A Setting For A Coming

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, good will toward men. Luke 2:13-14

Seeds of ambiguity have been sown among believers, as to whether Christians should observe the Christmas celebration. Some have gone as far as deeming it a pagan practice, yet a look at history will not affirm this. Christmas has its origin, not in paganism, nor in edicts of Emperor Constantine, but in the church. That's right! The church has always set aside a day to celebrate the birth of Christ. While no one knows the day that Jesus Christ was born, the day of observance was not first December 25th, but January 6th. Some say it was a syncretistic change of date, meant to merge Christian and pagan worship. However, history does not produce the outrage, debate, division, or bloodshed that such a motive would have occasioned. Rather history is more aligned with the idea that, in agreement, the church sought to counter pagan observances by moving the Christmas celebration. This seems clear not only by the absence of resistance, but confirmed by the fact that this was not the only holiday moved as a counter measure to pagan observances.

While history of this sort is very meaningful and one should be careful in either contradicting or abandoning the long standing traditions of the church, there is still a higher authority that sets forth a pattern of celebrating the birth of Christ.

The angels celebrated the birth of Christ, for they sang "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Not only did the angels celebrate the birth of Christ, but the shepherds celebrated the birth of Christ, "And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen." Not only so, but eight days after Jesus was born, there in the temple, Simeon the priest celebrated the birth of Christ saying, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." And after him, a widow who served continually at the temple, the prophetess Anna, she celebrated the birth of Christ, as she gave thanks "and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem." About two years later, the wise men arrived at the home of Mary and Joseph and they celebrated the birth of Jesus, "and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh." Is this not a pattern of celebrating the birth of Christ to be imitated?

For 400 years God had shut up heaven. Since the prophet Malachi, there was no word, no revelation, no prophet, and no preacher. Isaiah described the conditional context of the advent of the Savior as a drought, dry and unfruitful ground, a land filled with crusting and cracking river beds. And then an emerging greenery came into view, a shoot out of the parched dirt, and the consoling sight of life, the hope of fertility.

This is the setting, circumstance, context, background of Christmas. The setting for the coming of Christ is the extended silence of heaven broken by the heralding voices singing angels. For the one who understands the setting in which the birth of Christ occurs, it not only commands the celebration of Christmas but it demands the celebration of Christmas. Moreover such shallow religion that does not affirm the celebration of Christmas, one may rest assured that it is neither biblical nor Christian.

Ministry that Draws

While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live... And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment (Matthew 9:18 & 20)

Here we have an episode of two daughters: one dead and one dying. But Jesus is the God of wholeness and resurrection. Jesus is the answer to whatever ails us; He will give life to the dead and wholeness to the hurting. The paradox here is that the faithful will follow Jesus; and consequently, Jesus will follow the faithful. He will follow the faithful …to his home …to his job …to his community …to his church. Here the ruler, the dead girl’s father, came to Jesus not with doubtful request but with faithful admission, confession, acknowledgment, recognition; “My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.” This was not a commanding of the person of Christ, but a commendation of the power of Christ: “I know what will be so, if You will to do so.”

In the mist of Jesus’ journey to this faithful politician’s home he is touched by a faithful commoner, a woman with a lineage problem, an issue of blood, she’d been battling with for 12 long years… no open confession or outward vocalization, as popular theology claims to be essential to the formula, but speaking in herself… motivation in her heart… resignation in her mind… determination in her body.

And that is the point: this Christological ministry is characterized by its drawing power; it will draw rulers and regular folk. What a comparison made in this passage: On one hand, a politician, a man of nobility, somebody in the community; on the other hand, a common woman. And perhaps “common” or “regular” is my extreme overreaching for alliteration. She is in all likelihood less than common, at the very least due to her issue of blood, of which the number 12 indicates symbolically that the curse was inherited. Literally, for 12 year she was shunned by peers and ousted from the community; she was considered unclean. While the ruler came to Jesus in some sense standing, this woman actually came crawling. And in my years of hearing about this woman in countless sermons, I have heard all sorts of mystical meanings poured into the significance of the “Hem of His Garment”. However, it is apparent that the touching of the hem points not to Jesus, but to the lowliness of this woman, her dyer condition, and her utter rejection by the masses. The ruler could get to Jesus face to face; crowd and all, yet who would make room for this defiled woman? What right does she have to an audience with Jesus? Yet the contrast is just that, Jesus was not too busy helping somebody to stop and help nobody; because, nobody to men is still somebody to Him.

Often the lofty believe that the lowly is not Jesus’ kind of people and the lowly thinks their condition automatically puts them in the way of God’s grace and mercy. This passage says neither is true. Such determination is God's business alone and our business is to lift Jesus up and receive whosoever He draws. God is respecter not of persons but of the faithful; that is the common denominator here that merited the reward of God. Christological ministry draws the rich and poor, the lofty and lowly, the Jew and the Gentile, the bond and the free, men and women, the rulers and the regulars. God is a rewarder of any and all who faithfully seek him.

Let your moderation be known

Philippians 4:5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

The challenge of the Christian life is to learn how to walk out high mountain peaks and deep valley lows as though it were constant level plain. The Christian life is to be lived with a balanced perspective. That is to not get too high with the highs and not to low with the lows. The temptation is to be carried away by mountain top pride which says, “I deserve to be up so high,” or valley low pride which says, “I don’t deserve to be down so low.”

Although one’s current experience is peaking, he should expect that the valley is his next destination. And although one may be going through a valley, he should bear in mind he will not be there always. The Apostle calls it “moderation” in this verse; just a few verses down he calls it contentment; elsewhere the scripture calls it temperance. Simply put, no situation must cause the Christian to be out of sync.

And here is the moderating factor, “The Lord is at hand.” It is not that God is ever absent from the Christian’s experience, but that the Christian fails to realize that the Lord is near. And I’ve been there, where the problems of the day made me forget that the problem-solver was with me, where my broken heart made me numb to the finger of the heart-fixer tapping me on the shoulder; where my confused and troubled mind caused me to ignore the voice of the mind-regulator speaking in my ear. In my mind the circumstance had more power than the Lord who was there with me, who promised to never leave me, nor forsake me. Although He was really present, His presence was not a reality to me.

And Paul said that the goal is not merely internal moderation, but the manifestation of the moderation, so that it is experienced by all men, although it will exceed their understanding. And it should, because the Lord, the moderator, the one in control, is a present reality. And He will moderate you: keep you calm when your husband walks out; take you through the doctor’s terminal diagnosis; leave you at peace when your baby boy is facing a prison sentence; cause you to acknowledge and trust Him when your job plays out. You can see what others can’t, the nearness of the Lord’s proximity to your situation. You can hear what others can’t; His soothing voice whispering in your ear. You feel what others can’t, the intimacy of his very present help in your time of trouble. You smell what they can’t; the sweet smelling fragrance of your sacrificial obedience that is well pleasing to God. You can taste what they can’t, that the Lord is sho’nuff good.

And The Serpent Said

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die (Genesis 3:4)

Our fore-parents appeared to have had everything: a home, food, occupation, instruction, all in the presence of God. Often when the blissful state of Adam and Eve is examine, one concludes, “I would have never given up what they had.”

However, a more careful observation of this passage reveals that there is something they did not have. They did not have “knowledge” or “maturity”. No! Adam and Eve were not zygotes wearing fig leaves. They were created with the appearance of age. It was as if they were old when they were in fact brand new. It seemed as if they had been here, when they had actually just arrived. They were fully grown infants. And they wanted what they did not have; they wanted to know.

And we too want to know. Every toddler is on a great exploration from one thing to another. This desire does not cease by one simply coming of age. As teenagers, the longing to know the world away from our parents’ oversight, instructions, and restrictions, seems to overwhelm us. We all want to know: to see, to hear, to feel, to taste, to touch for ourselves. And the Genesis 3 cycle is repeated in the microcosm of our own lives, as we are attracted to Satan’s suggestions, romanced by his reason, and cuddle his alternative, assuming we will be the better having gone his way.

Whatever the variety of our temptation, it all boils down to a type of antinomianism: freedom from restriction, freedom to explore whatever we will, and freedom to eat from our own forbidden tree. Not even one restriction is acceptable. And therein is the serpent's subtle suggestion, “Any restriction is bondage; any limitation is God’s attempt to keep you from your potential.”

Moses warns of the subtlety of Satan’s approach: His craft employs the silky smooth disposition of a serpent. He shocks Eve into opening a door of dialog by making an overtly false statement that all the trees are forbidden. He then suggested to her the need for independent thought; because, God’s word is meant to hinder and not help. Finally he sold her on the idea that they would be better off after eating from the tree in spite of God’s command. And they got what they wanted, only to find their eyes opened to the fact that they did not need it.

Let Us Also Go, That We May Die With Him

John 11:16 Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.

The disciples had been with Jesus in Bethany and had faced tremendous opposition. Now word had come to Jesus that Lazarus was dead. The disciple’s fears caused their ears to dull and fail to hear what Jesus was really communicating in saying, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.” It was not that Jesus was saying something difficult to understand, but that they did not want to hear what Jesus was saying about going back to Bethany.

And that is us; we will embrace the death of our friends, so that we save our own life. We are afraid to embrace Jesus’ view of things; because, it will challenge our cheapened ideas of our true responsibility, to even those we call friend. We are afraid to hear Christ; because, He might be saying something that we really don’t want to hear.

Amid their apparent confusion, their subliminal rationale is clear; the question of their hearts is “Why should we die for going to see a dead man?” Yet Thomas, often characterized as a “doubter”, and maybe so, speaks up, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Even here, he certainly seems to be a bit more pessimistic than optimistic. He is pessimistic about the outcome, but faithful to the journey.

On one hand, we certainly want to be careful to extol the virtues of looking at a difficult journey with a sense of confidence and expectation of the master to do something extraordinary. This is blessed, for it allows one to experience peace, joy, hope, faith, patience, etc. on the journey. Then too, on another occasion, Jesus admonishes Thomas about this unfruitful tendency toward skepticism.

On the other hand, I want to point out in this situation that Thomas’ pessimism does not erect a blockade to his commitment and his encouragement of his fellow disciples to go as well. Maybe it would be helpful to increase the adjectives we employ concerning Thomas. Perhaps we could say “honest” Thomas; because, he did not disguise his fear in dishonest religious rhetoric. Maybe we could call him, “encouraging” Thomas; because he leads by beckoning a like response from his fellow disciples. Most assuredly we may call him “committed” Thomas, for he is willing to follow Jesus even unto death.

Whatever, the case, Thomas was faithful, as faith is not the absence of fear, but courage to overcome fear with unwavering commitment to face deadly opposition with Christ for the salvation of a friend.

He Hath Remembered

He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations (Psalms 105:8)

God hath remembered; that is, in some sense, what He has promised, the psalmist has experienced.

And what does He remember, not your words, not the popular but pseudo ideal of name it-claim it, blab it-grab it, call it-haul it, but He remembered “His word!” That which He spoke! He spoke it to Abraham, and to Isaac, and to Jacob. He did not first speak to David, yet He spoke concerning David, before David was. And He spoke it, inscribed it, preserved it, to reveal it, to David when he arrived.

Yet, He did speak to the psalmist, there at his daddy’s house; concerning His portion of the promise, David’s place: the throne of Israel. Just so he could experience God for himself, and partake in the promise. so he could say, “He hath remembered!”

And I have found it necessary in my own life to be careful what I promise to my children, for they will call to my remembrance that which I may have said perhaps casually and passively. However, God never speaks in vain; He never says anything as a matter of momentary appeasement.

And what He says to you is both personal and impersonal. Yes what He says is about you, yet it is at the same time about every one of those who are His. What He says to you in a personable way is yet so universal as the speak to a thousand generations.

Isn’t that something, God’s plan for you is bigger than you, than your immediate family, than your extended family, than your offspring to the third and forth generation; in fact He is bigger than the beginning and the ending. He controls all the events of history. And this is the kind of God you need if He is to remember His covenant to you: general enough to be particular, particular enough to be general.

There are those persons: mom, dad, sister, brother, and even dear friends who have made promises with the greatest intention and determination to fulfill every word, only to be thwarted by a bed of affliction or hindered by a meeting with death. They promised without their own finitude, limitations, and contingencies in view, blind to life’s fading tomorrow and forgetful of the emergencies of yesterday.

Yet in your every right-now moment God is presently in the bitterness of your long nights and in the sweetness of your bright mornings. There is no obstruction to His view of tomorrow; there are not any emergencies to interrupt His course, nothing to break His promise. When you arrive at your long awaited place of resolve, in retrospect, you will realize that He has not forgotten what He said concerning you.

And His Name Shall Be Called

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

A governor is known by His people’s characterization of him:“a name.” This name is not a formal name, but and nickname of sorts.

And every man is looking for a man, a man he can believe in, a man he can trust. He wants a leader that is consistent and a guide that is sure. He wants an idealist that is a realist; he wants a realist that is an idealist. He wants a man that can and will provide, protect, and preserve. He wants a man that he can name: miracle worker, teacher, comforter, divine and eternal.

And what man has not failed the test? What man’s strength has not waned? What man's threads have not worn thin and revealed the vileness of his nakedness and imperfection? What man’s vices have not competed with his virtues?

There have been other leaders: the Pharaohs have come and gone. The Caesars have come and gone. Alexander the Great, Xerxes, Napoleon, Winston Churchill, all have been leaders which stood head and shoulders above other men. Yet their powers, philosophies and plans have fallen short.

But here is a man that does not will to power; He is power. He does not seek to be virtuous; He is virtue. He does not desire to be King; He is King. He can’t be exalted; He is exaltation. And since He cannot go up, He comes down: down the mountain of His divinity, down into the valley of humanity, down through forty-two generations, down into a lowly manger, born as a child, given as a Son.

And what is His political strategy? Winsomely, He awes us; with clarity, He instructs us; with tenderness, He comforts us; with power, He subjects us; with efficacy, He immortalizes us. He’s a governor, perfectly divine enough to become perfectly human. He‘s a man that is lofty enough to condemn, but lowly enough to console.

So what does His people say of Him? They have been awed by Him standing on the deck of a boat and taming the storm; so they say He’s wonderful. They have been instructed by Him going up into a high mountain and revealing the path of blessedness; so they say He’s a counselor. They have been comforted by Him telling of their place in His Father’s house; so they say He’s the prince of peace. They have become worshippers by Him showing His nail-scarred hands and pierced side; so they say He’s the mighty God. They have been assured immortality by His resurrection from the grave; so they say He’s the everlasting father.