I am just beginning a series on knowing who we are in Christ. An accurate sense of our self-image or our identity is a critical element in our walk with Christ.  God has gone to great lengths to reveal who we are in his Son and so that knowledge must be essential. The very first thing God reveals about us in his written word is that we are made in the image of God.

As Genesis unfolds, we soon discover that God not only had a burning desire to create a universe but, at least on one planet, he had a desire to create living beings made in his own image. Since God is love (1 Jn.4:8), I believe his very nature prompted him to create man so that he could multiply his expressions of love and receive love as well. A mother’s yearnings to have children must be slightly akin to the yearning that God felt to create us.

I must admit that the idea of being made in the image of God is a bit mind-boggling. Theologians have debated exactly what that means for millennia.  Whatever it means to be made in God’s image, it certainly means that we have enough characteristics in common with the Creator to communicate with him, to give and receive love from him, for his Spirit to take up residence within us, for deity to put on flesh and live as one of us, to think as the Father thinks, and to be called his children and his friends …not his pets.

The Psalmist declared, “What is man that you are mindful of him…you made him just a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor” (Ps.8:4-5). Of all creation, including powerful and majestic angels, only man is said to bemade in God’s image. Scripture implies that we have even greater standing in heaven than his awe-inspiring angels. Although we were made a little lower than the heavenly beings, Paul reveals that those of us who are in Christ will actually sit in judgment over angels (I Cor. 6:3).  In addition, the writer of Hebrews tells us that the angels were created to minister to or serve those who will inherit salvation (Heb.1:14). That includes you.

This blog will come out on Christmas Day.  It is a day for reflecting on the amazing truth that God has made us in his own image and, in doing so, values each of us enough to give us the gift of his Son, wrapped in flesh and destined to be a sacrifice. We tend to view Christmas through the lens of Hallmark movies and Christmas cards that depict the nativity as clean, bright, and serene. You know… a peaceful Mary and Joseph with contented cows lowing in the manger and antiseptic, bright sheep bleating in the background.  The shepherds are there along with the three wise men in clean, royal robes looking as they just caught a limo from the Bethlehem Hilton.  Our view of the birth of Jesus is quite sanitized.  As we do that, the cost of God, putting on flesh and being born to a virgin in a small village in Israel is often overlooked.

The cost of his entry into this world began nine months earlier. It began with fearful encounters with angels who had to calm Mary and encourage Joseph.  The birth of the great King began with scandal as this unwed virgin first had to break the news to her fiancé that she was pregnant and later face her family and friends who were “surprised” at how quickly she became pregnant after a hurried wedding.  Joseph’s first response was a plan to divorce her since she had clearly violated her vows with him.  It took the visitation of an angel in a dream to convince him that she might have been telling the truth when she shared her outlandish story of being impregnated by the Holy Spirit. I suspect Joseph questioned his dream from time to time in the following years that they were married. In her ninth month, Joseph was called from Galilee to Bethlehem to register in a census. It seems that things back home must not have been that good for her to feel compelled to take that journey with her husband.  Most probably, the birth of Christ was in Spring rather than the winter since shepherds would not be in the fields at night with their sheep, except in the lambing season of March and April.  Still it was a hard trip and even a dangerous trip for the little couple  nine months pregnant.  There is no evidence that any family members from Nazareth travelled with them, which again suggests that the pregnancy of Mary had not been celebrated back home.  After the birth, they remained in Bethlehem instead of returning to their hometown which again points at a scandal back home that they did not want to try to explain away once more.

The wise men showed up two years after the birth, when they had first seen the “King’s star.”  Mary and Joseph were in a home in Bethlehem by then, not a stable. The wise men’s visit with Herod was not very wise and their audience with him set in motion the death of many innocent Hebrew boys as a result.  Before Herod acted to protect his throne from the threat of this rival king, Joseph was warned in a dream to pull up stakes and disappear into the nation of Egypt.   God had funded the trip with gold, frankincense, and myrrh but they were still a hunted couple on the run in a foreign land where Hebrews were not particularly welcome.  There was more, but I want you to think of the cost of God coming into this world on our behalf… even on the front end. Thirty years later, the ultimate price would be paid for our ransom but this who entry into the world of man came at a great cost to one who had sat on a throne in glory hearing only his praises sung by angles before entering into a world of insult, danger, poverty, and pain.

Jesus not only died for you, but was born for you. Born into scandal he became a political refugee before his second birthday and his parents feared discovery by Herod for years after his birth.  Mary and Joseph did return to Nazareth after their stint in Egypt, but I’m certain that questions still remained about Mary’s pregnancy, the birth of this child, and where they had been for two years.  First century Palestine was not as relaxed about pregnancy outside of marriage as we are.

The only conclusion is that you are of amazing and extreme value in the eyes of God. Made in his image might mean many things, but it certainly means that you have great significance, even greater than the angels themselves. Not only did God make you, but he redeemed you even after we, as a race, had rebelled against the king.  So, this Christmas celebrate Jesus, but also celebrate who you are in him…crowned with glory and honor and made just a little lower than the heavenly beings.

I love Christmas. Even though it has been secularized and commercialized, beneath all the misplaced cultural debris, there is still a promise that calls out to the hearts of men. I believe it is the promise of peace, which is the secret longing of every person I know. I’m not talking primarily here about world peace, but rather about the peace in a man’s heart.

The prophet Isaiah spoke to this promise hundreds of years before Christ when Israel was in great turmoil and the future for that little nation seemed dark and foreboding. In the midst of that darkness he declared, “ Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this” (Isa.9:5-7).

On the night of Christ’s birth, the angels echoed this prophecy when they declared, “Peace on earth, good will towards men.” This little verse in Isaiah contains amazing revelations of God’s heart towards his people and a promised world to come. The revelations are much more easily seen this side of Christmas and the cross than they were then, but even then they were full of hope.

Of course, from the days of David, God had promised that an heir of King David would sit on David’s throne and rule the nation in righteousness. The promise had a condition. God would establish the throne of David as long as his descendant was faithful to the Lord by keeping all of his commandments. Many kings in Judah came to the throne, but one by one they failed to finish out their reigns in righteousness. As the years passed, the Jews began to long for the Messiah – an anointed one of God who would be the one promised. He would have to be a descendant of David from the tribe of Judah but he would be the chosen and righteous one about whom the prophets spoke. They, of course, saw him as the deliverer – another Moses who would deliver them from centuries of oppression by foreign nations. Because so many “promising” kings had failed to live up to the standards of the prophecy, some Rabbi’s began to suspect that a man of flesh and blood would never fit the bill so that a Son of God himself might have to enter the world and take his place on David’s throne.

This little section from Isaiah speaks of that Messiah. Interestingly, he would not descend from heaven in power and glory to take his throne – at least, not at his first coming. Instead, he would do the incomprehensible. He would become a child and enter the world through a Jewish virgin’s birth canal who grew up in the backwater province of Galilee. “Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isa.7:14). Immanuel means “God with us.” Again, we see these prophecies from this side of the manger, but for the Jews these bits and pieces of Messianic prophecies it must have been incredibly puzzling and hard to piece together much like the end-times prophecies we struggle to make sense of.

But here is what we do know. “To us a child is born. To us a son is given.” This child was a gift to men. Jesus did not come for his benefit, but only for ours. Jesus was not commanded nor compelled but came as a gift. John spoke of this when he said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…” (Jn.3:16). The world was a dirty place then – full of sin, violence, idolatry, witchcraft, sexual perversions, wars, and power grabs. It was a world like today, only without the Internet. Yet, in spite of all that, God still gave us a son.

We are told immediately that God sent his son into the world to govern. Man had been given authority to govern the earth in the beginning but had quickly forfeited that rule to Satan. But now, God was promising to take back the rule of planet earth. The government would rest on this child who was also “God with us.” He would establish it, direct it, and sustain it by his power and righteousness.

This son given to us would eventually be known by many descriptive titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. For the Jews, trying to connect the dots between a child born of a woman being called Mighty God and Everlasting Father was problematic. They did not have the revelation of a triune God that we have and, even with that revelation we still struggle to get our minds around that concept. But the truth is that no man born in bondage to sin could fulfill that role. Jesus was born capable of sin but not in bondage to it because he was a product of the Holy Spirit rather than a sinful father. The everlasting descriptor gives us what the Jews of Isaiah’s day never had – the assurance that once this righteous king ascended the throne, he would never die and vacate his position to an ungodly predecessor who would call down God’s judgments on the nation once again.

A significant revelation is found in the nature of the kingdom. Notice that he was not described as a king who would come to crush the opposition and establish his throne with the blood of men. He came to establish his throne with his own blood and to love his enemies rather than annihilate them. His throne would be established by wise and wonderful council and, instead of being known as Jesus the Terrible, he would be known as the Prince of Peace. His goal was not to be war and conquest, but peace on earth. He came first to reconcile men to God and then to one another.

Christmas reminds us of that promise that is yet to come in its fullness. As we sense the best about Christmas – love, generosity, joy, reconciled relationships, surprises, etc. – we sense the character of the world to come when Christ will sit on David’s throne and rule with justice and righteousness forever. Think of a world without conflict, without natural disasters, without divorce, without death, without corruption, without cancer, without war, without slavery, and without shame. Think of a world where no hospitals are needed and where terrorism isn’t a word in the dictionary. That is the world to come and those peaceful, quiet, loving, and unselfish moments you sense or glimpse or hope for at Christmas time is the promise of things to come. The angels announced God’s intent – Peace on earth, good will towards men.

That promise still stands and God will fulfill that promise because he declared, “The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this!” Take the best of Christmas and it’s deepest ideas and know that those qualities are God’s ultimate desire for you and for all those who love him. It is just a taste of the good things to come.

This, of course, is the time of year when thoughts turn to Christmas. Our emotional response to Christmas can be complex and varied. For some it raises warm memories of traditional church plays filled with children, family, delicious food, and a warm house filled with love. For others it registers disappointment and memories of not-so-good Christmases stained by alcohol or emotionally toxic family members. For others it raises the grieving memory of making funeral plans for a loved one on Christmas Day and for others sheer loneliness as they sit in an empty house with no one present to share the day that should be about giving and receiving, loving and comforting, laughing and belonging.

As I have been thinking about Christmas this year, the Lord simply reminded me of how much our redemption cost. We tend to compartmentalize Christ’s sacrifice and suffering to Easter – his arrest, his abuse, his crucifixion. Passover and Easter certainly highlight the incredible cost of our salvation but it not only ended that way but also actually began that way.

Christmas cards sanitize the Christmas story so that it is almost unrecognizable. Susan and I have already received a few with Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus serenely surrounded by adoring animals in a pristine manger along with appropriately awed shepherds and joyous angels. There is some truth in all of that but it misses the point. The Christmas story begins with Gabriel appearing to Mary in the backwater town of Nazareth. Luke tells us that at his appearance, Mary was greatly troubled. The original Greek would amplify this word to mean confused and deeply troubled or distressed. The angel greeted her first but then added quickly, “Do not be afraid.” You don’t need to say that unless someone is visibly shaken and beginning to panic.

Gabriel then goes on to tell her that the Holy Spirit is about to fall on her, impregnate her, and she will have a son whom she is to name Jesus. He will be called the Son of the Most High and he will reign on David’s throne forever. That’s a lot to take in for a 13-year-old Jewish girl brought up simply, humbly, and traditionally. The true implications of what the angel had just said were probably not comprehensible…except the part where she would be pregnant without having gone through a wedding ceremony and without her marriage being consummated with her fiancé Joseph. Surely her first thoughts were about the impossibility of telling Joseph and her family and the almost certain unlikelihood that anyone would believe her.

The liability of being seen as an adulteress must also have loomed somewhere in the back of her mind. Adultery in those days was taken very seriously and was still punishable by death. In Jewish culture, her engagement was considered marriage although the sexual union could not occur until after the ceremony. To break the engagement required a divorce process. Apparently, her worst fears were realized when Joseph discovered she was pregnant and decided to divorce her quietly. Undoubtedly his heart was shattered by her perceived unfaithfulness and he carried as much shame in the tiny village of Nazareth as she did. Her story was unbelievable even to him until an angel confirmed what she had been telling everyone.

We are not told of the family’s reaction to Mary’s pregnancy and her unbelievable story, but Mary and Joseph’s trip to Bethlehem gives us some insight. According to Luke, Caesar issued a decree for taxation that required the head of each household to register in certain cities. Joseph was a descendent of David whose lineage came from Bethlehem, so off they went on a ninety-mile trek with Mary being very late in her pregnancy. She was not required to go to Bethlehem but went anyway on a trip that probably not only put her at risk but the child as well. To me the only explanation is that she was not particularly welcome in Nazareth even by her family and at the birth of her son there would no joyous occasion as she had always envisioned. She had also lost all of her dreams for a three-day wedding feast with her proud family and friends and the wedding night in which she and Joseph would consummate their holy union. So she went with her husband to a place in which they were apparently unknown to discover, on top of everything else, that no lodging was available.

A manger, a small barn or cave, was available where she would have to make do with some fresh hay while being surrounded by the smell of animal urine, feces, and barn rats. No family members travelled with them to help with the birth. Apparently, no midwife was available in Bethlehem. Joseph and Mary must have felt somewhat abandoned by God and family and must have felt very alone and even scared. They were probably wondering where the blessings were for their obedience because, day by day, things had not gotten better but worse.

Outside of Bethlehem, another disturbing scene was unfolding. In the middle of the night, shepherds, who were minding their own business, were suddenly confronted by angelic visitors. Luke simply says they were terrified. Of course, the angel said, “Do not be afraid” and eventually calmed their nerves with news that Messiah was being born to them and could be found in a stable in Bethlehem. Eventually that night, they found the stable and shared with Mary, who must have been exhausted, what had happened.

Another insight to the atmosphere of shame, gossip, and suspicion back in Nazareth was that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus did not return to Nazareth after the birth. As far as we know, two sets of Jewish grandparents had yet to see their grandson. Matthew tells us of the Magi, wise men or astrologers from the east, who had followed the Star of Bethlehem to find this newborn King of the Jews. This was apparently 18-24 months after the birth of Jesus. It looks as though Mary and Joseph had simply settled in there. These unexpected visitors from the east showed up unannounced and brought gifts of gold, myrrh, and frankincense to Jesus. Mary and Joseph must have been relieved to receive such a nest egg for the family and began to believe that peace and blessings were finally coming their way. Maybe he could expand his business or they could build a little home. But they immediately discovered that these were traveling expenses.

Herod, hearing from the Magi that a king was being born just seven miles from Bethlehem, determined to kill this threat to his own throne. Joseph and Mary were warned in a dream to flee the region and so suddenly became political refugees to Egypt. Herod, in order to secure his throne, simply had every male child in the vicinity killed that night – a night that became known in Jewish history as the Slaughter of the Innocents. So far the Christmas story is not just a story of angelic visitations and good news, but also a story of fear, shame, rejection, loneliness, the loss of dreams, and of a little refugee family fleeing their homeland for several years to live once again among strangers where Hebrews had once been slaves.

In my last blog, we reflected on the accounts of Christ’s birth as presented in the gospels. They barely match the idealized sweetness and serenity of our cultural version. In our scrubbed version, Mary peacefully sees herself as blessed above all women to be carrying the Son of God in her womb and Joseph serenely stands by as her faithful companion. Life is never that easy, even when you have had visitations from angels.

I try to put myself in Joseph’s place when I think of the story and I imagine that there were still questions in his heart about his bride. Did he really have a visitation from an angel or was that a dream manufactured from his subconscious to deal with her unexplained pregnancy? And what of Mary? Did she sense the doubts in her husband? Did they talk about it or just push ahead? Why would she travel so far from home in the last month of pregnancy to sign up for a census with Joseph? Her presence wasn’t required. Wouldn’t such a trip put the child at risk? Perhaps, it was just easier to travel than to endure the accusing looks of neighbors and relatives if she had stayed at home.

Philip Yancey puts it this way. “In contrast to what the cards would have us believe, Christmas did not sentimentally simplify life on planet earth. Perhaps, this is what I sense when Christmas rolls around and I turn from the cheeriness of the cards to the starkness of the gospels…Luke tells of a tremulous Mary hurrying off to the one person who could possibly understand what she was going through: her relative Elizabeth who miraculously got pregnant in old age after another angelic annunciation. Elizabeth believes Mary and shares her joy, and yet the scene poignantly highlights the contrast between the two women: the whole community is talking about Elizabeth’s healed womb even as Mary must hide the shame of her own miracle. In a few months the birth of John the Baptist took place amid great fanfare, complete with midwives, doting relatives, and the traditional village chorus celebrating the birth of a Jewish male. Six months later, Jesus was born far from home, with no midwife, extended family or village chorus present” (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p.3; Zondervan).

This is not to say that God’s grace was not present for the couple but it contrasts our scrubbed view of “away in a manger” with the sacrifices truly made by those who carried the Living Word into the world. The traditional village chorus that gathered around a family when a son was born was provided by our heavenly Father in the fields outside Bethlehem when angels sang to shepherds. We have no record that Mary heard the chorus except through the report of shepherds she did not know. After signing up for the census, the gospel’s indicate that Joseph and Mary stayed on in Bethlehem rather than returning to their families in Nazareth. Perhaps, that is another indicator of how unwilling family and neighbors were to accept the story.

Matthew tells us that magi (wise men) came from the east to see this new king. These astronomer/astrologers had seen a new star and assumed it was a sign for a great king. They probably came from the area of Babylon where the prophet Daniel had prophesied that a never-ending kingdom would be established in the days of certain earthly kings. Perhaps their study of his writings led them to Israel when this “new star” appeared.

They first stopped to see Herod and ask if he knew where this “new king” was staying so that they could worship him. Herod blessed their search and asked them to let him know as soon as they found this child. The magi were warned in a dream and returned home without notifying Herod of their find, but Herod consulted his Torah scholars who suggested that Bethlehem might be a likely place. Herod immediately issued an edict to kill all the male children in Bethlehem under the age of two according to the time that the magi had first seen his star. That suggests that the Jesus was perhaps 18 months old at the time, since Herod would want to give himself a margin of error for destroying any potential rivals to his throne.

The magi found Mary and Joseph still in Bethlehem in a house, not a stable. By their gifts, God funded Mary & Joseph’s flight to Egypt to escape Herod’s death squad. And so, the King of Kings, born in a stable to poor parents, became a political refugee to Egypt to avoid death. So why did God choose this hardship for the birth of the Savior?

Yancey puts it this way: “Nine months of awkward explanations, the lingering scent of scandal – it seems that God arranged the most humiliating circumstances possible for his entrance, as if to avoid any charge of favoritism. I am impressed that when the Son of God became a human being he played by the rules, harsh rules: small towns do not treat kindly young boys who grow up with questionable paternity” (Yancey, p.32). When the writer of Hebrews says that we have a high priest who understands our struggles, he does not exaggerate. I also believe that the struggles of Mary and Joseph taught them to depend totally on God for direction, protection, and provision which was their legacy to this Son of God born into the world who also had to learn those things.

So I love the homey feelings of Christmas and even the idealized Christmas cards we see because they reflect the serenity that Jesus, through his suffering, has placed within our hearts. But the hardship of the first Christmas increases the value of the gift – a gift of love and sacrifice. It also raises the question of risk. God entrusted himself and our salvation to simple parents in a hostile world who still had the free will to ignore his directions and dreams sent their way or to simply refuse his offer of being God’s instruments for bringing his Son into the world. Love risks and so God risked it all and placed it in the hands of a young couple whose faith completed the task. May we have faith to complete the tasks he has assigned to each of us and let’s be thankful this Christmas for the gift that did not come easily. Blessings in Him.

Thanksgiving has blasted by and we are speeding toward December 25, Christmas Day. I am hoping to slow our place soon so that I can absorb some of what Christmas is all about – the great gift of Jesus to a lost and dying world. Every Christmas I return to one of my favorite authors who always helps put the frantic pace of Christmas back into perspective. The author is Philip Yancey and the book I go back to is The Jesus I Never Knew. I want to share some of his thoughts and some of my own in an effort to help you recalibrate this season if you, like me,  need some help.

Yancey reflects on this season when he says, “Sorting through the stack of cards that arrived at our house last Christmas, I note that all kinds of symbols have edged their way into the celebration. Overwhelmingly, the landscape scenes render New England towns buries in snow, usually with the added touch of a horse-drawn sleigh. On other cards, animals frolic: not only reindeer but also chipmunks, raccoons, cardinals, and cute gray mice…The explicitly religious cards (a distinct minority) focus on the holy family, and you can tell at a glance these folks are different. They seem unruffled and serene. Bright gold halos, like crowns from another world, hover just above their heads. Inside, the cards stress sunny words like love, goodwill, cheer, happiness and warmth. It is a fine thing, I suppose, that we honor a sacred holiday with homey sentiments. And yet when I turn to the gospel accounts of the first Christmas, I hear a very different tone and sense mainly disruption at work” (Yancey, p.29).

I am struck with how right he is. If we were to ask Mary and Joseph about the birth of Jesus, they would probably not remember it as serene, soft, and warm at all. I just reviewed our Christmas card batch so far this year. Most say nothing about Jesus. Many will have a very photogenic family on the front and a sweet sentiment for the holidays. The ones that do picture Jesus are neat and tidy and cute…one with the baby Jesus in a clean, warm cradle with a star shining serenely in the sky and a small lamb lying next to him. I’m sure that before the 25^th we will receive cards with angels surrounding the Christ child in adoration and with three richly dressed wise men bowing at his feet.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the cards and I love our friends who send them. Ultimately, we will all be surrounded by the peace and tranquility depicted on these cards and hopefully that peace rests in our hearts now because of Jesus. But, the point is that the first Christmas probably did not have that ambiance at all. To forget or clean up the Biblical account, in one sense, dulls our recognition of the cost of our salvation from beginning to end. We think of Christ’s suffering at Easter, but his birth and early years were no picnic either.

“Christmas art depicts Jesus’ family as icons stamped in gold foil, with a calm Mary receiving the tidings of the Annunciation as a kind of benediction. But that is not at all how Luke tells the story. Mary was “greatly troubled” and “afraid” at the angel’s appearance, and when the angel pronounced the sublime words about the Son of the Most High whose kingdom will never end, Mary had something far more mundane in mind: ‘But I’m a virgin!’ Matthew tells of Joseph magnanimously agreeing to divorce Mary in private rather than press charges (for adultery), until an angel shows up to correct his perception of betrayal” (Yancey, p.30-31).

To forget how human Mary and Joseph were somehow erodes some of the miracle from Christmas and also lets us forget how reluctant most of God’s heroes have been from the beginning. Moses begged God to send anyone but him to Egypt to free the Hebrews. Jeremiah argued that he was much too young for the job. Gideon claimed that he was a nobody and that no one who even think about following him into battle. Mary and Joseph were not born into powerful families. They were not great leaders in their community. He was a handyman and she was a teenager in a small, backwater town that we would probably have never heard of if Jesus had not grown up there.

From the outset, God’s entrance into the world as a human child created fear, confusion, doubt, gossip, accusations, feelings of betrayal, and estrangement as well as feelings of wonder and hope. It’s not so different today when he intrudes. Think of Muslims today in the Middle East who are experiencing the Man in White coming to them in dreams and visions and then discovering that he is Jesus whom they have been persecuting. Suddenly, their world is turned upside down. The faith that they thought was sure is rocked to its very foundations. Who will they tell? Who will believe them? Perhaps, their very lives are on the line because Jesus has come to them. What will their family say and what about the religious officials?

Mary had to feel much of that. Her fiancé’s first response was that she had been unfaithful. Divorce was the proscribed approach or even stoning if he were to insist on the letter of the Law. Even if he had no doubts about his angelic visit vindicating Mary, many would have believed that they, as an engaged couple, had jumped the gun and made up a preposterous story about an angel and an impregnated virgin. Nothing is said about their immediate families or about a wedding. Most likely it was a hurried, private affair meant in some way to cover up the inexplicable. Undoubtedly, Mary’s girlish dreams of a wonderful Jewish wedding filled with family, dancing, and blessings went unfulfilled. Joseph’s dream of his wedding night with the girl he loved, when their marriage would be consummated, vanished as well. So, let’s add disappointment to the feelings they associated with the upcoming birth of the King of Glory.

The greatest gifts often come with a huge price tag. The gift of Christmas came with a huge price tag not only for the Father, but also for those who God would use to bring his Son into the world and care for him in the days to come. When I reflect on the Lord’s sacrifice and the sacrifices of those God used, I am overwhelmed with a sense of thankfulness – which is the heart of Christmas. Let’s slow down at least enough to be thankful for the amazing gift available to all who will believe. More thoughts coming. Blessings today in Him.

No matter how great the Christmas holidays, if we are sensitive to our hearts, most of us will still sense a longing for more. That feeling clearly arises when holidays have been disappointing or even hurtful but we typically chalk it up to unmet expectations, people letting us down, or losses we have experienced around this time of year. A dear friend of ours lost his wife Donya to cancer Christmas Eve morning and that feeling of loss, helplessness, and even anger at the injustice of death may be anchored to lights and Christmas carols for seasons to come.

But I believe there is more to it. For the season that was birthed out of the coming of a Savior, there is a special sense of “what ought to be in the world” – peace on earth and good will toward men. There is a sense that families should be gathered together surrounded by crackling fires, extravagant food, lighthearted laughter, and warm memories. When those things don’t appear we feel robbed. But even when they do, there still seems to be an emptiness or a longing lurking in our hearts when the last friend or family member drives away.

I believe that little prick of emptiness is a longing for heaven that God has placed in our hearts. Christmas, at its best, gives us a faint echo of the way things ought to be and the way things are in heaven. Joy to the world can only come from heaven. Our Father’s intention was that we would live in harmony, abundance, and joy. His intention was that people who loved one another would never be separated by death or distance. His intention was that people would live in safety and in communities where people felt at home, supported, and connected. The world, even at its best, falls short of heaven’s promise.

But there are moments around Christmas when we can sense the presence of heaven. Perhaps, we sense it in a warm hug given and held by people we love or a Christmas card reminding us of friends far away. Perhaps, we sense in it children’s laughter or the warm smiles of family and friends around the table as we share the fellowship of lovingly prepared food. Perhaps, we sense heaven’s peace in the quiet of a chilly night with Christmas lights in the distance or when we notice God’s stars in the sky for the first time in a long time. Perhaps, we even sense heaven in the excitement of packages being unwrapped and the surprises that emerge. All of that, speaks to me of heaven and the longing we have is to be home where every day feels like Christmas and the family is all together without the brokenness or bitterness of this world intruding on God’s plan.

If this Christmas left you a little empty or left a vague feeling of disappointment, you are not alone and you are not defective. Ultimately, it is the Father calling you home and the promise that your hunger for love, laughter, and security will some day be satisfied for all those who are in Jesus – the Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God and Everlasting Father (Isa.9:6). When Christmas falls short it is not God letting us down. It is the sin that violates every intention of God that gets in the way, but when Christmas blesses in even the smallest ways that is a gift from heaven, purchased by the blood of the Lamb, calling us home. Pay attention to the blessings rather than the disappointments for each blessing is a touch from Jesus.

It’s Christmas Eve. Today millions of believers around the world will be finding ways to celebrate and remember the Father’s great gift of his Son to the world he created.   Such an act reveals or continues to confirm a number of things about the Father that we must remember in both good times and bad. The first revelation is the depth of God’s love for people – both the saved and the lost. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” (Jn.3:16).

The incarnation of God – Immanuel, God with us – is a greater miracle than the creation of the universe. How does the infinite become finite? How does the one through whom, for whom, and by whom all things were made and hold together (see Col.1:16-17) shrink himself down, lay aside the powers of deity, and entrust himself to any part of humanity that has demonstrated its moral failings over and over again? It’s a remarkable thing that God would become part of his creation and play by the same rules as mere man with so much on the line. God loves but he is also a daring God.

Perhaps, it was necessary. I love Philip Yancey’s analogy in his book, The Jesus I Never Knew. He tells the story of taking care of fish in his aquarium. He talks about how he lovingly prepares a place for his fish to live, how he creates a safe and perfect environment for them, how he cleans the water, adjusts the temperature and feeds them every day. He is their protector, provider and sustainer. And yet, each day at his approach they run and hide with no seeming awareness of his good intentions. Yancey explains that he would have to become one of them to communicate who this great shadow is that hovers over their world from time to time and the good will he has in his heart toward them In essence, that is what Jesus did for us. However fearful we may have thought God to be, Jesus said, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” Jesus shrunk himself down, took on bodily form, and spoke our language so that some, at least, might stop running and hiding from the very one who loves and cares for us.

Even more remarkable is the fact that the Father, Son, and Spirit all knew that this Christ-child was born to suffer a tragic and painful death. The death of Jesus was no surprise. John tells us in Revelation 13 that Jesus was the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Every animal sacrifice, every Passover lamb slaughtered since the Exodus pointed to the stark reality that an innocent one would have to die for the sins of the guilty so that man could be reunited with his God once again. Knowing what awaited him, Jesus was still willing to be born into a world bent on his destruction.

On top of that rests God’s greatest gamble of all – free will. I believe free will is a necessary extension of love. God is love and love is never satisfied until love is returned. And for love to be love, it must be chosen not programmed in. For God to be loved by man, man must also be able to reject him. That is apparently true for the angels as well. The rejection of God is the door through which all evil comes into the world. To disallow evil is to disallow choice which is to disallow love. The irony is that in order for love to exist, God must allow free will to hurt the very ones he loves. Jesus would experience both love and hate, both tender embrace and the nails of Calvary. But to reclaim those who would return God’s love, heaven was willing to subject Jesus to the free will of man and for Jesus to face life on the same playing field as the rest of us.

On that field he was born into a poor, working class family in an obscure village in Israel. His mother and father were subjected to suspicion and shame due to the unlikely circumstances of Mary’s pregnancy. He wasn’t born into a palace surrounded by the best Jewish doctors available but in a stable with no friends or family at hand. When threatened to be slaughtered by Herod, angels didn’t take out the wicked king, but instead the little family, carrying the hope of the world, became refugees to Egypt where they hid for several years. He was loved by many but judged and hated by many more. He found friends but also betrayal. Jesus became like us, entered our aquarium, and eventually took our place on a cross. On the night of that entrance angels declared, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Lk.2:11).

The Christmas story is truly the risk of love and God becoming one of us so that we might finally understand who had been moving over this aquarium we call earth.   May we run to him rather than hiding from his presence on this Christmas Eve.

When I first came to Christ I was part of a denomination that prided itself on Biblical knowledge and a commitment to be “biblical” in everything they did which is a value every believer should hold. However, because of their approach to biblical interpretation, they held great reservations about Christmas. There were no Christmas trees or decorations to be seen in any faithful church that belonged to that fellowship. No sermons on the birth of Christ were ever presented in the month of December just to make a point. The idea was that nothing religious should be connected to the holiday season.

These devout believers blacklisted Christmas as an ancient pagan holiday “baptized” by the Catholics centuries ago or because there is no biblical command or authorization for the holiday. To celebrate Christmas was to embrace something pagan or to “go beyond that which was written.” They argued that nowhere in scripture were we commanded to celebrate Christmas (or Easter for that matter) and doing so would violate scripture. The odd thing was that many of these faithful families would participate in the secular side of Christmas but would not celebrate the birth of Christ in relation to the season.   Any impulse or yearning to do so shrouded the season with a vague feeling of guilt or participation in some kind of ancient pagan ritual. Since my early days as a believer I have continued to discover other fellowships that also maintain those “anti-Christmas” positions although those groups may be dwindling.

For many years now I have embraced celebrating Christmas. For any of you who suffer from doubts about Christmas as day to celebrate Jesus or know those who do, I want to share my theology about that with you, hoping to brighten your holidays.

First of all, I will readily agree that scripture does not command us to keep Christmas. We have no definite date for the birth of Jesus and no record that the first century church did so in any way. If celebrating a season or a day that is not “authorized by command in scripture” is adding to that which is written and adding to that which is written is always sin, then keeping Christmas might just be sin. However, God is not religious and the heart behind many things is what makes it acceptable to the Father or unacceptable.

The gospels make it clear that on the last Passover Jesus and his followers met together to share the Passover meal, two elements of which were appropriated by Jesus as a memorial we call the Lord’s Supper or communion. In that meal, Jesus took a cup of wine (probably several times) and declared that in years to come it would represent his blood – the blood of the new covenant. I may have missed it, but nowhere in Old Testament do I find a command to drink wine at Passover. I see roasted lamb, bitter herbs, and unleavened bread (Ex.12:8) but no wine. The cups of wine were added through the years by religious leaders as symbolic reminders of spiritual promises and events but I do not see wine “authorized” or commanded in scripture. Yet Jesus freely participated and even appropriated that “tradition of men” into sacred communion. To participate in something that is not specifically commanded in scripture cannot always be wrong or be sin or Jesus sinned. If something honors God or points us toward Jesus in the spirit of scripture, we may be on solid ground even if it is not specifically commanded.

The apostle Paul also speaks to the issue of “holy days” not strictly authorized in scripture. As a former Pharisee, he certainly was sensitive to “going beyond that which is written.” Yet he says, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” (Rom.14:4-5). Paul makes it clear that if I want to celebrate Christmas unto the Lord I have the Lord’s permission and if I want to disregard it all together I also have his permission. The biblical principle is not to I judge those who hold a different view or insist that others hold the same view as I do. Our freedom in Christ allows either approach as long as I am doing what I do unto the Lord.

.

Thirdly, Christmas in the spiritual sense reflects the nature of God. God loves to remember and celebrate! All through scripture, God’s nature is reflected in festivals for the faithful in which they were to remember what God had done for his people and to celebrate – not just for a day but for weeks! Joy is a constant quality of the kingdom and a fruit of the Spirit. Even under the Law of Moses, joy and celebration were to mark the people of God. “Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh.8: 9-10).

To me, Christmas passes the litmus test for remembrance, joy, celebration and an event that points us to the goodness of God in Jesus. We are also commanded to give honor to whom honor is due and Jesus certainly deserves to be honored. So…let’s celebrate as the angels and shepherds celebrated the entry of God into the world and have a very merry Christmas!

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.     Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. (Lk.2:10-11)

The birth of Christ was declared to be good news by the angles who announced his birth. Good news, of course, is the definition of the word gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news of Jesus Christ. In this verse, the idea is linked to the title of Savior. If you’re drowning and someone shows up on the scene who can save you – that’s good news. A world drowning in sin and hopelessness needed some good news and that was Jesus! It is still the same today.

The declaration of good news by angels to shepherds in the gospel of Luke was not the first use of that term related to Jesus. In Isaiah 61, the prophet who spoke often of the coming Messiah, declared on behalf of the one who would come, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn” (Isa.61:1-2). This is one of the great Messianic prophecies and it gives us some significant insights into the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Somehow in the past 200 years the gospel of Jesus for many has simply become the message that Jesus died for our sins so that we could be forgiven and live forever in heaven. If that was all the gospel promised, that would be more than enough but the truth is that it offers much more. The “good news” referenced in Isaiah 61 includes the healing of broken hearts, freedom from every form of bondage including sin, release for those who have been imprisoned in spiritual darkness, and the declaration that God is for us rather than against us. Too many believers have lived a Christian life believing that the extent of Christ’s power in their lives was forgiveness. As a result, they live forgiven but not transformed. They live as if freedom from bondage, addictions, fear, depression, and all the other things that hinder the witness of believers is only available after their funeral. They seem to believe that forgiveness is for now but transformation only comes in heaven. But that is not the gospel.

The good news the shepherds heard 2000 years ago was that not only will your sins be forgiven in Christ but the power of Christ will make you into a new creation in this world as well as the world to come. If you were to read the next few verses of the Isaiah 61 passage you would see the word “instead” mentioned several times. The prophecy promises that when Jesus came the lives of people would be drastically changed. In Christ they would exchange ashes for a crown of beauty, mourning for the oil of gladness, and despair for a garment of praise. In each life there would be radical reversals – not just the forgiveness of sin but radical transformation.

Yet how many of us know long-time believers whose lives and conditions are hardly different from those who don’t know Jesus at all. Sometimes, they remain in the same condition in which they met Jesus because they don’t know what has been made available to them through the cross. The announcement of angels that a Savior had been born was intended to communicate that this Savior would not only deliver them from sin but also from their brokenness and their bondage. That is a gift worth celebrating. That is a gift you definitely want to unwrap and yet many believers leave most of the packages Christ has purchased for them under the tree. They leave the gifts unclaimed because they don’t know what’s in the boxes nor do they know that those presents are for them. This Christmas you may want to seriously consider all the gifts in heaven with your name on them and begin to confidently ask God to release those gifts into your life because in the Kingdom of Heaven, every day is a day to celebrate Jesus and every day is Christmas.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isa.7:14). For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. (Isa.9:6-7)

These are two of the great Messianic prophecies of Isaiah that are traditionally connected to Christmas. Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 in relation to the birth of Jesus (Mt.1:23) as one of the definitive signs that the Messiah had come. These verses reveal the mind of God regarding the birth of his son and give us some insights that should be recalled at Christmas.

First of all, Jesus is God. Through the prophets, God wanted us to know that he was coming and that he would be coming as a man. Immanuel is descriptive because it means “God with us.” From this side of the cross and the resurrection the idea that God came in the flesh is still difficult to wrap our minds around but before the cross and the revelation of the New Testament it would seem impossible to understand.

The Jewish view of God was one of power and glory rather than in infant who needed to have his diaper changed by a teenage girl from the backwaters of Galilee. Isaiah’s vision perfectly depicts the Jewish revelation of God. “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa.6:1-3). To make the incarnation even more difficult to grasp, John tells us that the glorious one Isaiah saw in his vision was Jesus (see Jn.12:41). Imagine now the Word of God seated on a throne in heaven, huge in stature and glory, surrounded by powerful angels singing his praises. Now imagine that same God being reduced and somehow poured into the womb of a tiny Jewish girl.

Even more amazing than the miracle of an infinite God becoming a finite human is the willingness of God himself to do such a thing for a fallen race. Why would such a God come to live among us and to be one of us? In the book by the same name, Job cries out to God and asks, “Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a mortal sees? Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a man” (Job 10:4-5). His complaint was that God was judging him without really knowing what it was like to be a man subject to weakness, pain, and temptation. After the birth of Christ, that complaint was answered because God would experientially know exactly what it was like to be a man subject to all the hurts, disappointments, and losses of this world.

In addition, Isaiah confirmed that Jesus was God’s greatest and most perfect gift to his people. “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” Certainly, we did not deserve salvation. Certainly God was not obligated to do anything for us. And yet, the God who is love was compelled by his love to give himself in the form of a son to ultimately make things right in a world that had gone terribly wrong.

Not only would Jesus answer our sin problem by his sacrifice but he would also rise from the dead to take his place again on the throne he had occupied when Isaiah got his glimpse of heaven. From that moment on Jesus assumed the title and role of King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is already the Prince of Peace and Wonderful Counselor to those who know him and we are moving toward his return when all the earth will be under his rule. There is a mystery about the Trinity for Jesus will also be known not only as Mighty God but Everlasting Father whose rule will be without end and whose imprint will be that of peace. That peace was declared at his birth by angels who sang, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men upon whom his favor rests” (Lk.2:14). The incredible gift that brings peace to those who believe now and to an entire world later – that is the spirit of Christmas. I hope you will find some time for peace during this season for Jesus is our peace.