Reclaiming the Gift

Have you ever stopped to seriously consider the question: "What is a gift?" The New Oxford American Dictionary defines "gift" this way: a thing given willingly to someone without payment. I think that's a pretty good definition, but probably not for the reasons employed by the editors of the The New Oxford American Dictionary.

How should gifts be viewed by Christians? Have you ever thought much about that? I think we need to reform our understanding of what a gift is, because our culture's definition of "gift" is, in actuality, nothing like the dictionary definition and undermines the very thing Christmas is about - the stunning incarnational wonder of the gospel.

In our society, gift giving at Christmas is generally viewed through the lens of social obligation. We each have a carefully crafted list of recipients. Then we create sublists of gift ideas for each recipient. These sublists contain things we hope our recipients will enjoy. Alongside each entry on the sublist, in invisible ink, is our anxiety estimate. We rate each idea not only in terms of how much we think the recipient will enjoy the gift, but we also take note of how much anxiety each idea gives us, should that particular gift idea be received poorly by the recipient. Ultimately, what we choose as a gift for a particular recipient will hopefully maximize the enjoyment of the recipient, while minimizing our perceived anxiety should the gift, for whatever reason, be rejected.

We are, of course, able to judge whether a gift recipient has enjoyed our selection almost instantly based on verbal and nonverbal cues which are, frankly, impossible to conceal. How we formulate our gracious, socially acceptable gift rejection cues will have to wait for another blog post.

In my view, we have largely lost the meaning of the word "gift" in our culture. We actually kill off the wonder of giving gifts because we have become a people consumed with meeting all of the social norms and requirements for a proper "gift exchange." Note that "gift exchange" is a contradiction in terms, at least if you accept the dictionary definition of gift that I cited earlier.

As a result, Christmas can become an insufferable pot of anxiety. We spend weeks worrying about making others happy (which are really worries about making ourselves happy). In fact, gift giving has become, as everything has in contemporary culture, ultimately about “me.” The exchange of gifts has taken on attributes of the contract - both parties must benefit. And that's the opposite of what it means to actually give a gift, because a gift is given without regard to mutual beneficence.

This point was made apparent to me in a recent Wall Street Journal article "The Science Behind Gifting." That word "science" in the headline is a giveaway. The premise of the article is that gift giving can be reduced into measurable categories regarding our perception of the recipient's satisfaction with our gift, as well as our own feelings of warmth and closeness with the recipient. In short, "gifting" as science makes it about the giver rather than the receiver!

This explains why we are always at a loss, and feel guilty, whenever we receive an actual gift. Real gifts give us the heebie jeebies because we are stuck in the only model too many people know - the gift exchange. When we receive an actual gift, what is our response? Part of it is usually spot on: Heck, I didn't deserve this! You shouldn't have! Amen! That's why it's a gift! But then what happens right after that? Guilt drives us back to the model we know ("But, I didn't get you anything"), which gets us plotting a quick response that will somehow get us square with the one who so audaciously broke the social conventions of the gift exchange.

Isn't this an exhausting way to live? How can we ever recover the wonder and joy associated with gifts that are given the way the dictionary, and the Bible, describes?

There is only one way to reclaim our understanding of a gift, and it is cruciform. Christian, you have received the perfect gift (the Father), by the perfect purchaser (the crucifixion of the Son), by means of the perfect giver (the Holy Spirit). We are the utterly undeserving recipients who can in no way reciprocate. The wonder of the incarnational gift of God is that we are cornered and left with only one possible response - joyous praise and worship.

Gospel means good news, and here it is: The utterly unworthy and undeserving have received the perfect gift, God, from God, for the glory of God. Once you understand and believe that, then your own giving will be freed from slavery to social duty and pride, and your receiving will be freed from guilt and inadequacy. Doesn't that sound like more fun than the treadmill of the exchange?

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. (Romans 3:23-25 ESV)

God With Us: Word Made Flesh

Read the Scripture:  John 1:1-18

So much has been written and said about this rich text.  It’s very difficult to condense it down into just a few words.  Someone once wrote that this is John’s Christmas story to the church, and I think that’s a pretty good summary, for this reason: In the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, salvation has come decisively into the world.  I invite you to really think about that for just a moment.  Salvation has come into the world.  So much of what we call “religion” in contemporary society consists of people putting together elaborate lists of rules and regulations so that humans can reach up to God, to come up to God’s level, as it were. We build grandiose edifices and structures and systems in an attempt to obtain the things of God, things that we might find helpful to us in life. Salvation from sin doesn’t work that way.  Salvation doesn’t come to us through us constructing towers and ladders of religion.  Salvation only comes from God directly.  Salvation comes to us by means of the transcendent God of the universe coming down to earth.  Salvation comes to us only when the eternal Word becomes flesh to dwell with us.  When that happens, we get far more than just the things of God.  What we get is God himself in human flesh.  In Jesus we receive, as a free gift, the one true God who speaks to us with his mouth, who sees us with his eyes, and who touches us with his hands.  If we were to try to touch God in our sin, we would be incinerated, just as Uzzah was struck down when he tried to keep God’s most Holy Ark of the covenant from falling into the dirt and mud.  But in Jesus, God incarnate, we instead get stories like the one where Thomas is invited to reach out and touch the very wounds of the Messiah, the Word made flesh, the Word who is God, and not be incinerated.  In Jesus, God has come to us.  That’s just amazing.

The importance of this truth cannot be overstated. This truth alone sets Christianity apart from all other religions in the world.  The essential teaching of Christianity is that we are sinners who, due to our rebellion, are disqualified from ever being with God.  There are no human means by which we can fix this problem.  And so God fixed the problem for us by becoming flesh.

James C. Goodloe IV, preaching on this passage, gives a great summary of the gospel hope in this text.  He writes:

“In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was God.…The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Here we find hope, joy, and gospel. Here we find strength, comfort, and courage. Indeed, here we find love, peace, and life itself. For these three—Word, light, and flesh—address the silence, the darkness, and the loneliness of the world and of our lives. These three tell us the good news that in Jesus Christ God has spoken, God has triumphed, and God has reclaimed us as his very own.”

I love that.  God has spoken.  God has triumphed.  God has reclaimed us as his very own.  So many people live in isolation, in physical and spiritual places of silence, darkness, and loneliness.  Are you living in silence?  God brings his hallelujah chorus to you in Christ.  Are you living in darkness, dreading the future, and dreading death?  The eternal light of eternal life has come into the world!  Are you experiencing loneliness or are feeling friendless?  God comes in the flesh to provide His eternal companionship.  God’s glory is revealed to us in his Son, and here we learn just who the Son is.

He is the Word of God, the agent by and through whom all things were made in the universe.  He wasn’t created, he was with God from the beginning.  More than that “the Word was God.”  That is why Jesus is called God incarnate.  He is God in the flesh.  He ate with sinners and tax collectors.  He was born into this world, the world you are in it now.  This is God who is in the manger! Can you see now how far he came down to save us?

“In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (v 4).  John was sent by God to tell others about the light.  The light himself, Jesus, charges his disciples to go into the world not just to proclaim the light, but to show it to everyone.  Jesus is the true light who enlightens. The only enlightenment we need in life is Jesus.  Do you shine with his light in your life?  Have you been so consumed with passion for him that your life literally beams with joy at the precious salvation you have received?  If so, will you not tell others about it?  Will you not bear witness to it?  This pass year we temporarily parted ways with our brother Arnie Untiedt.  I’ll never forget my last visit with him.  He knew his death was very near, but he couldn’t stop telling me how he was full of joy and of the certainty of his hope in Jesus Christ.  I think he was probably more alive at that time, a leg missing due because due to diabetes, and about to enter into eternal rest, than I had ever seen him before.  That is the power of gospel living.  It’s the power to say to death, “So what?”  or, as Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 15:55:

 “Death is swallowed up in victory. "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

His Own People Did Not Receive Him

[9] The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. [10] He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. [11] He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. [12] But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, [13] who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

As we approach the conclusion of the Christmas holiday, we should be challenged a bit by what John writes here.  The very creator of the world has come, but the world did not know him.  “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”  We should ask ourselves each Christmas, each day, have we missed him?  Have we been so caught up in ourselves and our obligations and duties and shopping and gift given and gift receiving that we actually missed the light of the world?  The question is crucial because it says here that the right to become children of God is given to those who receive him.  Not everyone receives him, and even his own people forget about him.  Children of God will always look to Christ throughout life, because he is the only reason for our hope.

Grace Upon Grace

[14] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. [15] (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) [16] And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. [17] For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. [18] No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

With the coming of Jesus into the world, the glory of God has been revealed to us, full of grace and truth.  That means you cannot know what grace is apart form knowing the Son of God.  You cannot know what truth is apart from Christ, the embodiment of truth.  Perhaps the most precious verse in the 18 we’ve read today is verse 16:  “And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”  The way this phrase is structured in the Greek gives us the full meaning here.  This is not moving from one kind of grace to another, the way a checker moves from one square to another.  Instead, this means those who have received Christ receive grace upon grace, grace that flows forth as a fountain flows from an aquifer infinite in size.  That means our sins can never overwhelm his infinite grace.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  Grace covers our sins by the blood of Christ, and there’s no way our transgressions can exceed the mercy of his grace for those who have received him.  That’s why Christians are counseled to rest in His grace.  There is nothing we can do to earn forgiveness, before or after we receive Christ into our lives.

Before Jesus, before the incarnation of Christ, there was silence, darkness, and loneliness.  These characteristics look like depression, except this is a kind of spiritual depression. Years ago, Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote a book called Spiritual Depression.  The book was written to help all Christians who go through seasons where they feel detached due to sin. David Mathis found this quote and I think it fits here for this first sermon of the New Year, when so many Christians will go about the business of resolution-making.  If you find yourself experiencing theses symptoms of Spiritual Depression, what can be done?  Jones’ writes:

Would you like to be rid of this spiritual depression? The first thing you have to do is to say farewell now once and forever to your past. Realize that it has been covered and blotted out in Christ. Never look back at your sins again. Say: ‘It is finished, it is covered by the Blood of Christ’. That is your first step. Take that and finish with yourself and all this talk about goodness, and look to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only then that true happiness and joy are possible for you. What you need is not to make resolutions to live a better life, to start fasting and sweating and praying. No! You just begin to say:

"I rest my faith on Him alone, Who died for my transgressions to atone."¹

The key to Christian happiness is not to make resolutions to do a bunch of things, to make, as it were, a bunch of new rules to follow in order to secure happiness.  Instead, for Christians who have accepted Christ by faith, the solution to spiritual depression is to once again fall back on what God has already done by becoming like us in Jesus Christ, in every way except sin, so that we might once an for all be unburdened and set free from the silence, darkness, and loneliness of the world.

When God speaks his Word, the universe is created.  When God speaks, healing happens.  When God speaks, sinners are convicted of their sins.  When God speaks, sin is forgiven.  When God speaks, new life is created. When God speaks, the dead are raised. My prayers this new year is that you will hear God speak decisively through his Son, the Word made flesh, and that you will live as someone who is a child of God, so that others may see the glory of God through you.  “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”  We have seen and heard the God who speaks.  He says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me” (Revelation 3:20).  Is his voice speaking to you, right now?  Then open the door and be saved.

Now to the One who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the church and in Jesus Christ to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.

¹Lloyd-Jones, Martin. Spiritual Depression. Eerdmanns: Grand Rapids, 1965. 35.

Given at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Minnesota
January 2, 2011
Second Sunday in Christmastide
Copyright © 2011 by Christopher Donald Drew

Sin, Grace, Joy

Text: Matthew 2:1-23

Right smack dab in the middle of the hallelujahs and hosannas, of gift-giving and feasting and family is this reading – which includes a text commonly referred to as “the slaughter of the innocents.”  This is a text about the murder of innocent children.  It naturally offends our sensibilities, especially given its placement in the lectionary on the first Sunday of Christmas.

Why is it here?  Why does it seem that the lectionary creators are trying to kill our joy with this selection.  What were they thinking?  

I think the story is here because it serves as a wakeup call.  It shows us that in addition to the supernatural angelic hallelujahs and hosannas, there is another response to the arrival of little child whom the angels referred to as Christ the Lord, the anointed King of God.  And the key to understanding the responses is founded upon that little word with huge implications, “King.”  In summary, there are two ways to receive the news of this king’s arrival: Worship or rebellion.  The three parties in this section of the text illustrate this.  You have Joseph, the wise men, and Herod.  In order to get a full appreciation for this, I want to invite you to consider this truth: When you read a gospel, what you’re reading is history, but it is invariably more than just history.  Writers like Matthew are making huge theological points about God and how God operates as they recount these stories.  And what we have in this story, using the three characters, are three statements of truth:

• Like Herod, our natural response to the arrival of the King of the universe is rebellion and refusal to believe. In that state of rebellion, we will attempt to salvage our position by any means necessary.  If that means demeaning or destroying our neighbors, even those who are most helpless, so be it.
• Second: Belief in what God has accomplished for us in Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection is a gift.  The gift is granted entirely by God’s grace when God reveals the truth to us.  Case in point: The wise men.
• Third: That living life in obedience to God’s call requires ongoing grace, faith, even if we are called into exile for a time, as is the case with Joseph and his family.

If the Child Is King, then Herod Isn’t, And We Aren’t

Part of understanding this passage knowing more about who Herod was.  Herod was “King” of the Jewish people, but was really an appointed agent of the Roman Empire, which had control over this region at this time.  Even so, Herod was very jealous of his power and prestige, and he tolerated no dissension or rebellion.  Commentator Dale Bruner writes of Herod: “Jerusalem had reason to be troubled when Herod was because Herod’s troubles inevitably meant the people’s.  Herod had killed three sons of his sons in his mad attempt to retain his crown.  Caesar Augustus had said only partly in jest that ‘it is better to be Herod’s pig that his son.”{1} This was a man prone to explosive, violent excess.  If you posed any kind of threat to Herod, you better run for your life.  Given this information, you can now better understand Matthew 2:1-2. Wise men from the east come to Jerusalem “[2] asking, ‘Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” What does Matthew then say?  Verse 3: “[3] When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.”  Herod’s troubles inevitably meant the people’s.  The reason he is troubled is because someone has been born king of the Jews, which was Herod’s title!  You can imagine now why he was troubled.  How could this even have transpired without his knowledge?  And how could this person lay hold to the title that was rightfully his?

Herod then has a secret meeting with the wise men.  He hears their story, and then asks his own people to consult the scriptures to determine where the Christ will be born.  They give Herod, and the wise men, the answer:  Bethlehem.  And so Herod sends the wise men to Bethlehem with these words, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.”  Right.  Off they go, and they find the child and present him with gifts.  You know the story.  After they worship the newborn infant, the wise men receive a warning in a dream not to return to Herod.  So they by pass him, and head for home.  

Now I want to give you a bit of bible trivial.  When you read Matthew’s gospel, all through chapter 1 and chapter 2, Herod is referred to as “King Herod” or “Herod the King.”  Then the wise men visit Jesus and, in verse 11, worshipped Him.  Thereafter in the gospel, Herod is only referred to by his name.  He’s never again King Herod.  He’s been dethroned by the true king of the Jews! That brings us to verse 13, and Herod, who is troubled with the arrival of the wise men, will become deeply troubled.

What is Herod’s response when he learns that this child has been born and that the wise men have “tricked” him?  He reaches out violently in his attempt to thwart what God has done.  He tries to snuff out God’s chosen King to preserve his now-vanquished position.  He considers that the child is still very young, so he orders the slaughter of all male children in the area, bringing such grief and anguish to the survivors so poignant that even Rachel, Rachel from long ago, the great matriarch who wept for the much later exile of her children, weeps again for this slaughter.

What is our gut response to Herod? If you’re at all like me, it’s to cry out with great injustice.  It is very easy to make this call from here, isn’t it?  These are children.  Killing them to preserve his position should be unreservedly condemned.  Indeed.  The problem for us, though, is not just the crime perpetrated here by Herod.  I believe that Matthew places him in this story for the purpose of showing us how all sinful human beings react when their sovereign kingdoms of self-control, power, wealth, prestige, pride are threatened by the one true God of the universe.  When God comes into someone’s life, so often the response is to lash out, to preserve the fictions of control we’ve so carefully constructed for our comfort and pleasure, even if it means throwing some people under the bus.  In our time, this is repeatedly played out for us in the world of politics, where it’s become commonplace to trash someone’s integrity and reputation simply to preserve power.  It plays out in jobs when someone deliberately undermines the work of another to get that promotion.  When God isn’t your ultimate satisfaction and joy, then drastic measures are considered par for the course in order to preserve our fragile kingdoms of self-autonomy.  Bruner says this in his excellent commentary and I think it’s true for me as well:  Herod is a problem in this text because Herod reveals who I am deep down inside, a rebel king who will do anything to preserve my autonomy apart from the infinitely perfect, sovereign God of heaven and earth.  Herod shows us what we are really capable of apart from God.  It might be slanderous gossip, which is the murder of someone else’s reputation, or it might even be actual murder.

So What Is Our Hope?  God’s Grace

Herod shows us the depths of our sinful depravity.  And we’re all in the same boat, rebels whose natural inclination is to reject God or even remain deliberately ignorant of God.  This is what St. Paul meant when we wrote in Romans 3:10-18:

[10] as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; [11] no one understands; no one seeks for God. [12] All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” [13] “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” [14] “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” [15] “Their feet are swift to shed blood; [16] in their paths are ruin and misery, [17] and the way of peace they have not known.” [18] “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Is there any remedy to this sin problem?  Is there any hope for sinners condemned to perpetual alienation from God due to their sin?  Christmas proclaims with a shout: YES!  The remedy is God-provided.  The remedy is his Son, Jesus.  And the good news is that this remedy is available even to the people we casually assume would never get it.  People just like, say, several wise men from the East, likely pagan astrologers, who come to know Jesus as King.  How do they come to know this?  By God’s revelation to them.  In the popular movie “The Nativity Story” from a few years ago, the Magi begin their journey through complex examination of the sky.  They learn that something big is about to happen, but what they don’t realize at the time is their knowledge is coming from God through their observation of God’s creation.  So God begins to reveal this good news to them first through the creation.  That gets them moving, and when they arrive in Jerusalem they meet up with Herod.  Herod, who is anxious about his title, gets a crack research team working on the problem of where this Christ is to be born.  He learns, that the child who is King will be born in Bethlehem.  Where does Herod’s research group get this information?  From the scriptures!  Quoting from Micah, they report to Herod (who then shares this with the Magi): “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Compare the responses of Herod and the Magi.  Does Herod the so-called “King of the Jews” go to see this shepherd ruler God has promised to the people?  No.  He hears the Word of God, but is as receptive of it as the hard footpath is to the seed cast by the sower. When the seed hits that soil, it bounces off and the birds get it and carry it away.  Hardened hearts are not receptive to the Word of God.  But what do these pagan, Gentile Magi do?  They hasten off to see this king!  They heard the Word of God, even though it was pronounced to them by power-hungry Herod and his servants.

So the Magi have received grace two ways already.  First, they received it through God’s creation, and now they’re received it through God’s Word.  Next, it will be revealed to them finally and most fully in the person of his Son Jesus.  What happens when they see the fullness of God’s glory this way?  Here’s what Matthew write at verse 11: “And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.”  The majesty of God glory and the depth of his grace for sinners was revealed to them fully in the person of Jesus, Son of God.  The only proper response is to fall down to the ground in worship and praise.  And then what did they do?  They parted with precious gifts: Gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  They parted with things most people would never gift up.  They parted with the riches that the rich young ruler was reluctant to give up, having just spoken to God’s only Son, the source of what we often deceive ourselves into believing will give us ultimate satisfaction and security.  These things they laid at the feet of their Infant Lord and King.  They may not fully have appreciated what they were doing at the time, but the Magi unmistakably point to the ingathering of God’s people by grace, which includes even us and all other pagans and sinners.

Joyful, Immediate Obedience

In Herod, the Word of God is naturally rejected and rebelled against by sinners.  In the Magi we see the manifestation of God’s grace even for gentile unbelievers such that they can see God.  In Joseph, we see how this revelation by God brings with it faith and obedience.  Joseph has received God’s word by means of revelation and responds to it faithfully.  He is called by God to pick up suddenly, and take Mary and the newborn child to Egypt, because they learn that Herod seeks to destroy the child in order to preserve his position.  There is no hesitation on Joseph’s part.  He obeys the command because he has received from God the grace of knowing who the child is, when he was visited in his dream and heard this word:

[20] But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. [21] She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Beloved, look deeply at the bible, at the Word.  Look at what is proclaims to you today.  The Word of God has been read and proclaimed and the person of Christ has been revealed to you in glory.  He is the one who “will save his people of their sins.”  He accomplished this because, like these innocent children, he will be slain. But his death on the cross is radically different, because in it he bears your sins and my sins, even the darkest, most heinous sins, like murder, and kills them.  If you believe in him and what he has done, and believe that God accepted this sacrifice for sin by raising Jesus from the dead, then you will be saved for a life of joy that cannot ever be found in any earthly treasure, free from guilt and fear.  Merry, merry Christmas.  Amen.

{1} Bruner, Frederick Dale. The Christbook: Matthew 1-12. Wm. B. Eerdmans: Grand Rapids. 2007.

Given at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Minnesota
December 26, 2010
First Sunday in Christmastide
Copyright © 2010 by Christopher Donald Drew

The Dragon Is Defeated

Text: Luke 2:1-20

This story in St. Luke’s gospel is powerful, despite its familiarity. It’s a bizarre mixture of earthly things and heavenly things.  The story is nothing less than an account of how God tore open our “boring” reality and came down to us, becoming as we are, ordinary.  He came into the world as we all do, through the birth canal of a woman. He entered the world in an unsanitary place, wrapped in some cloths and laid in the animal trough, a “manger”, the place where livestock slobber.  No fancy bassinet with cushy bumpers for Jesus.  Just the smell of dung and dirty bedsheets.

And amid all of this ordinariness, miracles are breaking out all over.  Not with the landed gentry, mind you, but with the dirty, stinking, low-class shepherds.  Those dudes received as an unmerited gift a fireworks show of Godly proportions.  First one angel, breaking into the night air with the glory of God’s fire all around, speaking the words we sing about each year, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  The Christ?  The Messiah?  The anointed King of God?  And then the angel said, “And this will be a sign for you.”  At this point, the early readers would probably be anticipating something fantastic, mind-blowing, extraordinary.  Instead, this is the sign, “You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”  What was that?  You just said a king was born?  What on earth is he doing in a trough?  What kind of king is this?  But before the questions could be asked, suddenly the multitudes appear, singing God’s praises for this great thing that has been done. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.”  Thus, any hesitation on the part of the shepherds of the news of a king lying in a manger was wiped out.  Off they went to see for themselves what God announced by means of his angelic messengers.

This is an odd story because it’s filled with things we expect and things we don’t expect.  It’s a strange blend of ordinary human events and ordinary heavenly events (which are highly un-ordinary to us!). We are so familiar with this text that we miss out on its fundamental oddness.  Moreover, we’ve tampered with the story to domesticate it, to make it more palatable.  So now we see images and movies complete with halos, warm, comfy hay, and the glow of the campfire illuminating the cherubic face of the newborn Christ. As a result, we miss the biggest thing of all, the defeat of the dragon!

I know what you’re thinking.  What dragon!?  There’s no dragon here in Luke.  Just nice angels, clad in white robes, bearing harps as they fly through the night sky singing hallelujah.  But why are they singing! What is the reason the story of this ordinary birth is celebrated by God’s heavenly messengers?  The reason for the singing is the defeat of the dragon.

What Dragon?

The dragon is not, of course, explicitly mentioned in the gospels.  He is found, however, in the one other place where Jesus’ birth is mentioned, the book of Revelation.  Specifically, Revelation 12.

[12:1] And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. [2] She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. [3] And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. [4] His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. [5] She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, [6] and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

Are you beginning to see the reason for the angelic celebration? What has happened when Jesus was born?   The dragon was thwarted!  His intention was to devour the means of salvation for humanity. But the infinite, sovereign God outsmarted him.  Instead of consuming the child born of the woman, her son instead goes up to the very throne of God to reign!

Who is this dragon?  Revelation 12 continues thus:

[7] Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, [8] but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. [9] And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. [10] And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. [11] And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. [12] Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

Ah, the dragon is that ancient serpent! The one from Genesis, the one who tempted Adam and Eve, who then disobeyed God, and distorted all of their progeny with sin.  The same one who, despite his defeat, would tempt Jesus in the wilderness.  The same Satan who is my enemy and your enemy, and whose fury is constantly at work in the vain attempt to undo the finished work of Christ.

The Ordinary Birth Is the Defeat of Satan

Now the celebration song of the angels can be understood a bit better, can’t it? What the birth of Jesus represents for you is the defeat of your chief enemy and accuser, Satan. He has been defeated by this child and no longer has any power over you.  The cause of his ceaseless accusations against you, your sin, has been forever wiped out by the blood of the Lamb who was slain.  This little boy, lying in this dingy manger, by his birth, life, and sacrificial death has redeemed you.

I look at this story so much differently now than ever before.  Now I read this account in Luke and wonder that this God we worship would condescend, come down so low, break into our sinful world, and redeem my soul from certain destruction.  Beloved I’ve been so convicted of my sin this week, and how utterly unworthy I am of his grace.  I read this story in Luke and want to cry out, “WHY ME?” Why on earth would you consider me worth saving?  Perhaps you wonder this as well.  You’re here and your family is in turmoil.  You personal life is in ruins.  The reason for that chaos is sin.  Satan, you see, although he is defeated, is still at war with the saints.  The dragon’s time is short, and so he has intensified his attacks in fury and anger. But for those in Christ there is certain victory. For those who are in Christ, all hell can be breaking loose, but the victory is sure and certain.  That is why we rejoice this night!  That is why we sing with the angels!

You may be here tonight in deep turmoil.  The reason for that turmoil is sin.  You are just the kind of person to whom this child came as dragon slayer.  He is here to slay the dragon and all his works in your life – sin and guilt, death, disease, loneliness, and exile.  He invites you into this grand story, where the dragon is defeated by the Light of the World.  He invites you to believe this story, this true story with real dragons and real sin and real death, this story which actually has a real beginning, when a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered, the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria somewhere between late 6 and early 5 BC.  The real story has a joyous ending in his blood shed for you, confirmed and sealed by his resurrection from the dead.  By believing in Him, the bright morning star, the babe in the manger, all is forgiven, past present and future, and a new life of joy and obedience begins.  So come, gather around the manger, and witness the utter defeat of the dragon by this tiny newborn baby, the one who has been swept up into heaven, and the one who will slay the dragon’s hold on your life, if you will only believe in him, the one Lord Jesus Christ.  Believe in Him, trust Him for your eternal security, and the dragon’s claws will forever be struck from your body and your soul, and you will be granted a robe made white by his precious blood.  Believe and be saved and enter into God’s Sabbath rest!  The gift is here.  The dragon has been defeated. As the writer of Hebrews has said:

[6] Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, [7] again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

“Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts.”

The dragon has been slain, beloved.  You are invited to come and adore your King, the one who saved, or will save you from the dragon today.  All thanks and praise to God.  Amen.

Given at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Minnesota

December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve

Copyright © 2010 by Christopher Donald Drew

Posted via email from The Central Point