High Priced

Have you ever watched the show American Pickers? I haven’t watched it for several years now, but when it first came out I was a fan.

I always thought it was interesting to see the kinds of unique item people would have just sort of shoved in the back corner of a garage somewhere that looked like it hadn’t seen the light of day for 50 years or more.

And the hosts would get really excited about certain items they would come across. That is when the negotiating would begin to determine first of all, if they were willing to sell it, and second, how much it would cost to get them to part with it.

And some of the things these guys would get excited about would just blow me away. They would spend hundreds, thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands of dollars on what looked to me like something that needed to go to the scrap yard or the dumpster.

And you know we could debate what causes some objects to be more valuable than others.

Some would argue that it has to do with how rare it is. If there aren’t a lot of them, then that makes them more valuable.

Or maybe it has to do with who made it. Certain items are worth more than others because of the name attached to it.

This is true to a point, but you also have to consider more than these other factors is whether or not there is a market for it. In other words, are people willing to pay for it, and how much they are willing to pay.

Because it doesn’t matter how rare it is, or who made it if no one wants to buy it. So, the truth is. An item’s value is really based on the price someone is willing to pay for it.

Last week I started our Christmas series. If you remember, in my first message I mentioned that Christmas is the single most significant moment in history. So significant that we measure the entire timeline of history off of whether it happened before the birth Jesus, or after the birth of Jesus.

That a line was drawn on that first Christmas that changed everything that would happen on this side of it. That we are living on the side of the age of fulfillment where God has made a way to heal what sin had broken in the garden of Eden.

Christmas was the fulfillment of the promise that God would rescue his creation from the trap and consequence of sin and bring us back into relationship with our heavenly Father.

This morning as we get into the second message in this series I want to look at another shift that took place as a result of Christmas. A shift that was both cultural and doctrinal.

Power in the Text

If you want to read along we are going to be in the Gospel of Luke today. To sort of set the stage for our text this morning I need to give you a little context.

At this point in Luke, Jesus has been born, but is only a little over a week old. On the eighth day of his life, in accordance with the Law of Moses, Jesus was circumcised and officially given his name.

Then also in accordance with the Law of Moses, since Jesus was Mary’s firstborn child, he had to be dedicated to the Lord. This is where our text picks up.

Luke 2:22-24 NLT 22 Then it was time for their purification offering, as required by the law of Moses after the birth of a child; so his parents took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. 23 The law of the Lord says, “If a woman’s first child is a boy, he must be dedicated to the Lord.” 24 So they offered the sacrifice required in the law of the Lord—“either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

So here we see Jesus parents being obedient to the law and so they take him to the temple in Jerusalem. It is here that they meet a man named Simeon.

Luke 2:25-32 NLT 25 At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him 26 and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, 28 Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying,

29 “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. 30 I have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared for all people. 32 He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!”

This exchange was a unique one to the Gospels. It is only recorded in the Gospel of Luke and I believe with good reason.

You have to understand this about the gospel of Luke. Unlike the other Gospel writers, Luke was a gentile. And his gospel was written when you read it with the gentile audience in mind. In fact, it was written to a Gentile.

Luke shows throughout his gospel a commitment to showing how Jesus came for all people.

Genealogy of Jesus

The exchange between Mary, Joseph, and Simeon.

Here you have an older man (Simeon) who didn’t hold much stature or influence, yet had the privilege of seeing the Messiah for himself and even prophesying over him.

And in his prophecy he declares that Jesus is for all people. In verse 32 he says 32 He is a light to reveal God to the nations. The NIV says 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles.

Big Idea/Why it Matters

The significance here is often lost on us. This was a big deal for a lot of reasons.

First, Jesus was the promised Messiah, the one that all of Israel had been waiting on for generations. He was the one as I mentioned last week that the prophets had been speaking and writing of for centuries, even millennia if you take it back to the prophecies spoken by Moses about the Messiah.

It would seem that his arrival would garner the attention of kings and emperors. If nothing else, it would garner the attention of the religious leaders in Jerusalem, of the High Priest himself.

But that isn’t what happens. Instead, one of the first people to acknowledge and see Jesus for who he really was, was a nobody in eyes of his day.

Not only was he a nobody, but his prophecy would have been considered by many Jews to be blasphemous. Gentiles were dirty, sinful people whom Jews were banned from associating with. And here we see that the Messiah had come for them as well.

We also see that Simeon is elevating this baby to a position that children did not normally get elevated to.

Children were often considered sub-human (without worth and without rights) in ancient cultures because they could not contribute financially to the community.

The idea that the God of the universe would become human was hard to imagine, but the idea that he would come as a baby was laughable.

But this was just the beginning. Remember, we are talking about how Christmas changed everything.

Jesus turned this cultural notion upside down when He made childlike faith a necessary requirement for entering the Kingdom (Luke 18:17) and called the children to come to Him (Luke 18:6), deeming them not only human but of great value.

Other people in the Gospels whom Jesus deemed as worthy were the woman at the well (known for her relational messes),

the woman who washed His feet with her hair (known for her sexual history),

and the shepherds who first heard the news of His birth (having a reputation for being untrustworthy).

His blood makes all of us worthy and gives all of us value as children of God in spite of what our history would credit us.

Tim Keller says it like this in an article he wrote called “Why Christmas Matters”.

“Here’s why the doctrine of Christmas is unique. On one hand, you’ve got religions that say God is so immanent (to exist or operate within) in all things that incarnation is normal. If you’re a Buddhist or Hindu, God is immanent in everything. On the other hand, religions like Islam and Judaism say God is so transcendent over all things that incarnation is impossible.

But Christianity is unique. It doesn’t say incarnation is normal, but it doesn’t say it’s impossible. It says God is so immanent that it is possible, but He is so transcendent that the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ is a history-altering, life-transforming, paradigm-shattering event. Christmas is not just frankly doctrinal; it’s also boldly historical. The manger, the resurrection, the story of Jesus is not just a story. It’s true.”

In other words, what God did at Christmas was so unique in the history of creation that its impact had inconceivably vast consequences. It changed everything both in the seen and unseen world. In both the physical as well as the spiritual world.

Application/Closing

I mentioned in my opening about how an object’s true value not based on where it comes from or who made it, but on the price someone is willing to pay for it.

In an ancient world where a person’s worth was based on their family wealth or political station, Jesus changed the entire course of history by coming for all people—equally. The value of a person is now based on the price that God paid for their redemption: the blood of God’s very Son.

What I hope this Christmas reminds you of is just how valuable you are to God. We all struggle with insecurities and at times question our own self-worth.

We live in a world today where people are trying to find their value in how many clicks or likes they get. Or in the affirmation of others, even if that affirmation is for all the wrong things.

Depending on our past mistakes or the things that have been allowed to happen to us we can be deceived into thinking we aren’t worth a whole lot.

You might not ever see your name in a headline or make a grand discovery. You might never achieve your financial or career goals, you may never find the love and attention from family you crave, or be able to fix something you broke by your own bad decisions.

But at the end of the day those things aren’t what define you or give you worth. What makes you valuable is the price that was paid on your behalf so that you could be forgiven and set free.

1 Peter 1:18-19 NLT 18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.

I pray this Christmas you experience the love of God in way you never have before. But not just so you feel good and continue living how you always have.

But so the love you experience from God would cause a transformation to take place in your life that would change you in a way that it makes it impossible for you to want to live any other life than the one God has planned for you.