What If the Gift never came?
During this advent season, we have been talking about waiting. And perhaps how we tend to take the ancient meaning of Christmas for granted. The Question for today is What if the gift we celebrate as Christmas didn’t happen?
Lets start with a few secular things.
The fruit cake industry would have never gotten off the ground. There would be a glut of all the candied fruit. Probably 6 or seven jobs would be lost. So personally, I haven’t got a problem so far.
How about this thought, The amount of stress at my house would drop at least 90%. All the stress about gifts and getting something for everybody. The cost of celebrating Christmas. The “DISCUSSION” over the unfair holiday work distribution.
Ok, there is something else I could look at and thing that it is not a bad thing to reduce stress. Of course, our lives would be a bit more boring.
Eggnog would probably disappear like the dinosaurs. Doctors would ban it because of the sugar and cholesterol and people would live healthier lives without the temptation. It is only protected by the spirit of the Christmas season.
We would not over stuff ourselves at all the seasonal parties. We would avoid the seasonal weight gain and the guilt that goes with it.
How about this, you would only have your birthday or by spending your own money end up with clothes that don’t fit and ties that don’t match anything in your closet. The whole matching thing is not really my area of expertise.
Look at all the questions that would never be asked. Do reindeer really know how to fly? What magic is in that old silk hat? Santa and the whole chimney motif…. How long does it take to get the words to Santa is coming to town out of your head?
Santa would be just another fat man that dresses a bit strangely.
But, the Gift of Jesus Christ being born as a human being is real and it makes Christmas a reality.
On the night Jesus was born into our world the Angel said,
Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:10-11)
So I would guess that most of us we say Jesus Christ was borne and lived the live we read about in scripture.
But the question on the floor is “What if”. What If Jesus Never Came? What’s the big deal?
Toward the end of the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey cries out, “I want to live again! I want to live again!" Immediately he’s flashed from the previous scene and finds himself standing once more on the snow-covered iron bridge where earlier he had considered suicide: the dark swirling river below.
With help from Angel Second Class Clarence Oddbody, George had just discovered, to his horror, what life would be like had he never been born.
Anyone who’s watched this film can recall how without George Bailey the quaint town of Bedford Falls is reduced to Pottersville (ooh). It’s a creepy place. Main street is suddenly a red-light district with loud music and the flashing of flesh-peddling neon signs. Life is dark. All because George had never been born.
One person can make an enormous difference in the lives of others. There are many people that have made big differences for me personally.
But we’re talking about Jesus here. If we call ourselves Christians We are associating our selves with this man that lived long before any of us could have even met him in a physical way. Each of us in a way, claim that he has done something wondrous… We met him spiritually and we were made different. Our world has been changed in such vast ways that none of us can even imagine what it would be like if he had not come.
What if Jesus had never been born?
What difference would it have made in history if that Bethlehem stable hadn’t served as a makeshift delivery room 2,005 years ago?
What difference would it make in our daily lives?
Well actually, a great deal. Much of what we take for granted finds its roots in Christ and His teachings.
So I would like for us to consider some specific areas where Christ has had a significant impact on civilization, as we know it.
To help us with this, look at what the Bible says: Galatians 3:26-3:28
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
This verse was written in a time and in a culture where Jews thought they were better than Greeks, the free thought they were better than slaves, and all men thought they were better than any woman.
But something amazing began to happen in the early church. People of all walks of life were coming to faith and suddenly race, or social class, or gender didn’t matter. The early church accepted the mission of bringing the Good news to all people. That meant accepting them if they responded to the message.
Jesus brought equality to this world that had not been present since the days I the garden of Eden. He talked to and blessed all kinds of people. But, his followers sometimes had problems.
Have you ever considered that Peter the redneck fisherman struggled with being prejudice? Remember how he was so shocked that Cornelius family received the Holy Spirit. O heck, they were gentiles. Whoa, how did that happen? He seems to forget his unclean life on the fishing boats when Jesus came to him. To his credit, he recognized the hand of God and accepted that it was God’s work.
Paul had a problem with young people that make mistakes. It took him years to be able to forgive John Mark for getting home sick. He sometimes forgot that your own mistakes and bad choices can allow you to hurt over what you did. Like his persecution of the followers of the way.
When God sent the physical gift of Jesus Christ, He was sending a person that would transcend the dramatic differences between people. He clearly leveled the playing field by saying that we are all the same in God’s eyes. On top of that we need the have the same vision and need to be physical in our closing of the Gap between us and our neighbors.
If God sent the Gift to close the gap between Him and Us, between our sinful, disobedient nature and his holiness. Then we should be able to over look what we see as differences in the people around us. The neighborhood, the grocery store.. The differences that we make up between us and “those” people.
You know, like blacks, Hispanics, Indians or perhaps oriental people. We KNOW what they are like. We would never be like that.
But, This is what Christ does….Faith in Christ eliminates the differences and puts all believers on an even footing with God. We don’t have a choice in the matter. When Christ is present in US no one is inferior.
Folks, without the gift of Jesus Christ, racial discrimination would be the normal practice and at no one would have any protection by law. If Christ had never come no one would be safe from persecution. Power would be the rule and Grace and Mercy would probably not be as strong n our lives.
The scripture says, There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free,
We think that there is no more slavery.
Unfortunately, I disagree. People are stuck in jobs that are menial and don’t pay much of anything. There are people that are stuck in abusive relationships and bad situations. It is easy to look a people with real need and write them off based on appearance. We see today’s slavery as welfare or any visual separation such as quality of clothing or their car.
But Jesus did, he found value in people that most of the world wrote off and rejected. (Tax collectors, the sick, people with limiting disabilities, adulteresses, Gentiles) For Christ there is no distinction. What did the angel tell Joseph when he explained to him that Mary was with child and Joseph should take her as his wife? The Bible says,
“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,
because he will save His people from their sins.” John 1:21
Notice it says “His People”. Aren’t His people the Jews? Well that’s what Jesus’ closest followers thought. But they were soon to learn that “His people” included anyone that would put their faith in Him.
Look what was written later,
10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (John 1 10-13)
Now did some Jews receive the gift? Sure they did.
The first disciples were Jewish. Jews are still being saved today still receiving the gift. The Gift we celebrate a Christmas is one that is always new. But God sent his son for much more than the Jews. HE sent his gift to the whole world.
The rejection by many of the Jews of the day did not change the plan. Their choice to believe or not was their choice. The plan always included Gentiles, which is everyone that was not Jewish.
Jesus says this in Matthew 28:18-20
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 of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
There is no favoritism with God. He detests racial and social discrimination.
And unfortunately, I don’t believe that there is a single person in this room that is not guilty of seeing a person that is different than ourselves and get scared or think some degrading thought. Folks, prejudice is not new. It has always been around and I am sure as long as this world exist it will be alive and well. It is a part of the fallen nature. It is a part of the sinful world and it is something that the children of God must constantly fight first within ourselves and ultimately in our community fro the Gift to really live in us. Some will and do fight it nationally and internationally.
-- An extremely proud young man walked into a restaurant looking for his friend. Immediately he noticed two beautiful young ladies near the door who appeared to be checking him out. Just then they both looked at each other and at the same time said, “NINE”! and began to giggle.
The prideful young man puffed out his chest, drew a big smile, and then walked over to his waiting friend. “You won’t believe what just happened. When I walked in those two ladies looked me over and me and said “NINE!”
His friend starting cracking up and said, “Their from Germany. They don’t speak English. Nine means, “NO WAY! Zero! Zitch! Nada!”
Let me move on to the rest of the sentence n our scripture. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26-28
Galatians 3 was written in a culture where Jewish males were known to greet each morning with a simple, but a very offensive prayer.
“Lord, I thank you that I am not a Gentile, a slave, or a woman.”
Wherever Christianity has gone, women have been elevated enormously. Every one has. Just travel to a “non-Christian country and compare the differences in how women are treated. Now, are there oppressed women in our culture? Sure. Is it sometimes done in the name of religion? Sure.
But, if we look at Jesus. You will not find Him putting down women. In fact His actions elevate women.
Yet in our culture today I hear jokes and put downs about women. I hear women, some for good causes, who hate men. Jesus wants to bring us together in the miracle of oneness.
One day Jesus was traveling from Judea back to Galilee. The shortest route was through the region of Samaria. Now Jews hated Samaritans and would do everything they could to avoid them. In fact most Jews wouldn’t travel that direction, but would instead go clear out of their way by first heading east. The reason: Samaritans were a mixed race. They had intermarried with foreigners, and in the Jewish culture that was disgusting. Unclean. It just wasn’t right.
But Jesus didn’t share this prejudice. And right in the middle of Samaria he sat down to take a break at Jacob’s Well. Look what he Bible says,
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her,
“Will you give me a drink?” The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) John 4:7, 9
No “respectable” Jewish man would talk to such a person in such circumstances. But Jesus did. He valued her as a creation of God. He went on to tell her how she could experience living water. He went on sharing the Gift.
Women have immensely benefited from Christ’s influence.
• In ancient cultures, a wife was the property of her husband.
• In India, China, Rome and Greece, men believed that women were not able or competent to be independent.
• In India, widows were voluntarily or involuntarily burned on their husbands’ funeral pyres. And female infanticide was common.
Most of these practices ended in the early 19th century through missionaries sent from Great Britain.
Charles Spurgeon told of a Hindu woman who said to a missionary: "Surely your Bible was written by a woman."
"Why?"
"Because it says so many kind things for women. Our pundits never refer to us but in reproach."
Sexual discrimination is destroyed by the Gift of Christmas.
In Jesus there is no racial, gender or social discrimination. For in Jesus we are all set free from bondage and oppression.
But it begins with recognizing our need to be set free from the bondage of sin.
Without Christmas we have no hope of being set free from the worst bondage of all: the bondage to self. The Bible says,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 2Corinthians 5:17-18
The Barriers between God and man are destroyed in Christmas.
The dividing wall that sets men against men should be destroyed in Christmas.
Won’t you find freedom in Christmas?
Won’t you offer the people around you the freedom and encouragement that comes in the Gift of Christmas?
All Glory be to God!
