THE AMAZING MEANING OF CHRISTMAS
John 1:1-14
Pastor Jeremy Mattek – December 25, 2016
The city of Newburgh, New York got its first big snowfall of the season on Thanksgiving weekend. And like many kids, Jason, age 9, and his good buddy Elijah, age 11, went to go out and play in it. But they didn’t come home when their parents thought they would. Eventually it got dark, and there was still no sign of them. Their parents called the police, and that set off a frantic search for the boys that went on until 2:00 in the morning, when a police officer spotted a small shovel near a pile of snow next to a parking lot that had been plowed earlier in the day. He started digging near the shovel and found a child’s boot. The boot moved, because Elijah’s foot was inside of it.
The boys had been building an igloo next to the parking lot directly across the street from their houses. The snowplow came through the parking lot while the boys were playing inside the igloo, and had no idea they were in it when he dumped piles of snow right on top of it. The boys were trapped in there for about 6 hours. But after all the neighbors worked together to dig through the 8 feet of snow that had been piled on top of them, they were both found to be alive. A little cold, but otherwise they were doing just fine; showing us that sometimes the things that you can’t see are pretty important. The same is true of Christmas.
I would like you to imagine what your perfect Christmas would look like. Think about the perfect gift you’d like to receive, the perfectly-decorated house, the perfect movie you’d watch, the perfect tree. Think of the perfect climate you’d be in, which swimming suit you’d be wearing on the beach, what kind of drink you’d have in your hand. Think about who you would want to celebrate your perfect Christmas with. Can you picture what your perfect Christmas would look like?
Now I want you to picture what the very first Christmas did. A young man and his wife trying to find a way to be comfortable in a bit of hay. A first-time mom holding her baby. Some visitors from nearby coming to say congratulations. Other than the pile of hay, any stranger walking by might not think there’s anything all that unusual or special about it. But there was something about that baby that they couldn’t see, something that even Mary and Joseph couldn’t see with their eyes, that was pretty important. In fact, what they couldn’t see is really what gives Christmas it’s very special and unique meaning.
And that’s important to remember as you get into this Christmas, because you might not get the perfect gift this year. The needles on your tree might already be falling. You may have run out of wrapping paper with half of a gift left. You’re not on the beach; you’re in Wisconsin. And maybe someone you’d like to celebrate Christmas with is not here; they’re waiting for you in heaven. But because the most meaningful part of Christmas is something we can never see with our eyes, then no matter what your Christmas looks like, it’s possible to still have a perfect, meaning-filled Christmas celebration.
The Apostle John explains why in the first verses of his Gospel. He calls Jesus “the Word,” and explains what it so special about his entrance into our world.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.2 He was with God in the beginning.3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
For the last 40 years, there was been a car sitting on the front lawn of a home in Massachusetts. It literally has not moved in the last 40 years, and nobody’s really wanted to move it. It’s covered with rust, the headlights are missing, the seats inside are all scratched up. It looks like a pile of junk. Except it’s not. Someone recently identified it as a 1962 Aston Martin DB4. There were just over 1000 of them ever made, making it pretty valuable. The car is going to be auctioned off next month, and they expect that someone will pay almost $1/2 million for it. If the car were to be fully-restored, it would probably be worth $2.5 million. Would you ever let $2.5 million layon your front lawn for 40 years?
The baby laying in a pile of hay is worth even more, yet John points out that, when he came into the world, the world wanted nothing to do with him. “They rejected him,” he said; in part because he looked like every baby that came before him. But consider what John points out about him that makes him unique compared to any other baby that has ever been born.
John says that he was here “in the beginning.” Which other book of the bible starts out with the words “in the beginning”? The book of Genesis, which talks about the beginning of our universe. John’s pointing out that Jesus was here before that, because Jesus is God. You and I have a day on which our existence began. Before the date my body was conceived, I did not exist, anywhere. But the baby in the manger did, even before his conception. He wasn’t created. He’s the Creator.
That’s why John says that “everything was made through him.” Now, you and I can make things. My son Aidan made a special gift for Karen this Christmas. He used a block of wood, some nails, and some thread to make a Christmas tree. It’s a beautiful creation. But in order to make it, he first needed to get wood, nails, and thread. Anything we build requires materials we need to get from somewhere. That’s not the case for God. When “everything was made through him,” there were no materials around. He just spoke, and it appeared. You and I can’t do that. But the baby in the manger did.
And “in him was life,” John says. Think about those boys buried in the snowbank. Eventually, they would have run out of oxygen. And if they did, then they would no longer be able to live. We rely on oxygen to live. We rely on food and water. We need these things in order to have life. But “the Word” John talks about “is life.” He doesn’t need help living. He just does. He is.
Now, anyone looking at Mary holding her son wouldn’t have seen any of these things. But all of them, as well as our inability to really fully wrap our brains around them, emphasize one very important thing: there’s something special about this kid. He doesn’t really fit in our universe or existence. He’s much bigger than it. He’s the Creator and Owner and Originator of everything. And that’s not the only thing that makes him significant.
Do you know what George Clooney, Taylor Swift, LeBron James, Ellen Degeneres, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Oprah, and Will Smith all have in common? They all give away a lot of their money. They are some of the most generous celebrities. But you know what else they have in common? They don’t give away all of it. After they give away their millions, they would still have enough left over to buy a fully-restored Aston Martin DB4. And they all still sleep in mansions. And they wear designer clothes. That’s not to put them down. The same is true for me and you. We give away our wealth too – to help others, to do good. But when we do, there’s always enough left over to take care of ourselves. Do we ever consider giving away all of it, so that we have nothing left, not one penny to buy clothing or food – so that, in order to survive, we are fully dependent on someone else taking care of us – like Jesus was when “the Word became flesh.”
The one who doesn’t need any help in order to live became entirely dependent on two poor people named Mary and Joseph. The one who is too big to fit in our planet put himself inside a tiny womb where he was confined and restricted. The one who can make anything decided to live with nothing. There is no one in the history of existence who has ever done the same thing (or who even could). And there’s really only one reason he did.
About two months ago, a 6-story building collapsed in China. There were 27 people inside the building when it collapsed. 22 died. 5 were pulled from the rubble alive. The last survivor to be pulled from the rubble was a 3-year-old girl named Wu Ningxi. She was on the bottom floor when the building collapsed; the entire building basically collapsed on top of her. But the reason she survived was because, when the building started to fall, her 26-year-old father used his body as a shield to protect her. Instead of the pieces of the building hitting his daughter, it all hit him. He was one of the 22 who died in the accident. He gave up everything he had just for the chance to save someone who meant so much to him.
And that, my friends, is the reason why the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. Because you mean so much to him. And the God who can do anything can’t just pretend that he always means that much to us. He can’t just forget how much more excited we sometimes get about the things on this earth we only hold in our hands for a few moments than we do about the everlasting and eternal God who gave them to us and created them. He couldn’t just pretend that those sins didn’t need to be punished. Someone had to pay for them.
So the Word put on human flesh; flesh that one day was nailed to a cross, so that he could shield us from the hell we deserve by letting it fall entirely on him, so that we could be forgiven and live every day of our existence knowing, as John writes, that we are God’s children; who have the right to walk through each day knowing that we are always entirely loved by a God who is bigger than any trouble that could ever afflict us, and knowing that one day we will be pulled from the rubble of this earth and we’ll finally get to see what heaven looks like from God’s perspective. The baby in the manger is the only one who could do that. Christmas is the reminder that he did.
In verse 9, John calls him “the true light that gives light to every man.” The word for “true” can also mean “genuine.” He’s genuine, the real deal. Like the 1962 Aston Martin BD4that had been sitting unnoticed in a field for the last 40 years, when you look beyond the outward appearance; when you look beyond the flesh of Jesus and see the Son of Mary for the Son of God he really is, no matter what this Christmas looks like, no matter what your eyes tell you is missing, you willnever be disappointed.
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