“But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21)
Christmas is the time many Christians celebrate Holy Communion – or as some call it – the Eucharistic Mass (the word Eucharist means ‘Thanksgiving’). It is a time set aside to remember what Jesus said to His disciples during their Last Supper together. Here is how Luke records it:
Luke 22:19-20 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.
Over the years, the celebration of the Mass of Christ became abbreviated to ‘Christ’s Mass.’ Or, now simply, Christmas. But as happens so often when we abbreviate truth, the meaning of Christ’s Mass has devolved into what Christmas is today in many places: Santa Clause, reindeer, time off work, and so forth. And because of the misplaced focus, so many have lost the meaning of the birth of the One we celebrate.
What is that meaning? Matthew told us that meaning in verse 21 of the text cited above: Jesus was born to die so He could save us from the punishment our sins deserve.
At that first Christmas, Immanuel – ‘God-With-Us’ – laid aside His glory and took the form of a slave to save all who want to be saved from eternal agony in the Lake of Fire.
The phrase, ‘who want to be saved’ is the crucial part of the incarnation we celebrate on December 25. It’s crucial because not everyone is willing to do what must be done to be saved from that Lake of Fire: 1) Trust that it is Jesus’ death alone which saves us from the punishment for our sins; and 2) obey Christ throughout the rest of their lives.
Most people do not realize sin makes us enemies of God. St. James is only one Biblical writer to tell us that: “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4)
That’s why the manger is much more than what many relegate to children’s picture books. It’s much more than the silent night, the holy night when shepherd’s quaked at the sight. The message of Christmas is God’s personal intervention into history to rescue us who were His enemies and then reconcile us into His family. The message of Christmas is about Golgotha’s cross looming above the manger where the little Lord Jesus lay asleep on the hay.
Golgotha’s cross. I hope you still love that old cross, where the dearest and best, for a world of lost sinners, was slain.
What did John 3:16 cost God? Listen to the words of Revelation 5:9-10. The scene is heaven where the angels and the twenty-four elders proclaim to Jesus: “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”
Many don’t often think about Christianity as a bloody religion. But it had to be bloody, for only blood could atone for, only blood could wash away, the sins of the guilty.
Jews of Jesus’ day fully understood ‘blood atonement.’ The requirement of blood to wash away sins dates to the books of Moses. For example, Leviticus 17:11 “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’
And Christ’s cross was as bloody as it was gruesome. Before hammering spikes into His flesh, Roman soldiers tied Him the whipping post and stripped off His robe. Then one of them swung rock-embedded whips against Jesus’ back, buttocks and legs. Again, and again, until strips of skin hung from His body. Small capillaries and arteries oozed and spurted blood with each beat of His heart. The warm fluid tracked down His back, His thighs, His legs until the pavement at His feet was moist with dirt and clotted blood.
Listen! If the Baby in that manger had not grown into the Man whose bloody death would be the atonement for our own sins, there would be no hope for any of us to receive God’s forgiveness.
Did you catch that? Without the Cradle AND the Cross, there would be no hope for God’s mercy. No hope for eternal life, but only an inescapable judgment facing us after the grave.
But there is hope.
Scripture repeatedly tells us, Jesus substitutionary sacrifice for us utterly satisfied God’s justice – His unbreakable rule – that sin must be punished.
Substitutionary sacrifice. Here is what God promised about that sacrifice through the prophet Isaiah: "But He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” (53:4-6)
Christ’s Mass – Christmas as we now call it – was originally a Thanksgiving Celebration during which Christians remembered our Savior’s birth, life, sacrificial death, and His resurrection – which is God’s seal of approval on the work of Christ.
Christ’s Mass is why St. Paul wrote: In [Christ] we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace (Ephesians 1:7).
The apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth, “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.” (1 Corinthians 13:11)
As we celebrate Christmas this year, may the Holy Spirit help us mature in our understanding of the manger AND the cross. May He grow us ever deeper in love with Jesus – and in our obedience to Him.
Amen.
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