to the women and says, “you’re faith has made you well.”
Listen to this Scripture from Revelations 21, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain…” That is talking about heaven. Obviously, Jesus did not heal every person he ran into, he didn’t raise every person from the dead, crying didn’t cease to exist when he was here on earth. But, in certain situations and in some stories Jesus illustrates for us perfectly what it’s going to be like in heaven. He was this heavenly invasion into earth….the two collided. He was Immanuel: God with us.
Imagine it, for a moment, from the perspective of the disciples. They had witnessed Jesus performing these miracles. They had a front row seat, and it took them a long time to get a clue over who Jesus was, but eventually they caught on that this was God walking around earth. Heaven had come down. Then, when all was said and done, when Jesus’ ministry was complete he came to the disciples and told them that he had to go back to heaven to prepare a place for them. Imagine how disappointing that must have been. To have experienced this taste of heaven, and then Jesus says, well I’ve got to go back.
So, listen to what Jesus says to them. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey every thing I have commanded you and I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.”
What is Jesus saying to them right there. I believe he is reminding them of his own namesake. He is saying, “yes I am going to heaven, but never forget that I am still Immanuel, I am still with you, and I will always be with you.”
I think sometimes we teach the wrong thing in the church. We say, “come forward and give your life to Jesus and someday you will spend eternity with God.” In heaven God will fix all of your problems…all is true. We sometimes end up like Jesus’ disciples who have had this encounter with Jesus and now find ourselves waiting to go see him in heaven. Christmas is about anticipation.
I remember one Christmas I really wanted a certain toy. It was a model of the car Kit from Knight Rider. It talked and everything. I begged my parents, I wrote Santa letters, I made sure I was extra good. When Christmas Day rolled around the anticipation was killing me. I shook all the presents trying to figure out which one was my car. When I finally opened my present, I went bezerk…my anticipation was a reality.
It’s true, Jesus in a manger teaches us that we have the hope of heaven. We can anticipate that with joy. But, that’s not the only reason Jesus came. You see, the problem with only talking about heaven all the time is that it forgets about today….it only focuses on tomorrow.
I don’t know about you, but I need a faith for today. Anticipation is awesome and I love looking forward to heaven and I love teaching about heaven. But Jesus didn’t come so that we could look forward to heaven our entire lives, he came so that today, in this place we could experience transformation.
That baby, asleep in a manger is named Immanuel which means God with us. God doesn’t want to wait until heaven to begin working in and through your life…. He wants to start working in you today. He wants to begin showing you what heaven is going to be like today, not just when we die or he comes back? What is an area of your life, this Christmas that could really use a heavenly invasion?
Maybe it’s your family. You say it’s been a rough year in my family….it seems like we fight all the time. Allow God in, he wants to be with you and he wants to begin to transform you’re family life tonight. Maybe it’s your work, or school, or your health. I can’t promise you a miracle, but I can promise you that God will be present in your life
