Years
ago I had a relative who regularly gave as birthday and Christmas presents such
things as socks and underwear. She would
explain, “Everyone needs underwear.”
Now, I suppose that’s true but no nine-year-old boy wants underwear for
Christmas.
One of
the debates about Christmas gifts asks, “Is it better to give something a
person wants or something they need?”
What
about the Great Gift of Christmas, Jesus?
Did we need this Gift? Did we
want it?
The
angels help to answer this question. To
Joseph the angel said, “You will name the Child Jesus for he will save his
people from their sins.” To the
shepherds the angel said, “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to
all people: To you is born this day in
the city of David, a Savior.”
A Savior.
If you’re supposed to rejoice when you learn of the arrival of a Savior,
you’re in trouble. Real trouble.
You and
I are different yet the same. Our skin
may vary from fairly pale to fairly dark.
Yet, if I may cite a bit of wisdom from Larry the Cable Guy, “If you cut
us, we all bleed red.” But, there is a
more fundamental sameness than that. We
are all sinners.
Each of
us is born into a broken relationship with God, a condition revealed in our tendency
to do those things we ought not to do and to leave undone those things we ought
to do. The evidence is in every
newscast, discussed over the dirty dishes after every holiday meal. The condition unites us as humans.
No
amount of therapy, no surgery, no drug can deal with this condition. Born into this condition, we need to be “born
again.” Only God—through Jesus—can
accomplish this spiritual rebirth.
God’s
Gift at the first Christmas was a Gift we needed.
But, was
it also a Gift we wanted? A Baby born in a barn who grows into a Man eventually
executed as a criminal may not seem to be a gift we might want.
Usually,
when we want a gift, we can tell any potential giver everything about it. We have all the specs of the new mobile
memorized. We know all the colors and
accessories available. We know what we
want.
But
occasionally, we want something but we don’t know exactly what it is we
want. Maybe we tell a friend, “I want
something that will let me listen to music throughout the house but I don’t want
wires running everywhere” Our friend
says, “Then what you want is a Sonos system.”
We already knew what we wanted; now we know what to call it.
Throughout
our history, men and women have said, “I want to be better.” Or, maybe, “I want
my life to have meaning.” Or, perhaps, “I want to be free, really free.”
God’s
Gift at that first Christmas was not only what we needed, it was what we
wanted. Maybe we couldn’t put it into
words but the Child born in that barn fulfills our deepest longings. According to the angels, his birth brought
“good news.” A Savior—a Liberator—had
been born.
We want
something more than the narrow confines of this world. We have that in Christ. John puts it this way, “For God so loved the
world that He gave His only Son. Whoever puts his trust in God’s Son will not
be lost but will have life that lasts forever.”
By trusting him, anyone can have a “whole and lasting life.” Jesus explained why he came, “I came that you
might have life, and have it in abundance, (to the full, till it
overflows).”
And
isn’t that what we all want?
Christmas
is about the great Gift God gave. God’s
Gift is one we need and, whether we know it or not, it is one we want.
The
night the Gift was given, the angels said something remarkable to the shepherds. Here’s how the Wycliffe Bible told the story
two hundred years before the King James Version.
The angel of the Lord
stood beside them, … and they dreaded with great dread.
And the angel said to
them, “Do not ye dread; for lo! I preach to you a great joy Lo! I evangelize to you a great joy, that shall
be to all people.
For a Saviour is born to
day to you, that is Christ the Lord, in the city of David.
And this is a token to
you; ye shall find a young child wrapped in `clothes, and laid in a feed-trough
and put in a cratch.’
And suddenly there was
made with the angel a multitude of heavenly knighthood, praising God, and
saying: “Praise God in heaven.”
As you
know, the shepherds then headed to Bethlehem.
The angels told them of God’s Gift but the shepherds had to act on their
word to see the Child for themselves.
The
songs sung in countless cantatas, the carols we have sung since childhood,
thousands of preachers in thousands of churches around the world all tell about
God’s great Gift. But to make that Gift
your own, you must act on their word.
If you know you have a spiritual problem you cannot deal with on
your own, accept God’s Gift. If you want something more for your life, accept
God’s Gift. It’s a Gift you need and,
you might be surprised do discover, you want.
