Bible Talks - Traditional Church (Sunday 8am)
Series: Christmas
The real spirit of Christmas
Monday, 25 December 2006
There are five lies that you’ll probably hear this Christmas; five things which people say around Christmas time but which they don’t really mean. These mainly come from a Christmas card that I received several years ago. Maybe you can relate to some of them. They’re things like:
“Gee thanks. It’s just what I’ve always wanted.”
“Well OK, but this chocolate is definitely my last.”
“Of course we don’t mind you staying with us another week.”
“No problem dear, I’ll fix that during the holidays.”
The last one seems a little harsh to me. And, last but not least, the fifth lie you might hear this Christmas:
“No darling! Of course it doesn't make you look fat!”
Maybe you’ve already heard one or two of those this morning. I hope not. But Christmas is a time of year when we might stretch the truth a little for the sake of keeping the peace in the family.
This Christmas I’d like us to think briefly about the very first lie ever told at Christmas time. We actually heard it read in the passage from Matthew. It’s in chapter 2 verse 8 where Herod said to the magi, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him”. Now that’s a lie! Herod isn’t interested in worshipping Jesus. You can tell that because, if we keep reading from Matthew, we’d have heard that the Magi aren’t fooled by Herod, they sneak off without tell him where Jesus is, and Herod is furious. Indeed, in a fit of rage, Herod attempts to kill the young Jesus by ordering the death of every boy two-years old and under in Bethlehem. Herod doesn’t want to worship Jesus. He wants to wipe him out!
Now why is that? What’s he so upset or threatened about? Around Christmas time we might stretch the truth for the sake of being polite and keeping the peace in the family. But what’s behind Herod’s lie? What’s going on in his head? Well, essentially it’s because there’s one thing about Jesus that Herod has understood. But there’s another thing about Jesus that he hasn’t understood. Herod is going off half-cocked because he doesn’t fully appreciate what Jesus is on about. Let me show you what I mean.
Firstly, the thing that Herod does’nt understand about Jesus (Matt 2:1-3). Herod doesn’t like hearing the news that a king has been born. You see at the time of Jesus’ birth, Herod was the Roman-appointed king of Judea and Herod is infamous for the viciousness with which he dealt with possible rivals to the throne. Herod actually killed his favourite wife and two of his own sons as a safeguard to holding on to the throne. And suddenly, you see here’s three magi asking to see the new born king. This is not what Herod wants to hear. Herod likes being the one who makes the decisions around the place. Herod likes to be the one calling the shots and giving the orders. But now a threat to all that has come into his world.
Now, in one sense, Herod is of course spot-on in his assessment of this. It in no ways justifies his behaviour, but Herod is right in the sense that someone more important than him has been born. Someone more important than any of us was born that first Christmas. Because Jesus is the son of God. That baby lying in the manger is in fact the Lord of heaven and earth. Jesus is someone who is so important that he has the right to tell us all how to live. Herod at least, has got that part spot on.
But where Herod goes wrong is that he thinks Jesus is a political opponent to him. He thinks that Jesus has come to gather an army to try and push him around. But that’s miles from the truth. Yes, Jesus is a king, but what he doesn’t understand is that Jesus is a king who’s come to serve and to save people. Not to push them around. We actually see this earlier in Matthew 1 where the angel said to Joseph. “She (Mary) will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Now you may not have realised that you need to be saved from sin. But, at the risk of offending you, you do. In fact we all do. The reason we don’t realise this is because we tend to think that the word sin only refers to really, really bad things like murder or rape or grand theft or the such. But in God’s eyes we are all sinners because none of us follow God to the extend that he deserves and demands. None of us give God the honour or the attention or the obedience that we should. Instead what we all do is basically ignore God. We get out of bed and our natural tendency is to think that we’re the boss of our own life. So we go through each day doing our own thing, making our own plans and decisions, rather than submitting to God. And some of us might certainly turn out to be nice, respectable people but in the end it’s only because we’ve decided to be like that. We’ve made the decision rather than acknowledging and obeying God’s decisions.
And that dismissive attitude we all have towards God is called sin and because of it we all deserve to go to hell instead of enjoying eternal life with God. Which puts us in a real mess. None of us are good enough to deserve eternal life - which is exactly why Jesus came: “You are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins”. Jesus is a king on a rescue mission to save us from our sins. And the way Jesus saved us was by taking our punishment for us. He did that when he was crucified. Because when Jesus died on the cross he took our place and he accepted God’s anger on himself instead of us having to bear it.
I read an interesting article a while back in the Sydney Morning Herald (Sunday Life 17/09/00) about movie stand-ins. They’re the people who replace movie stars in scenes that are dangerous or just uncomfortable. Like Glenn Duhigg, an ex-lawyer who worked as the stand-in for Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 2 and 3. Glenn reckoned, “It sounds very glamorous saying you’re the stand-in for Tom Cruise but I don’t think many people realise the long hours and constant demands that deflate your ego very quickly. The days are long. Whatever scene Tom was in, I would be the one standing there, being him sometimes for ages as the crew set up the shot—getting the lighting just right and the props just so. I’d be standing there for hours out in the weather, getting drenched in the rain or sun stroke out in the heat. And then Tom would just walk on the set from his air conditioned caravan or out of his beautiful sports car once the scene was ready.” As one of the other stand-ins said, “I realised very quickly the difference between being a star and being a stand-in.” Now you see, on the cross Jesus was our stand-in. He endured the discomfort, the pain, the punishment from God, all in our place. He accepted God’s anger on himself instead of us. He was our stand-in. Amazing that he would do that, because really Jesus is the important one. You wouldn’t expect Tom Cruise to stand-in for that bloke Glenn Duhigg. No, Tom’s the important one. But with Jesus it’s the exact opposite. Even though Jesus is the important one, God’s king come to earth, yet he stood in for us. The star became the stand-in for us.
It is an amazing sacrifice, but of course one that Herod doesn't understand. Herod doesn’t see the salvation. All he sees is a threat to him doing what he wants. So he reacts with dishonesty and brutality. It’s an extraordinary reaction to a king, who’s only coming because he wants to help us. But Herod is blinded by his arrogance and his self-importance
And friends, I need to just gently ask you today, whether or not you might be a little like Herod? Oh you mightn’t be as vicious as Herod is about it, you're a lot nicer in the way you express it, but still the thought of Jesus being your king and telling you how to live your life still gets your bristles up. You like being the king in your life and so the idea of Jesus having the right to tell how to live annoys you. And so you’ve come along this morning so as to keep the other members of your family happy, you don’t mind a bit of religion in your life especially at Christmas, but in the end you know that your heart is hard against Jesus. You’re the boss of your life, you’re going to do things your way, and nobody’s going to come and ram Jesus down your throat even at Christmas time. Is there a part of you like that? Like Herod?
Can I suggest that there’s actually a much better way of reacting to Jesus? You can see it in the reactions not of Herod, but of the magi. For what Matthew clearly wants us to see is the contrast between Herod and the Magi. Whereas Herod sees Jesus as a rival king to be wiped out. The magi see Jesus as their rightful king to be worshipped. Whereas Herod goes to great time and energy, expense and inconvenience to try and find Jesus in order to to kill him. The magi go to great time and energy, expense and inconvenience to find Jesus so as to honour him.
You don't have to be a genius to see which one Matthew thinks is the right reaction to have. Don’t do a Herod, who’s reaction to Jesus is to reject him. Do a magi, seek Jesus out, gratefully accept his help and to submit to him. It would be tragic to not do that. One of the world’s most famous pieces of art would have to be the “Last Supper”, by Leonardo De Vinci. Most people have at least seen the image if only in the move “The Da Vinci Code”. It’s that picture of Jesus at the centre of this long table and all his disciples either side of him. Well, the Last Supper was actually painted by De Vinci as a fresco on the wall of the dining room in a monastery. Unfortunately poor old Leonardo hasn’t been too well served by history. The wall began to crumble almost immediately he’d finished painting it, because the monks had only built it with loose dirt. Some early friars even cut a door through the wall, right where Christ’s feet were. Then over time the chamber stopped being a dining room and became in turn a stable, a storage-room, a prison and a barracks! Can you imagine that, a roomful of donkeys, or convicts sharing space with one the greatest pictures in history? And finally to add insult to injury, when they finally decided to restore the painting up a little, some of the restoration was so sloppy as to be scandalous. One artist in particular was so casual about the task that he actually gave James six fingers on one hand! All in all the art world now mourns that such a treasure could be so neglected, so overlooked, so under valued and treated so poorly. But friends if its a tragedy to treat a picture of Jesus like that. How much worse is it to treat the person of Jesus like that, to neglect him, to overlook him, to undervalue and to misunderstand him. That was Herod’s mistake. He let his pride and his ignorance get in the way and so he missed the good news that the birth of Jesus was the coming of a King. A king who certainly does have authority over us but who also loves us enough to come among us and set us free from a punishment we deserve. The appropriate reaction to a King like that is to gratefully accept him and submit to him. That’s what the wise men did. That’s what wise people still do.
Have a wise Christmas.