Birth of a Saviour

Does Jesus make a difference

What difference would it make if we took Jesus out of Christmas?

Of course, we might have to call it something different, because he’s… well… in the title.

But leave that aside, in my hypothetical, let’s assume you get to keep pretty much most of the traditions of Christmas, like the big family gathering, the giving of gifts, the songs (albeit we might need to change some of the lyrics), the decorations and whatever else makes Christmas Christmas.

If we took Jesus out, is there any difference?

Increasingly, we might be tempted to say - well, it’s kind of already happening. Although, I do love how even in the big commercial Christmas carols event, many of the great songs about Jesus still take very prominent positions. And while pictures of Santa Claus completely outnumber images of the nativity scene, the nativity scene is not entirely absent from society.

In some ways, we could mount an argument that our celebrations can go just fine without Jesus.

It’s an interesting thought though. Firstly, every celebration has some kind of focus. You change that focus, the nature of the celebration changes. Yes, you can have a family gathering just because you like hanging out together, but the occasion does make a difference.

But, I want to suggest, that the difference Jesus makes is more than just the feeling of the day.

I actually want to suggest that it goes beyond just the celebration and makes a difference to the world in which we live.

You see, first of all, we need to flip this around. It’s not like we’re looking for a way to make Christmas special, rather we’re looking for a solution to a much bigger problem, and Christmas is the celebration because we’ve found the answer.

Yes you can take Jesus out of Christmas and you’ll still have a good party, but you take Jesus out, we’ve still got our big problem.

The Problem

The big question then is: what is our big problem?

You know, here’s the thing… I think we all intuitively know there is something not quite right about this world. Maybe you can easily put your finger on it. Maybe you can’t.

I think many of us can name many of the things that are wrong. Domestic Violence. Corruption. Abuse. Conflict between individuals. Conflict within and between organisations. Conflicts within and between countries. Or the fact that people are dying from cancer in what appears to be a very indiscriminate manner. There’s pain and suffering everywhere. Some of it self-inflicted. Other times it was out of our control.

We can name these parts, but perhaps you’re thinking - but there’s no connection between all of that.

But… is there?

You see, many of you might be familiar with the concept of a root cause analysis. It’s the idea that when you see something that is wrong, it’s often the result of something earlier that went wrong. But that thing that went wrong… well… it’s a result of something else that went wrong.

The idea is, we keep tracing it back and hopefully, we find the originating cause, and hopefully we can rectify that problem.

Those root cause analyses only tend to go back so far - and there are practical reasons for that. But the reality is, the bible helps us do the ultimate root cause analysis and we can trace everything back to a simple fact - humanity turned it’s back on God.

God created a good world. But humanity wanted more.

When we accept this, what we need is God to agree to take us back.

We have proved ourselves incapable of redeeming ourselves. We need God to take the initiative.

This is why Christmas is such a special time. Because it is the reminder we need, that God did indeed choose to reach out to us.

He did it in the most intimate way you can imagine. He sent Jesus into the world to be one of us.

Birth of Jesus

The story we have been reading this evening, is the story of this most amazing event happening.

What’s even more surprising is the humble way in which it happened.

Now remember that this is God, so he can arrange anything he likes. If he wanted to do this in peak comfort and with lots of royal treatment, he could have made that happen.

Instead, the birth happens following a long journey due to a census being taken. They can’t even get a proper room, so they have to settle for the place where the animals go.

But in this most unlikely place, God enters the world as a human.

Shepherds

But in Luke’s gospel, the scene quickly shifts out to the fields near by.

There we find the shepherds.

Now let’s get something straight here. We usually picture shepherds as these almost soft hearted men, almost like you’d like to go up to them and give them a big hug. Actually, shepherds during this time had a bit of a rough reputation. They kind of needed to, because looking after sheep was hard work.

Anyway, presumably, the night would have been like any other night before they got a visit from the angel of the Lord.

I want to look at the words that this angel spoke to the shepherds, because it is at this point that we start to see why this is all such a big deal.

Well, the angel starts with “do not be afraid”. Even to these tough shepherds, the sight of an angel still requires words of comfort.

The angel continues “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people”.

The angel is setting the scene. Often when we have good news, it can be for an isolated, that is to say, relevant for a few people but not everyone. This news however is truly global.

With the big build up, the angel then tells the news (v11), “Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord”.

Saviour

That’s actually a dense sentence right there. We could pull that apart in detail, but I just want to pick up on the word “Saviour”.

To have a saviour, you need something you need saving from. What is that? Well, this is the problem I’ve been speaking about.

We live in a world, where if we do an ultimate root cause analysis of any problem we might face, we find that it has resulted from humanity turning their back on God. We need saving from a broken world.

This is why Christmas is so special. Because it is a reminder that there is hope. It’s a reminder that light has come into this world.

Problems still persist. They don’t persist because Jesus wasn’t powerful enough, they persist because of the way Jesus has chosen to save.

You see, when Jesus came, he established a new kingdom. A different type of kingdom. One that isn’t defined by a land boundary. Rather, one where God’s in charge. One that starts as small as a mustard seed, and grows to a massive spreading tree.

You can be part of this kingdom. But it does take a choice.

You see, in effect, there is the kingdom of this world, and the kingdom of God. While ever we are this side of Christ’s return, we physically live in the kingdom of the world. That’s why there is going to still be suffering.

To be part of God’s kingdom, is to recognise that we are part of the problem. The same sinful desire in humanity that was the root cause of our problem, is also in me. We repent. And then we turn to God and ask that he comes into our lives.

At this, while we still live in this fallen world, we are part of a better future.

This is the result of the saviour. The saviour that broke through death.

Angels sing

The moment of Jesus birth was one of the most important moments of history, with the only other more important moment being his death and resurrection.

The birth however was significant because of what it represented. It represent the start of something new.

And when something so amazing happens… well… that’s cause for angels to sing.

Now there are a lot of things I look forward to when I get to heaven, but hearing a choir of angels is certainly up there.

Luke’s account tells us that “a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests”.

This evening, I really want to impress on you all just how significant this moment is.

Because Jesus came to earth, a new way has been opened for us. Because he came, the grip of sin has been loosed.

This is cause for great celebration.

Conclusion

So back to my question from before, what difference would it make to take Jesus out of Christmas?

Yes, you might still be able to have a good party. But to be frank, it will all be superficial. It will all be some gloss to help us forget that actually, things are pretty broken.

We can forget for a bit, but it won’t take long for things to come back at us. In fact, it’s not that uncommon for the thin veneer of happiness to come off as family tensions start to rise in the stress of the day.

But when we recognise that actually, this day celebrates one of the greatest moments of history, marking the start of a new kingdom that we can be a part of… we see that the celebration is far from superficial. This is one of hope.

I’m glad that you are hear on this Christmas Eve. Tomorrow you will wake up. So of you might go to other services. Some of you straight to a family gathering.

But know that you can be a part of this great kingdom. If you’re not sure whether you have accepted Jesus or not, then please, speak with either myself or another Christian that you trust.

Let me pray…