The Dark Days of Christmas: Greed

Intro

We are continuing our series, The Dark Days of Christmas. We’ve been walking through some underlying realities that come with the Christmas season. Though for most, Christmas is a time of joy and excitement, there are some real struggles that lots of people go through. So we wanted to take the time to address these darker issues with the intention of acknowledging what is going on.

To anyone who is struggling this Christmas season with anything we’ve talked about or will talk about, know this. We see you, we know you are struggling, and we are here to help. You are not alone in your struggle. Scripture tells us to bear one another’s burdens, and we want to come alongside you and help bear some of the weight.

This week, I learned something really interesting. I looked up the four themes of advent. I said on the first Sunday that some churches light candles, and then my mom reminded me that each candle actually represents something. So watch this, this is too crazy to make up, and I wish I had planned it but I honestly didn’t. God knew what he was doing, I’ve just been trying to catch up

First candle of advent represents hope. We talked that Sunday about loneliness and how Christmas can honestly be the loneliest time of year. The reason someone is lonely is because they long for connection with someone and they’re not getting it. So what do we need in that time? We need hope that we will get that connection at some point. Hope that a door is going to open or that we will make a connection that meets that need. We need hope when we feel loneliest.

The second candle represents peace. Philippians tells us that we are to cast our anxieties unto the Lord, and the peace that surpasses understanding will fill us. When we are feeling anxious in life about anything. When we are wrestling with anxiety, the thing we want most and long for is peace. We want the worries and the stresses to go away and peace to return to our lives.

And wouldn’t you know, this morning’s message coincides directly with the third theme. This morning we are going to look at two groups of people, and watch how their very different reactions to the birth of Christ can give us yet another tool to help us refocus this Christmas season

How do you handle being surprised?

All through out our telling of the Christmas story, we’ve been looking at the two accounts found in Matthew and Luke. Each author brings a unique spin to the story, and they emphasize different details. This morning, we are actually going to look at details of the story that one author makes sure to mention while the other chooses to neglect. We’re going to start by looking at Luke.

Luke 2:8–16 ESV

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.

most of us have heard story. In fact, if your kids have ever been a part of a church christmas play, every nativity scene includes the angels somewhere. They are such an important part of the Nativity scene we’ve all grown accustomed to.

This next story, it doesn’t appear in any nativity scene I’ve seen

Matthew 2:1–6 ESV

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

The wise men ask Herod where the king of the Jews is born, and Herod is troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

Now traditionally, we have equated the troubled nature of Herod and Jerusalem with the problem the King of the Jews poses to Rome. Rome is ruling over Israel at this time, Caesar is king, and anyone established as king would be seen as a threat to Caesar. Rome would send the full force of its army to Israel to squash any chance of this new king causing an uprising.

However, there may be another angle to consider, and it has to do with Herod himself. Herod the Great, as Josephus refers to him, had quite a resume. Rome established him as king in 37 BC. Over the next decade, he would impress Rome with his ability to pacify the Jews, keep them in line, as well as his ability to collect taxes.

He would then go on to build massive fortresses around Jerusalem, and even rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. When we read in the gospels how of the disciples admired temple, it was Herod who built it.

Ritmeyer, who surveyed the temple site, said, “Despite his crimes and excesses, no one can doubt his prowess as a builder.

It near the end of his reign that things went sideways for Herod, and it was during the end of his reign that Jesus was born

Herod became a paranoid tyrant. The reason built massive fortresses was to protect his rule.

He had ten wives and 15 children. Of his ten wives, he had a favorite. He was so protective of her that he ordered his soldiers that if anything were to happen to him, they were to kill her so that no one else could have her

This same wife apparently had a bit of a temper, and when he got tired of her arguing with him, he had her executed. He then had both her sons executed under suspicion of mutiny.

He was so troubled after she died that he became violently ill.

It was during his paranoia that Jesus was born, and when the wise men didn’t return to report Jesus’ whereabouts, he sent his soldiers and killed every boy 2 years old and younger.

Herod was so evil, that when he was getting close to death, he had many Jewish leaders killed so that the people of Israel would be in mourning during the time of his death.

The thing that I want to point out about Herod is the fact that he loved power. He was a soldier, he was a politician, he did everything he could to impress Rome so that Rome would give him more power. He so desperately loved power that he killed any kind of a threat that would try to take it away. He wanted all of it.

I would say that his love of power was a form of greed. He wanted more influence, he wanted more power, he wanted more.

As much as we don’t like to admit it, the Christmas season feeds greed. That’s why all the stores have their massive sales at this time of year. In fact I saw that some stores have already started their boxing day prices because who knows what boxing day is going to look like this year.

Christmas means presents, and presents means wishlists. “What do you want this year?” How am I going to top last year’s gift? All day long, whether it is TV or social media, we are bombarded with advertisements.

We even ask the question, “What do you get the person who has everything?” implying that they don’t in fact have everything because they must want more.

At some level or another, we are all greedy, even if the thing we actually want is more love, more attention, more favor. More, more, more, bigger, bigger, bigger,

Greed isn’t limited to physical things. Anything that you want more of is something you are being greedy for. Greed is really a matter of the heart.

Question 2: What is something you always seem to want more of?

Herod loved power, influence, and popularity, and he was willing to kill to keep it.

On the flip side, look at our friends the shepherds. All through out scripture, the shepherd is consistently the one thing that characterized leadership and God himself.

The main responsibilities of a shepherd were to lead and to protect

a shepherd was the embodiment of a benevolent provider and a powerful defender.

shepherds were humble, and they were not highly regarded in the Roman world.

In fact, this is what Aristotle said about shepherds

“the laziest are shepherds, who lead an idle life, and get their subsistence without trouble from tame animals; their flocks wandering from place to place in search of pasture, they are compelled to follow them, cultivating a sort of living farm.”

the shepherds were out in the field when Jesus was born, no doubt settling in for the night to sleep with the sheep. The shepherd put the concerns of the flock first, and it was not a highly esteemed job.

the intersting thing is that Israel expected a king like Herod. Herod was a good soldier, he was dominant, he was a politician.

Instead, Jesus came to be a king more like the shepherds. He put other’s needs first, he loved people more then he loved anything else. It is no coincidence that the angels, who came to declare the arrival of the Messiah, didn’t go to the palace. They went to the shepherds.

Luke tells us that they came, and they worshipped, and they went out and declared that the Messiah had come to the world.

Matthew tells us that when the palace found out, they went into a frenzy, trying to eliminate the king. I wonder why the angels went to the shepherds.

Question #3: How can we do Christmas differently?

This is one of the things I always loved about the advent conspiracy. The conspiracy encouraged the idea that maybe Christmas wasn’t about spending more money or getting more things. Maybe Christmas is about spending more time making memories, or giving to those who aren’t looking to add more wants, but rather trying to meet basic needs.

We need to keep the main thing the main thing. Christmas is about Christ, and Christ loved people. He wasn’t about the status or the stuff. Remember Jesus didn’t even have a home to call his own while he was ministering to people.

this challenge is really tough for me. Gary Chapman released a book years back called the five love languages, and by now, everyone and their dog has heard of this book. Well after doing the test, and actually just asking anyone in my family, one of my top love languages is gifts. I love giving gifts and I love getting them. It is the way I show love and it is the way I receive love.

This is a big challenge for me because the question that I’m faced with, and that I pose to you, is how do I give a gift that has more to do with the love I have for the person and less about how much it cost me? That is going to require creativity, it is going to take time. It is so much easier to just go online and pick up the latest gadget or toy and hope for the best.

It is easier to ask, “What are they going like?” instead of asking, “What says I love you best?”

It gets even more complicated when we start looking for people who actually need some extra love this season instead of pouring more love on those who already have it.

How are you going to combat greed this season? How are you going to change the story?

The third candle of advent is love. Jesus loved you enough to become a baby, lying in a manger, surrounded by a bunch of humble shepherds so that one day, he could die and take away yours and my sin.

How are you going to show love to someone who needs it most this season?

Let’s pray