Recipe for a Good Christmas
Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy, Aslan and the white witch are all characters in the recent Hollywood blockbuster. Jesus Christ, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men and King Herod are all characters in the Christmas story. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is just a story. What about the Christmas story? Is it just make-believe or did it really happen? One of the accounts of Jesus’ life was written by Luke and he states in the introduction to his book that as “I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” Luke was a man concerned with accuracy and detail and the first topic he wrote about in his book was the birth of Jesus.
Who was Jesus? What did he come to do? There are a number of books in the Bible which tell us about who he was but in this brief Christmas thought it seems a good idea to look at part of the Christmas story for the answer. The account of the shepherds from Luke’s book is reproduced here. It tells us that an angel of God appeared to the shepherds and they were terrified.
What terrified the shepherds? Was it the shock of seeing an angel which is not, after all, an everyday occurrence? That may be part of the explanation, but the main reason was that they saw what Luke describes as the “glory of the Lord.” “Glory” is a word which we use relation to goal scorers in football matches and people who do great things: they get the glory for their achievements. When it is used in the Bible with reference to God it refers to the revelation of His being, nature and presence. Some of the texts which refer to God’s glory also tell us about His perfect character: compassionate, gracious, just, loving, faithful, forgiving and merciful.
“What is terrifying about that?” you might ask. “If that is the character of God then it must be a good thing” – and it is. But whilst it is a very good thing it is also terrifying to be confronted by such perfection and greatness. Maybe you know someone who you admire and think is a very “good” person but they make you feel inadequate. Imagine what it would be like being confronted by a perfect person! The wonderful thing about God is His perfection but the terrifying thing is that it makes us realise how imperfect we are. A light and a mirror can be a terrible way of showing us our own spots and blemishes. Who of us can say that we have lived lives of perfection in the way which God created us to live them? In fact the spots and blemishes look more like festering wounds and sores. Our failure to live our lives with God at the centre doing what He wants in His perfect way breaks our relationship with Him. When we are confronted with this reality it is terrifying.
That is why the story of the shepherds is in fact such a great one because it provided an answer to the problem. The shepherds were told that “a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” The baby in the manger was a saviour who would rescue the shepherds (and you and me) from the predicament we are in. The only solution to the problem of the mess we have made of our relationship with God could come from God Himself: Jesus lived a perfect life on earth and died the death we deserve in our place. A perfect God couldn’t just ignore our persistent refusal to let Him have anything to do with our lives or the way we behave towards those around us. But Jesus paid the price which we deserve to pay by dying on the cross. All we have to do is accept that He did it for us and commit ourselves to living our lives His way.
The shepherds must have understood what the angel had said because they went and found Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus just as they had been told. Luke tells us “the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”
What is Christmas all about? It is about ordinary people like the shepherds and you and me seeing our need for a “saviour” and finding that need met in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Happy Christmas!
Ian Miller
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