Jesus

We have arrived to this day, Christmas Day, through the season of Advent. During Advent, we took the time to focus on Jesus’ family. We looked at some of his ancestors, and we looked at his birth mother and earthly father.

What is most amazing, and most mind blowing about Christmas Day is that God himself, stepped into history, stepped into his creation and took on human flesh.

Think about that. Imagine, building a huge city out of lego. You have roads, and houses, and cars and trucks, and planes, and trains. Then imagine being able to take on Legoness. Not just shrinking your human self to Lego size, but actual becoming a Lego man or woman.

Now, since Lego is an inanimate object, you would end up just lying there doing nothing. But suppose the Lego world was real, like in the Lego movies!

That’s what the incarnation was like. Jesus took on human flesh. Jesus came into his creation. Jesus put on humanity. In Jesus we have “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3). This fact, this God with us, God taking on human nature is absolutely astounding!

This is why so little is written about Mary and Joseph. Compared to Jesus’ incarnation, who are they? Let’s try an example. Do you remember the 2010 winter olympics? Remember how Iggy set up Crosby for the gold-medal winning goal? That was some brilliant hockey! Focussing on Mary and Joseph would be like focussing on the guy whose job was to keep the plaryer’s water bottles filled. He played a very important role, make no mistake, but in comparison to the players doing the work of winning the game, he is less significant. Likewise, Mary and Joseph are important, but in comparison to Jesus and his work in redeeming sinful humanity, they are less significant.

Jesus is God. Jesus is God with us.

That’s what the name Immanuel means, God with us. God did the unthinkable. God, who is holy, who once walked in the cool of the garden with Adam and Eve, made a way, He is the way for us to walk with him again!

Jesus took on human flesh, lived a full human life.

Now, we need to remember why it was necessary for Jesus to do so.

Back in the garden, Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They rebelled, they sinned against him. And this disobedience came with a penalty: death. God in his grace spared Adam and Eve from immediate death, and instead gave them a promise that he would one day rescue them from sin and death.

That’s exactly what Jesus came to do. That’s what the incarnation is all about. That’s what the name Jesus means! Jesus’ name means Yahweh our saviour. Yahweh, God is the God of salvation. The Bible is full of stories of salvation, all pointing to salvation in Jesus.

Jesus, saves us from bondage and slavery to sin, he saves us from the punishment of death. Jesus rescued us by becoming one of us, except for sin. He himself was sinless. But he willingly took upon himself our sin to save us.

This is amazing. This is such a great, great thing, This is why Luke tells us in his gospel that angel told Mary that Jesus will be great. In fact, Jesus is the greatest. At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord.

He will be called the Son of the Most High. In those days, there were many different religions, many different gods to be worshipped. People had contrived a system of ordering the gods, from the least to the most powerful. Not only were their gods false, and nothing more than figments of imaginations—human attempts to recognise the existence of God—the one true God, the God most High, is far and above all other gods. God is eternal, uncreated, perfect, powerful, awesome.

Jesus is the Son of the Most High God, he is the second person of the Trinity. He is of the same essence of the Father. He is eternal God.

And because he is eternal God, his reign will last forever. Kings come and go. Nations rise and fall. But Jesus is forever.

Jesus kingdom isn’t an earthly kingdom. Jesus’ kingdom is one of grace and truth. His kingdom is established in hearts, in the lives of people. Jesus rules from within, for all who love the God of Jacob. In Romans 14:17, we learn that God’s kingdom is one of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Eventually, this kingdom will be fully realised in the establishment of a new heaven and earth.

That’s what we’re looking forward to, aren’t we? Jesus has already saved us from our sins. Jesus kingdom is established. All that remains is the final consummation, the final coming of Christ and the new heaven and earth.

But we would be very remiss, beloved people of God, if all we did with this was receive it for information. It is possible to hear the Christmas story year after year and treat it like that, a story.

But Christmas is so much more than what we see in the world, with decorations, trees, presents, family get togethers—well not this year. Christmas is more than just reading passages out of scripture.

Christmas is about realising that God the Son, entered history, took on human flesh, took upon himself, his very own creation!

And Jesus did that for a reason! He did that to save you and to save me from all our sins! God intentionally went after his enemies and allowed his enemies to kill him, so that he could save them. This is totally mind blowing. This is more than we can really comprehend!

But we can understand God’s love for us. We can understand why God our Father would want to save us, his creation. We can understand why there is a connection between God and us. We have sensed the connection we have with each other as God’s people, even as this pandemic has meant that we can’t be with each other as we would like. We can’t have the fellowship we are all longing for.

But we know that God is with us, he is Immanuel. Even in the midst of all these restrictions, nothing is able to separate us from God. Nothing is able to take us away from him! We can endure this. And yes, those are the right words, endure. We will have to continue for a while longer yet. But we can.

In fact, we can endure all this and far more, if we have to. For we have not yet suffered to the point of death—but being in Christ means that we are willing and ready to live wholeheartedly for him.

That phrase might sound familiar. If it does it is because it comes from answer 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism, which reminds us that we belong to Jesus. In life and in death we belong to him. Therefore we do not need to live in fear. Jesus is with us, even if we walk through the valley of the shadow of death!

So, what we find with Jesus is righteousness—his righteousness paid for our sins. Peace—because we are forgiven our sins, we are at peace with God, and we no longer have to consume ourselves with trying to impress God and get his attention so that he will save us. We find out that we can enter true rest, rest in Christ.

And we find joy—we have, from within, from Jesus himself, a joy in our hearts that cannot be shaken, that cannot be dislodged. That joy is present, no matter where we are, no matter what our circumstances.

It is the joy that causes us to persevere through the darkest days, and the loneliest nights. It is the joy that sustains us, no matter how hopeless things seem to be. It is the joy that is experienced at births, at celebrations, at anniversaries, it is the joy that comes from being able to be with loved ones again.

It is the joy of being able to see God face to face. And that’s what God has not only promised, but provided for in his Son, Jesus, born this happy morning! Amen.

Let us pray: Thank you Jesus for taking on human flesh, for being born, for living, dying, rising and ascending into heaven, so that we can be forgiven and made forever right with you. Thank you for love, and the joy only you can give. In your name we pray, Amen.