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How would you react to someone who was going to take away your power?
How would you react to someone who was going to take away your living?
How would you react to someone who was going to take away your punishment?
Words
I've been asked to speak a little bit about Christmas, probably because it's in six days' time. You never get asked to talk about Christmas in, say, April. Anyway, Christmas is all about this baby being born. His name was Jesus.
Everyone reacts differently to babies being born. Dad tends to be very proud, grandparents doting, siblings curious or apprehensive, and mother with unbridled affection. When I saw a film of a baby being born in high school biology, my reaction was, "Ewwww." But now, several years on, when I saw photos of Juliette's caesar that brought little Jonah into the world, my reaction was, "Eeewwww."
Sometimes we have a shocked reaction to birth stories. A woman I met up in Queensland, for example, gave birth on her lounge room floor, while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. She kept saying, "I don't want a story to tell, I don't want a story to tell!" but she's got one anyway, and a pretty good one, too.
And of course, lots of people react to births with cards, "It's a boy/girl!", with presents, hospital visits and so on.
Well, the birth that we celebrate at Christmas time has it all - a story to tell (born in a barn), proud father, (God says, "This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased"), and people come to visit, bringing presents and all sorts of stuff. But not all of the reactions are good ones. I want to go through three reactions, and see if you would react the same way I would.
Firstly, imagine yourself in a position of power, the CEO of a big company, let's call it Microsoft. Being CEO is a pretty good life - you are important, you make decisions, you have a good standard of living, the biggest television in the land, and so on. You've worked hard to get your position (you started with a fish and chip shop and ended up rocketing to fame and power), and to keep your position as CEO, keep stockholders happy, keep governments happy, all that sort of thing. You haven't been a bad CEO overall, you've done what you had to do. But one day, the ambassador of Iran comes and knocks on your door, and says, "Hey, have you heard? Someone's going to take your company off you, and you won't be CEO any more!" It sounds a bit traitorous. It sounds like a bit of a hostile takeover! What are you going to do? Would you just accept your fate, and let them take your company and put you into ruin? Or would you try and protect your position against this usurper?
This is exactly what happened on Christmas day. But it wasn't a CEO who was the target of a corporate takeover. Instead, it was a king called King Herod.
1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magia]">[a] from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
Why is Herod so disturbed? God has been promising this great king for so long, why would you not want what God has promised you? Well, I'll tell you. Herod was king, and king is a pretty comfortable position, a position of respect and authority. Who wouldn't want to be king?
Herod has a direct challenge to his authority as king - a child born who these wise men from the East describe as being "King of the Jews". King Herod is already king over the Jewish people. You can't have two kings of the Jews; it doesn't work that way. Now, is Herod just going to lie down and accept that his time as come? Or is he going to try and protect his position against a usurper? He attempts to protect his position of power, and he trues so hard that he goes as far as killing all the newborn children, up to two years old, in Bethlehem and the towns around. Thousands of innocent children's lives were lost in an attempt to protect Herod's position as king.
How would you react to someone who was going to take away your power? Everyone has got power, although not everyone is a king. You have the power to made decisions about your life, how you live it. How hard you work, what car you drive, how many kids you will have, what you buy someone for Christmas. So many decisions, and each of those decisions gives you power over your own life. And then Jesus comes along and says that he wants to take away that power. He wants to become king, not just of the Jews, but over your life too. He wants to have a say in all those decisions you make. More than that, he wants to tell you what to do. He wants to make the decisions, and for you to obey him.
There are a lot of people in Australia who know that they should obey God, but they simply don't want to give God power over their lives. This is most usually because there are things that we enjoy doing, that we want to keep on doing, even though we know God doesn't want us to do them. They rebel against God, denying that he has the authority to tell them what to do. Is that you today? Do you know that God sent this Jesus, whose birth we celebrate today, to be a king over every aspect of your life, but you don't want to give him the power? You want instead to hold onto it at all costs, even at the cost of other innocent people?
Think of it like drink driving. You have a decision about how much alcohol you drink before you drive somewhere. The law says that you shouldn't drink alcohol and drive your car. But they can't stop you from doing it - they can only punish you after you do it. But does the little girl who gets hit by your car because you're out of control get a choice about whether you drink drive or not? You think you know better, you think you deserve to have the power over your own life, and then you and other people pay the price. That is the simple fact about disobeying God. People blame God for wars, poverty, injustice and pain. Who starts a war? Who keeps money to themselves? Who takes bribes and delivers unjust rulings? Is it God, or is it people? No wonder God wants us to obey him.
So, we've imagined ourselves in a position of power. Now I want you to imagine something else. Imagine you're not a CEO, but in fact a machinist working in a car factory. You and all your other machinist friends work day in, day out, making cars. That's your living, and you enjoy what you do. It puts bread on the table, and it's honest work. Now, you hear about a new invention, called a ro-bot. This robot is supposed to be able to take a lot of the hard work out of building cars. "That's great," you think, "it will make my job easier." So you get back to your job, ignorant about the invention of the robot, and you take it for granted that in a few years you'll be steering some robot that will make your job easier. But it doesn't work like that. Instead, in three years' time you find yourself out of work, because the robot has completely changed how people make cars. You're not needed at all any more, or you need to be retrained. Your livelihood is gone forever.
This same thing happens when Jesus is born! But he doesn't take the livelihood away from machinists - he takes it away from priests. Going back to our story, when Herod hears that the king to replace him has been born, he asks the priests to find out where he will be born. The response?
“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’b]">[b]”
And what's their reaction to the news that the King of God has just been born? Do they get all worked up into hatred and selfishness like King Herod? No, not exactly. In fact, they don't do anything. They don't get angry and want to kill him, but likewise they don't go down to Bethlehem to check it out and worship him either. Why? They just take it all for granted. God's going to send his King over Israel, just like he's been saying to us for hundreds of years, and everything's going to be ok. It doesn't require them to do anything. Because God loves his people Israel, so they can just go on doing things the way they always have, and it should be fine.
The priests simply assume that God is going to do what they want him to do - send a king that will raise the Jews to power and conquer the whole world. And no doubt the priests will have an important role in this new kingdom, and all will be well for them. But they're wrong. God has sent Jesus not as a political king to rule over the Jews. God has sent Jesus as a spiritual king, who will let the people of the world interact with God directly. They won't need sacrifices any more, or temples any more - they can pray anywhere, be in a personal relationship with God. And oh, no, the priests weren't paying attention, and they are going to have to be retrained.
There are a lot of people in Australia who think that, because they work hard, and they're pretty good to people, and they love their family, that God is going to let them into heaven when they die. What's that classic Aussie saying? "She'll be right - no worries." I'll just do what I've always done, and God will look after me, because me and him are mates.
I'm afraid God doesn't see it that way. You see, God doesn't weigh up all your good deeds, then subtract your bad deeds, and if you're better than Hitler, then you get into heaven. No, God is perfect - he is perfectly good, loving and just. And God will not let one little speck of evil get into heaven. So, if you've ever done one thing wrong, ever, in your life, then that's it. You can't go to heaven.
How would you react towards someone who is eventually going to take away your livelihood? Are you going to just pretend that it's all going to come out ok, that nothing bad is going to happen to you? Jesus has come to take away any shred of hope that you had of getting into heaven based on how good a person you are. He is the judge that God has appointed, and he will not allow a single speck of evil into heaven.
It's like people who don't read the instruction manual to their new blender/coffee/Google web machine thing, and then complain when it doesn't work the way they expect it. Do you have an opinion about God that is based basically on what you think God should do, rather than opening his Bible, with his words in it, and reading what he has said about himself? Do you try and base your opinions on God on what you would like it to be, rather than praying to God, talking to him and asking him what he wants? So many people talk about God not doing things right, but very few actually read the Bible first, and make accusations second. So many people are just too busy to read the Bible, or to pray, or to go to church. It's so much easier to read the Da Vinci Code, and just pretend that you know what's going on, and then say, "Well, God will look after it all, and I'm sure it will be all right."
We've imagined that we were a CEO stripped of power. We've imagined that we were a machinist stripped of his job. One more imagining, then we can go and have a cuppa. Imagine now that you are a prisoner. You've committed a crime, and been sent to jail. Perhaps it was a big crime, maybe you killed someone. Perhaps it was a small crime, like you smashed into someone's car. Perhaps it's an in-between crime - you stole a computer from someone's house, or you beat someone up in a fight. Unfortunately, the crime you committed happens to be against the judge who is presiding over your sentence. And you happened to be caught doing this thing in a country a little less forgiving than ours - let's say it's Iran. The juge decides that people like you don't need to be on the streets, so he's going to throw you in jail, and leave you there till you die. But then the Australian ambassador comes and he pays the judge the recompense needed to get you out of jail. He doesn't pay it with your money, he pays it with his own money, so that you can escape a lifetime of imprisonment and ill treatment, followed by a humiliating and slow death. How would you feel about this ambassador? He has saved your life. You can never really repay him for that. It doesn't matter how much money you give him, it's never going to be worth what your life was worth. Imagine that your wife and kids get to see you again, you get another chance at life. How would you feel?
This same thing happened when Jesus was born. These magi who travel from the East (most probably Persia, modern day Iran) hear about a child who is born King of the Jews. His birth is so important that a star signifies his coming. It is so important that they pack their bags, with presents fit for a king, and travel for some days, weeks, to come and worship him.
The verse that the priests quote when they are talking about the King of the Jews being born, describes Jesus as being the shepherd over the people of Israel. But they actually don't read the next part. Let me read it to you now:
He will stand and shepherd his flock
in the strength of the LORD,
in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.
And they will live securely, for then his greatness
will reach to the ends of the earth. 5 And he will be their peace.
Jesus is not the shepherd of Israel alone. His greatness, his sheep, will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace. These magi have stumbled upon God's king over all the earth, God's shepherd over the whole world. And this child, born in a barn in Bethlehem, is going to bring peace, is going to be their peace.
You see, we are trapped, trapped by our own evil desires and actions. We can't help it! No matter how hard we try, we end up like Herod, telling God to go jump, because we want the power over our lives. We are like the priests, who ignore God, and say, "Oh, it'll be right, it doesn't matter." And when we do these things, we not only hurt ourselves, we not only hurt other people. We hurt God. He loves us, and we hate him. He loves us, and we ignore him. And there is a punishment set apart for those who disobey and ignore God - death, and hell. We have to die to pay the price on our evil lives. And we have to go to hell, because we can't go to heaven, because of our evil actions and desires.
But God has sent Jesus to be an ambassador on his behalf. He comes to set us free from the prison we have gotten ourselves into, to pay the price of our punishment. But he can't pay it with money. The punishment is death, and someone has to die. So Jesus pays, not with our own deaths, but with his own. The one man that did not have to die for rebelling against God, is the one that does to pay for our own evil rebellion. And to prove that God accepted this as payment for the debt, God raised Jesus from the dead after three days. It was God's free Christmas gift to us, that we might be able to com to heave and be with him.
REmember that Iranian prison? Remember that Australian ambassador who came and paid with his own money to get you out? You can't really pay him back, can you? Not for such a worthy and valuable gift. But you wouldn't ignore him, would you? You wouldn't hate him, surely. God created you. God sustains you, and God paid for you to be free of punishment. Is that not worthy of respect? Honour? Thanks? Worship? God has paid the price for you to live, but not so you can live how you want. God has plans for your life, but he needs you to obey him, to live how he wants. It means giving over power to him. It means listening to him, reading his word, praying, talking to him. Yes, you have to give up your power to him. Yes, you have to give up your life to him. But you can do that, because he has given his life for you already. Don't do it out of obligation. Do it out of love.
This Christmas, you have been given a gift - the power to decide to live for God. Don't throw that gift away with the wrapping paper.
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