Over the next couple of mornings, I want to look at a few aspects of the narratives around the birth of Jesus and point out those which are easily looked over.
First, let’s look at Luke 2:29-35. Here the aged Simeon sees the baby Jesus when the child is being presented in the temple.
“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
30 for my eyes have seen your salvation
31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”
33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
Remember, there is no such thing as a vacuum holiday, celebrations have a point, they have a reason. The question then is, “What are you celebrating and why are you celebrating?
You can’t neutralize your Christmas…it is about something…it might be about having family around, or for some folks maybe, sending family away…it might be about time off work, or getting and giving gifts or the end of the year bonus…but it is about something.
A true Christmas celebration will, as verse 35 says, reveal the thoughts of our hearts…It will expose men and women…it is supposed to, Christmas, the coming of the Messiah has as its intention…to expose you…and me.
No one else knows the truth of our motives…or for that matter, our bitterness, hatred, our fear, our envying all of the things we cling to…we have fooled ourselves so we don’t have to deal with the God who knows everything going on in and with us!
He knows what you plan. He knows if you are sincere, if you really mean what you say and do. He has and is revealing your heart. This is frightening because of what is there…we don’t want to be revealed, in fact, we go to great lengths to make sure others do not know what is really going on inside of us.
Bonhoeffer wrote: “We have something to hide, we have secrets, worries, thoughts, hopes, desires, passions which no one else gets to know. We are sensitive when people get near those domains with their questions and now, against all rules of tact the Bible speaks…we know we could justify ourselves before human courts…but not before the Lord.”
The Lord reveals our hearts and there are many who do not take kindly to their hearts being revealed…who live in denial of the true condition of their hearts and get violently angry when the truth of that heart comes to light…and nowhere is this anger, this pride to be seen more than it is in religious folks, those who fancy themselves the moral superiors of others.
As Augustine said in his confessions: “And men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty waves of the sea, the broad tides of rivers, the compass of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, yet pass over the mystery of themselves without a thought.” (Confessions)
That is why we don’t like to pray David’s prayer: Lord search me and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me.
What if He actually did that? What if the Lord began to show you the truth about you? Well, according to the Christmas narrative in the Bible, that is exactly what He intends to do. So don’t forget to put that into your Christmas.
Our being enfolded into redemption’s story, it becoming OUR story is not an imposition, which is how so many Christians behave…as if the ways of the Lord are a burden. But there is something dreadfully wrong with such a perspective. Being enfolded is not an imposition…but rather it is a liberation!
“When you have realized that you don’t even know yourself, that you are an enigma to yourself, and when you keep looking inward only to find an unplumbable depth of mystery and secrets and parts of yourself that are loathsome, then Scripture is not a list of commands, instead, it breaks you into your life as a light from outside that show you the infinite God who loves you, at the bottom of the abyss.”(Smith, pg.168)
And that is the key…folks don’t want to get to the bottom of themselves…for fear…What if they are worse than they thought? Well, as I said last week in Sunday School, let me put that to rest for you…you will find in the abyss of your heart, that you ARE worse than you thought…way worse.
When you get to the bottom…when you are in the abyss of what, who you really are because of sin…Jesus is already there waiting for you. He does not cast you aside…he does not roll his eyes in disgust…He wraps his arms around you and loves you right there and says:
Ok…let us begin…let ME begin…For I am here to make all things new…to make YOU new. That is who HE is…and that is who WE are.
Prayer: Father, fill me with Your Spirit that I might make every effort in my life to add virtue to my faith, to honor My Savior and King and to walk in all Your ways. Help me to pursue righteousness with fervor, joy and with extravagance wanting for nothing but Your pleasure. Forgive my laziness and lethargy, and may my life produce the fruit of a faithful child following hard after the Savior, in Jesus name I pray, Amen.
Hymn: We Three Kings