Christmas Gifts – Day 21
On December 17th of 1903 the Wright Brothers made history as they first flew in an airplane in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The world has changed as a result of their amazing feat, as Orville manned the airplane for a twelve second flight. Wilbur rushed immediately to the nearest telegraph office, and sent the exciting message, “Have flown for 12 seconds. Will be home for Christmas.” Receiving the message, their sister Katherine rushed to the local newspaper office with the exciting report from her brothers. She told the editor of their accomplishment and said they would be home December 19th if he would like to set up an interview. He said he would put something in the paper about this. On December 19th, the newspaper had a small paragraph with the following headline: Wright Brothers to Be Home for Christmas.
How could anyone be so blind? The most important message of the year… the decade… perhaps of the century and the editor missed it. But let’s be honest. How many of us miss Christmas the same way?
The trees are ready, the special recipes prepared to cook, the presents bought and wrapped. By now the stress and strain of Christmas has begun to sink in. The tinsel and decorations are wearing thin and the rounds of festivities and parties is wearing us out. And Christmas comes and Christmas goes in many of our lives and in some of our homes without mention of the One whose birth we celebrate.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8 ) God doesn’t change. His essential nature (“morphe”… see Day 18) has always been and will always be God. But in the incarnation, the second person of the Trinity, the Word made flesh… Jesus; though being in “morphe” God (see Philippians 2:6), did not consider God-equality something to be clung to but made Himself nothing, and taking on Himself the form of a servant and being made in likeness of man….” (Philippians 2:7) And there we encounter the second word that will deepen our thinking about the incarnation.
“The likeness of man” translates a word having to do with shape or external appearance. The word is “schema” which is the origin of the English words “scheme” or “schematic.” Jesus, you remember from our devotional yesterday, has the essential, unchanging nature of God (“morphe”) but He also possessed the external “schema” (shape or likeness) of man. His morphe never changed. His schema (external appearance) changed radically from embryo, to fetus, to preschooler, to toddler, to adolescent, to young adult, to adult….just as our external appearance changes and yet we continue to be human beings through all those changes.
Now I know this is deeper than we may want to go, but we must try and get a glimpse of what our Savior experienced so that we may know something that is hopeful. He knew what being human meant. He wasn’t playing a game when He walked among us as the God-man. He really hurt. He really cried. He really lived. And He really died. We can know He is never far from any of us, never distant. Always as near as our call to Him….as our need for Him.
And we need to see Him for Who He is. “Why should the eye be so lazy? Let us exercise the eye until it learns to see,” said GK Chesterton. Let us use our eyes until we can see past the superficial, past the piled up layers of unreality, past the Photoshop portrayals and into the reality of the mystery of the Word made flesh.
Sometimes it’s hard to see the true value of a person or of anything really if we allow the externals to distract us. This is why, I believe, we are told to “judge nothing by externals.” And why in the Old Testament story of the choosing of David to be Israel’s king, God told the prophet Samuel, “I do not look at things as man sees them. For man looks at the external. I look at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)
I know, I know. It messes with our nativity sets and our Christmas cards when we allow the truth of the Christmas story to seep through. Our Mary and Joseph portrayals are often too old… and too white. The holy family probably did not have halos around their heads, nor did the baby Jesus.
And the wise men? Well there were not necessarily just three. We know there was more than one (wise “MEN”), but we don’t know if they arrived on camels or horses. Camels are certainly more exotic; horses more practical for longer distances. I actually sat on a camel once… wouldn’t want to cross the desert on one! They do look cool on our nativity scenes, though, but then so did my son’s plastic Godzilla when he occasionally appeared.
But we do know this. They were perhaps not wise in how they went about the search for Jesus. I can only credit their lack of knowledge of Herod and his insanity with their coming right into the lions den… looking for the baby born to be his replacement! Herod was driven mad with jealousy over this child born “king of the Jews!”
We do know that the wise men (magi) from the east did not appear in the story of Jesus until he was at least two years of age. (see Matthew 2:16) They came to the house (in Nazareth) to worship Him and bring their gifts. And after they left, Herod madly set out to search for the male child, born within the past two years, and slaughtered every child in the area in an effort to destroy his competition before he became old enough to rule.
No one can imagine with accuracy the depth and length our spiritual enemy will stoop to destroy the image of the Christ child. It is a reality that all who bear that image drive him to jealousy and rage. He is intent to stamp out the image of the One who, at the cross, crushed his head as God promised in Genesis 3:15. Satan is a defeated foe because of Jesus.
The wise men went home a different way. An angel appeared and warned them not to return to Herod. And so, the Gospel tells us, “they went home a different way.” That’s about more than geography. That is a clear statement that their meeting with Jesus changed them. They saw salvation… hope personified… Divine love in the person of a child. And it changed them. They went home a different way.
And when you meet Jesus, you will, too!
And going into the house they saw the child with Mary His mother and they fell down and worshiped Him. (Matthew 2:11)
FOR REFLECTION: Ask God to help your worship this year to transform you.
Deity in diapers. This was how Max Lucado described the reality of the incarnation. How do we even wrap our minds around that concept? The baby that laid in the manger… made the manger? More than that… He created the mother who bore Him and the carpenter who raised Him!
Away in a manger, no crib for a bed
The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.
How do we come away from Christmas with anything but amazement…unless we haven’t been looking. How did an entire village miss the entry of the Son of God onto the earth, into our time zone? For them, I believe, it was business. The crowds had shown up! The cash registers were ringing, and the money was flowing. There’s important work to be done! How often have we missed the solemn, silent reality of Christmas because of our busyness?
For Jerusalem, just a brief walk away, it was different. They were looking. They were just looking for the wrong Messiah! Jerusalem was continually being tripped up by false messiahs who would come, lead a few gullible followers astray, and end up having the whole bunch discredited and executed. They knew when THEIR messiah came he would come with the thunder of hoof-beats and a commanding army following. Their messiah was a deliverer who would break the yoke of Rome. The missed the entrance of Jesus because of distraction… maybe even because of deception.
And Rome? How did all of Rome miss the entry of the second Person of the Trinity coming to earth? Rome had it all… power, money, business, art, entertainment, medicine, prestige. It was the center of the world of the day… and she knew it! Rome needed nothing or no one! Rome was the beneficent… not the needy. She was the one the world approached for help, not vice-versa. Rome missed the humble entrance of Christ because of pride… the pride of life which is often the companion of the love of the world. She was self-sufficient and fulfilled. Why did they need a Messiah… to be saved from what?
And so the first Christmas came in the midst of an ordinary day and Deity was laid in the arms of a rural teen aged couple… the hope of the world came quietly and without recognition. We can let Christmas slip by just like those who missed that first Christmas… with our self-sufficiency, our distraction, and our business. Jesus never cries for your attention.
But you are wise if you give it.
Where is He who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship Him. (Matthew 2:2)
FOR REFLECTION: Where are you most likely to lose Christmas this year? What can you do to change that?
Last week our son Dave, who teaches art at Nease High School, invited me to chaperon a brief field trip with his class. We were going to see a glass blower in action in St Augustine, which was probably not something on my bucket list but there it was. And frankly, it was an amazing experience!
WE went to the studio of Thomas Long who has his art placed around the world. Most recently, Disney bought a $250,000 piece from him for display in Downtown Disney. So much for the starving artist motif!
Long’s process is a little different than most, and he uses electric ovens to heat the glass. These ovens run 24/7 at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit! He patiently walked us through his process, then donned special glasses and opened what he called “the glory hole” to the oven. Anyone nearby felt the heat. All of us averted our eyes rather than look into the “glory” of that heat!
AND I thought about something as he continued talking. I thought about the verse we have come back to several times in these devotional thoughts. “And we beheld His glory; glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
How could we do that? God’s glory appearing to someone in the Old Testament was a death sentence. Moses asked God to “show me your glory.” And God placed Moses in the cleft of a rock and passed by, showing him only the back of His glory. (see Exodus 33:18-23)
But we don’t see the back of God’s glory. We behold the fullness of His glory in the face of Jesus. “Veiled in flesh,” we see the Godhead. “All the fullness of God” resided in Jesus. And we get to see it and live to tell about it!
Christmas reveals that glory to us. And not only that, but we are called to share that revelation with all who will hear. The glory of God, once found only in a pale refection in the heavens (“The heavens declare the glory of God”) now resides fully in the incarnation of God’s Son.
No wonder the angels sang “Glory to God in the highest….” And we can sing it too.
And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah 40:5)
FOR REFLECTION: Thank God today that He has allowed us to “behold His glory” in Jesus!
When Christ came to earth in incarnation, He came as the One Who “is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.” (Colossians 1:15) He was the One Who made all things and in whom all things hold together. (Col 1:17) Yet He was also a baby, born in a manger that HE made…surrounded by people HE created… accompanied by angels Who had just served HIM. As difficult as it is for us to juxtapose all of that into one person without losing either His Deity or His humanity, this is precisely the One the Bible points to as the Christ Who was to come.
We could easily dismiss the Christmas account, explain away the humility and humanity of the incarnation as best we could, and simply worship One Who may or may not exist somewhere “out there.” Or we could sentimentalize the Christmas story and tear away the Deity of Jesus making the baby a welfare case that needed to be pitied… not worshiped. Some have chosen that route.
And yet the Bible tenaciously holds to the proclamation that, in that baby lying in an animal shed behind a Middle Eastern hostel in an occupied Roman territory, circa 1 AD GOD DWELT. God came down. The Word of the Father, now in fleshed appeared.
And we beheld His glory… and we behold it again at Christmas. Our Christmas lights, as prevalent as they are this time of year, can only dimly remind us of the glory that was contained in that newborn body. His nine-month journey within the body of a Jewish adolescent now completed, Jesus entered our world cold, hungry, and completely helpless.
God. Helpless.
We cannot imagine the humility this took; we cannot understand the condescension of the Savior to this level. All we can do is sit back… and let the wonder in.
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing
O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him, CHRIST THE LORD!
“Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made Himself nothing….” (Philippians 2:5-6)
FOR REFLECTION: How will the truth of Jesus’ incarnation enrich your Christmas celebration this year?
Words mean something. Every word we speak has weight, according to the Bible. Jesus, in fact, said that we will one day be judged by our own words! Our words say something about us. If we speak well, we will be perceived to be intelligent even if we’re not. Politicians and pundits and actors have learned this. If your communication skills are weak, it doesn’t matter what you know or how important your message, the hearer will often reject you.
Our words mean something. In Lewis Carrol’s imaginative “Alice in Wonderland,” the grinning Cheshire cat was asked what something meant that he had said. His response is classic. He said, “My words mean exactly what I want them to mean.” We know what our words mean. Words have impact.
Our words mean something. Ask the verbally abused child or spouse who is constantly terrorized by the words of an angry parent, or the bullied student who is contemplating suicide rather than face the ridicule of her friend’s words or posts on social media.
Words mean something. Sometimes words can build us up and other times tear us down. But words mean something.
That’s why it’s significant that when God wanted to say something that no one should miss, He sent it through Jesus. He is the articulation of the Godhead. The sermon that had to be watched, experienced, and related to. A message that could not, should not be garbled. There is no possible way that the Word of God could be misunderstood, mistranslated, or misheard.
And across cultures, across ages, across continents, and across history the Word of the Father still resonates and demands a hearing and ultimately a decision. Will you obey, or ignore? Will you kneel before Jesus, or stand unbending and proud…ultimately to be broken?
The Word of the Father now in flesh has appeared… and we behold His glory… the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father… full of grace and truth.
Words mean something. And no more important Word has ever been spoken or ever will be heard than Jesus.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, glory of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
FOR REFLECTION: How can you help others hear the message of Christmas more clearly this year?