So what is it about Christmas that we miss year after year? While it is a happy and joyful time for most, why do some find it the most depressing, lonely time of the year? Can we make it so that happiness and joyfulness last longer than a few weeks and perhaps even bubble out throughout the following year?
Perhaps the key is within the story of Christmas itself. The birth of Jesus was the advent of a whole new way of life for mankind...peace with God. Let’s take a moment to ask one thing… exactly why were those angels so happy when they announced His birth? What was the temporal and eternal meaning of that event for us? In a word: reconciliation. Reconciliation between God and man, and mankind to one another. A very basic definition of reconciliation is to bring into harmony or make compatible, things which were once opposed.
God visited us to put His beauty on us.
Isaiah 1:6 tells us that, since the fall of man in Adam, the heart of natural man in the eyes of God looks like this:
“From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified [soothed] with ointment [oil].”
Fallen man has become an object of abhorrence to God and needed to be reconciled by the death of His Son.
Think of the headlines these days. You can’t open a newspaper, watch television, surf the internet or watch television without hearing about one of the top three headliners: Coach Bernie Fine, who served as the assistant basketball coach at Syracuse University for 35 years, and was fired in November over allegations that he sexually abused boys; or Jerry Sandusky, Penn State Defensive Line Coach charged with sexually abusing young men; and in Colorado’s own backyard, Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick Sullivan, who was once known for his no-nonsense style and a concern about teenage drug use, now stands accused of using meth to solicit sexual favors from men, along with getting former drug users back onto drugs for the same.
Ugly. Dark. Disgusting. Repulsive. “What an abhorrence!” we declare, and rightly so. It is terrible what we are seeing being played out in the media of late. Atrocious acts against innocents, and what is even more disheartening is the caliber of people who once were “decent folk”, visited their own darkness and somehow got stuck there.
Yet, according to scripture, that’s how God viewed ALL of mankind without Jesus. Face it. Everyone has had moments of darkness in their lives. Even if you have never acted on it, you have thought it. Everyone is guilty because anything that is contrary to the perfect will, purity and holiness of God, is sin. Whether in thought or deed.
God knows this. He knew it from the beginning. And His answer was Jesus.
That is why the song of heaven the night of Jesus’ birth was the song of RECONCILIATION:
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
(Luke 2: 13-14)
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
(Luke 2: 13-14)
God’s response to the darkness of mankind born through sin was this:
Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ - and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked - I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. (Revelation 3:17-18).
The greatest need we have is reconciliation to God (God’s good will toward man) and to one another (peace on earth). Peace with God and peace with each other. Only when we attain that are our souls truly content. Since the fall of Adam, we have been broken and damaged in relationship to God and one another.
God sent Jesus to heal that breach and to bind up our spiritual wounds.
He visited us to put His beauty on us.
So, what is the greatest gift we can ask for and expect to receive this Christmas that will satisfy the longing of our souls and bring temporal and eternal contentment in our lives? Reconciliation. Being reconciled to God through Jesus and reconciled to each other. The great exchange. The ongoing process of exchanging our darkness for His light and our sin for His righteousness.
God sent Jesus to satisfy the legal penalty for the sin of mankind, past, present, future; big or small; yours and mine, and yes, even Sullivan’s, Fine’s and Sandusky’s.
Dear readers, the best gift I can offer you this holy/holiday season is not an eloquent writing, or clever anecdotes on timely topics... but simply... Jesus. The business of life is messy. So, I challenge you to do that little exercise of considering the worst thing you ever did and the worst thing you ever thought of doing... and one step further... the worst thing that has ever been done to you; then invite the beauty of God, which is peace, reconciliation and forgiveness wrapped up and offered freely in the person of Jesus, to visit and rest upon you this Christmas and always!
That is the message of Christmas.
Dear readers, the best gift I can offer you this holy/holiday season is not an eloquent writing, or clever anecdotes on timely topics... but simply... Jesus. The business of life is messy. So, I challenge you to do that little exercise of considering the worst thing you ever did and the worst thing you ever thought of doing... and one step further... the worst thing that has ever been done to you; then invite the beauty of God, which is peace, reconciliation and forgiveness wrapped up and offered freely in the person of Jesus, to visit and rest upon you this Christmas and always!
