The One
A Christmas Story
PROLOGUE For an apostate culture, it is interesting to me that many of our popular movies are about heroes that rise to the occasion, suffer in the process, and ultimately save the day. I’ve written about this before in Hope. You may remember a recent trilogy, The Matrix, in which Neo, The One, was long awaited and destined to save the remnant of unplugged humanity from extermination by The Machines. I wonder if the denizens of Hollywood knew that the plot was stolen right out of the pages of God’s Word, the Bible. Could that be? Examine movies of this type and you’ll unmistakably realize it is a common theme. Accident? I think not. And it points to an often overlooked and rejected, even archaic and primitive idea that there is something in us, written on our hearts if you will, that longs for a Savior. Not only is it our culture, it is a theme that runs throughout history and religions, the hero god, the king, the leader that triumphs over evil and sets things aright. However, it is important to note there is only one that makes the audacious claim, “You shall have no other gods besides me,” coupled with the even more audacious claim to have become human and declare, “No one may come to the Father except through me.” No wonder we killed Him, as if that would take care of the matter. The One I refer to is, of course, Jesus Christ, the babe of Bethlehem, the Wonderful Counselor, the Savior, the Prince of Peace. He came. He died. He is risen. And He will return. This is the story, beginning to end. The Christmas story starts with the baby Jesus, but that is only the first episode. The second ends with the cross of Calvary and the ascension of the risen Lord. The third episode has not been released yet, but He is coming, O glorious day! I can hardly wait!
And so…
For unto us a child is born…
We all know the Christmas story. The little baby, born in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, his arrival heralded by innumerable heavenly angels; this was a sight that so terrified the shepherds tending their flocks, that one of the angels had to say to them: Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Christ, the Lord (Luke 2:10,11). And off they went to Bethlehem in a hurry. Of course, a year or two later there were also the wise men, the Magi, Babylonian astronomers who’d seen His star rising in the east and came in search of the King, to bring Him gifts and to worship Him. Prior to His birth, Mary had been told by the angel Gabriel that his name would be Jesus, which means “God saves,” because he will save his people from their sins. In another dream, Joseph was told the same thing, but the Gospel of Matthew also references the Prophet Isaiah: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). God with us and He will save His people. It’s a lot to lay on a little guy.
Before the Sky
Not everyone was happy about the new arrival. When the child was brought to the temple in Jerusalem for the ritual cleansing ceremony after eight days, Simeon a temple priest took Jesus in his arms and warned Mary in Luke 2:34,35, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul also." Thus, Jesus was born with enemies: Herod the Great, jealous of a new King, killed all male children two years and under in and around Bethlehem, in what is called the “Slaughter of the Innocents.” However, God had conveniently warned Joseph in a dream that the child should be taken to Egypt for safety. A while later, in another dream, Joseph was told that Herod was dead and it was safe to return to Galilee. Pay attention to your dreams! Back in their home town of Nazareth, the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him, but there were enemies yet to come.
… unto us a son is given…
We don’t know much about Jesus in his youth. We do know he had some siblings. We also know Joseph was a carpenter, so presumably, Jesus learned carpentry from his father who may have died before Jesus began his ministry. He was brought up in a devout family and they customarily traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover festival every year. Here we get an interesting glimpse into the mind of young Jesus in Luke 2:42-52:
And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day's journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." He said to them, "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.
It seems that Jesus had been entertaining the teachers in the temple for four or five days. I don’t know about you, but a twelve year old child would not likely hold my interest for the better part of a week unless, perhaps, it was my grandchild. But “all who heard him were amazed” presumably at his knowledge of the Law and the Prophets. Having been a Professor, however, I can appreciate all these teachers gathered around this bright “prospect” and perhaps hoping he would become a student. Unfazed by his parents’ anxiety, in true rabbinical fashion Jesus returns a question with a question, “Did you not know I must be about my Father’s business?” Then he returned to Nazareth with them, was obedient and grew in favor with man and God. From these texts we can see that Jesus knew from early in his life that he was on a mission for his Father.
… Wonderful Counselor…
Fast forward almost twenty years and in the Gospel of John, we see Jesus attending a wedding in Cana, four miles distant from Nazareth, with his mother and a few of his early disciples. We don’t know why the wedding is unmentioned in the other three Gospels, but it it is held that there Jesus performed his first miracle, turning water into wine; and good wine it was! From there he was on a schedule: preaching, teaching, healing the sick, and casting out demons. Huge crowds followed him and at times, he fed them; always he taught them. If it was possible, he was even more popular and widely traveled than John the Baptist, who baptized Jesus to fulfill the Old Testament prophesies and at which time, God the Father affixed His imprimatur upon Jesus by the descent of the Holy Spirit and the voice from heaven, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”
So Jesus, the teacher, the brilliant expositor and interpreter of scripture, the healer, the friend of sinners and the lost, deliberately went on to antagonize the religious hierarchy, the scribes and pharisees who had perverted the Law and the Prophets. He identified them as enemies of God, and calling them the “brood of vipers” and “children of the devil” did not endear Jesus to the Jewish establishment. Naturally, they plotted to have him killed by proxy, using the governing authorities; and Romans were serious about maintaining the peace, the status quo. For a while, the scribes and pharisees were thwarted in their aim to have Jesus killed because the crowd loved what he was doing, working signs and wonders, miracles. But that was about to change due to the treachery of one of Jesus’ own.
… suffering Savior…
Jesus clearly knew he was destined for the cross. He knew it well in advance and told his disciples so on multiple occasions. His words in the 24 hours before his crucifixion quite poignantly remind us that this was the Father’s will. We have the institution of the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, as a prelude to his agonized prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if this be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.” For God to be separated from God seemed utterly incomprehensible and impossible, yet it showed how far God the Father would go to demonstrate his love for us. A verse nearly everyone is familiar with says it most succinctly, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” On the cross, the justice and love of God were satisfied. As I wrote in my previous essay: Simple. Accept and believe the story. Believe with faith that Jesus went to the cross willingly, of his own volition, and there died, dead and buried on Friday. But, is that the end of Jesus? No? That seemed to be the end of dreams of the Messiah, the Christ. Friday was a dark day indeed. His flock scattered. His disciples fearful of retribution. And… he was betrayed by a kiss from a friend.
… Mighty God…
Dark days indeed. It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming! A popular song goes, “With his life, he loved me. With his death he saved me. Buried, he carried my sins far away. Rising, he justified me forever, O glorious day!” Jesus the Son is the example, the archetype, the “instruction manual” on how we are to live, who we are to be, how to please God the Father. One problem; God the Father demands perfection, righteousness, perfect rightness with Him, but scripture tells us, there is none righteous, no not one and the penalty for sin is death. Quite a predicament. How will the righteousness and justice and love of God be satisfied? Not so simple. Inconceivably, He sent His Son to die in our place, the propitiation, the appeasement of God’s wrath for our sin, so that we might live. “The righteous shall live by faith.” Wait, wait! What was that? There’s none righteous! Say that again, “There’s none righteous!” What a dilemma! Oh my! How can we be saved? We are not righteous. Oh my! God the Father demands perfection. We are not perfect. Oh my! We are doomed. Doomed indeed.
Stay close. The cross, the penalty for sin, is life for us who believe? Crazy, but true. God bore our sin upon himself, upon the cross of God the Son, Jesus. This is the Gospel! This is the Great News! All we have to do is believe it! And we believe through faith, it is the gift of God, His gracious gift. We believe with faith that Jesus died for our sins and because God raised him from the dead, we have His promise that we too shall live, that we will be seen (reckoned) as righteous through the blood of Jesus, shed for me and you, and all we have to do is believe the story. The righteous shall live by faith… This is grace! This is grace. There you have it start to finish, beginning to end: Abraham believed God and it was counted as righteousness to him. We believe God and it is counted as righteousness to us! The beginning of the story of God the Father reclaiming humanity; the personal culmination of the story for us in the cross of Christ; both are parallel, related, tied together, through the loving mercy of God the Father. What glorious news!
So why do we resist? Above, I wrote personal culmination. Ahhhh, the story continues. Jesus revealed Father God’s love for us by his death on the cross. We are justified (saved) through faith, but even that is not due to our own effort, it is the gracious gift of God. God in His mercy gives us the faith to believe, but it is also a choice we can make. A gift and a choice; this is a mystery I cannot fathom. But I believe this: The Almighty God, in His sovereignty could compel, force, us to believe. But he does not want robots; He wants Sons and Daughters. Jesus said that if we would believe, He and His Father would come and live within us through the power of the Holy Spirit and His spirit would witness to our spirit and teach us all that we need to know. You talk about a mystery! The Triune God lives in us and teaches us all things? If we will only listen and follow. Listen and follow: Obedience. Why do we have such difficulty with obedience? God the Father did it all! We only have one responsibility: Listen and follow. Show your gratitude. Give glory to God. Because you want to. How hard is that? The fullness of the godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit walks with us, teaching, enabling, strengthening, encouraging, and forgiving. Sons and Daughters, never alone. God the Father does indeed demand perfection, but he sees those who believe as perfect through the blood of God the Son, shed on the cross of Calvary. CS Lewis has written about this in The Great Divorce, a good read. My ideas are not my own 😇
… the Prince of Peace.
Well, so far it has been another long story. Not surprising from me 😉 But it’s still not over yet 😇. How does all this get sorted out in the end? The Good Book says, “It is appointed unto a man once to die, and thence the judgment.” Okay, here’s where we get to the Hell part, right? Patience, Grasshopper 😇 I am reading CS Lewis’ Reflections on the Psalms and in it he reminded me that the word judgment can be used in a legal sense with more than one meaning. At the conclusion of a criminal trial, the Judge says, “Well, it seems you murdered your neighbor. My judgment is that your punishment shall be the following… You shall forfeit your own life.”
Another context, however, is within that of a civil trial, which is different. The Judge again, “You stand accused of negligently shortening your neighbor’s cat’s tail while riding your bicycle. How do you plead? Guilty? With extenuating circumstances? Hmmm… So you say, you were avoiding your neighbor's child who ran into the street and you accidentally struck his cat resulting in the amputation of his tail? Is that correct? I see… Hmmm… My judgment is this: You shall obtain a new cat at the Humane Society shelter according to your neighbor’s approval…” The first is punishment for intentional wrongdoing (wickedness) and for a partial list of that which deserves the wrath of God, check out Romans 1:18ff and keep reading. The second is the consequence for unintentional damage; it attempts to balance the scales of freedom and responsibility. The Righteous Judge perfectly knows the difference between the two. And the Righteous Judge, is also the Merciful Judge, the judge who loves us so much that he gave his only son…
Let’s consider criminal and civil again. Now, pay close attention: Criminal is in the sense that those who have accepted the free gift of salvation through Christ Jesus will be exonerated. Those that have not, those who have willfully rejected the Gospel, will receive their just punishment, too: Living outside the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven would be Hell if you knew what you were missing. No? Really? It’s like your brother gets to go fishing with Dad, but you have to stay home and help Mom with housework. Except it’s even worse, much much worse, diabolically worse. Again, CS Lewis considers this possibility in The Great Divorce, extensively.
There is at least one additional aspect of judgment. Importantly and previously undiscovered by me, the Righteous Judge, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace is also going to make civil judgments, adjustments, putting things to right which have been distorted. “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; … that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” The Creation itself longs for peace. I don’t know what that looks like, what it will entail, I can only guess that it depends on us to some extent. But I do know this:
He came as a child. He departed as Savior. He will return as King and bring peace. And there you really have it. The complete Christmas story, start to finish, beginning to end.
In this Christmas season, I beg you to consider and choose carefully.