I have heard it many times in the past few weeks, "He got what he deserved," "It's more than they deserve," "She deserves worse." I hear it almost daily in some form or another. Sometimes it is less direct, a "we know what happens to people like her," or a "be careful or you'll end up like him."
This Christmas season I am floored by the similarities I hear between many Christians and the legal Jews of Jesus's time. "What should we do to this woman found with a man who is not her husband?" "What did this man do to deserve blindness?" "Who does this Samaritan think she is, talking to Jesus?" "What does he intend to do with that tax collector?" "This WOMAN would sit at Jesus's feet and learn! When will he condemn these actions?"
The Jews of the day asked those questions because they had missed a crucial truth, that the law was never intended to redeem God's people. God's plan was never so limited in scope as to reach only the few, the special. The law was to serve as a guide for a people who were not developed or mature enough to understand the deeper heart of God for all people. You do good things and you will prosper, do bad things and you will not prosper. The law spoke deeper truths and set a standard for what was good behavior and what was not, but it was never the whole story. The legal Pharisees who often accused people were not understanding that when Jesus was born, the work that God was truly doing was revealed. They, like Jonah, ignored the truth that "God so loved the world that he sent his only son" who would bring "good news of great joy that would be for ALL people."
If the world is a place where people get "what they deserve" instead of love and grace and acceptance — then Jesus might as well have never been born. Without grace Christmas is meaningless. If we will not extend grace and goodwill to ALL men, throughout the year — then we might as well leave Christ out of Christmas. As Paul says in Galatians, "If 'righteousness' comes through the law, then the Messiah died for nothing."
Holding people to a standard that God does not hold us to, greedily sitting at the table of grace and offering none to those whose sin we believe to be greater than our own... This is anti-Christmas. This is keeping ourselves under the heavy burden of the law; setting ourselves on pedestals of our good works that are easily tipped by our own sinful selves.
Let us not take away from Christ's birth, life, death and resurrection by forgetting to be gracious in our hearts to all people. Let us not diminish his work by forgetting that God does not define us by our actions, nor by our own worth, but rather, let us remember that God sees us as covered by his beloved son; he sees each and every person as precious and loved and valued with a worth beyond expression... Let us not take away from the meaning of Emmanuel by elevating ourselves above others. Let us not forget the worth of a person to God when they are punished, killed, tortured. Let us not diminish the work of Christ by diminishing the lives of our fellow man. Let us not take a victory lap around the fallen, those bearing the weight of sin in their life. "After all, God didn't send the son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world could be saved by him."
Instead, let us remember and honor Jesus Christ — who lowered himself to such a humble place, the body of that precious infant in a stable on this tiny planet — let us place him foremost in our hearts by looking with humility, and love, and grace to our fellow man. No matter a person's actions or background, let us see all people the way God sees them — as so valuable that he would give all to save them; remembering that he has given all for us. Let us live the birth of our Lord, the new covenant, every day, throwing off the shackles of the law. Let us always, with love and warmth and welcome, and, most importantly, with grace, "honor Christmas in our hearts, and try to keep it all year."
No comments:
Post a Comment