Delivered On Time

God Sent His Son For a Guilt-Free Christmas

12.24.21 [Galatians 4:4-7] River of Life (Christmas Eve)

The days around Christmas are always packed. More than any other holiday, more than any other celebration, more than any other season, Christmas is packed. Packed with extra chores, extra errands, extra events, and extra-high expectations.

So much extra effort goes into getting our homes ready for Christmas. The house has to be cleaned, then decorated. The tree has to be trimmed. The lights and the stockings have to be hung.

If you’re hosting a meal at any point this weekend, you had to figure out the menu; find the right recipes; and then venture into the nightmare before Christmas known as the grocery store. And you haven’t even begun to cook anything or serve anyone a meal.

If your guests are from out-of-town you have extra tasks. The whole house has to be cleaned—from top to bottom—especially the guest room. You had to go the extra mile and find that little piece of paper you scribbled the Wi-Fi password on, too. So much extra effort goes into getting our homes ready for Christmas.

So much extra effort goes into getting ourselves ready for Christmas, too. We’ve got to find the right clothes, the right shoes, and tonight the right coat. Presents have to be purchased, delivered to our front door, then wrapped, then hidden, then found, and finally tucked under the tree. So much extra effort goes into getting ready for Christmas.

But Christmas isn’t just packed with extra chores, extra errands, extra events. It’s also pressure packed, more than most holidays.

Let’s say for the sake of argument, this Christmas, you nail it. Do you know what your reward is? Heightened expectations. You get to host next year. You get to make the Christmas dinner next year. You get to pick out all the presents next year. When you knock Christmas out of the park, the pressure to perform next year grows. Even if this Christmas is a flop, the pressure doesn’t magically disappear. Strangely, it increases. Because next year you have to make up for last year.

So much extra effort goes into Christmas. Rather than enjoying ourselves, we’re just trying to endure it all and survive. It can feel more like a sentence than a celebration. If you’ve ever felt this pressure to perform, then you’ve gotten a taste of what it means to live (Gal. 4:4) under the law.

What law? The law of God. (Rom. 2:15) The law that has been engraved upon your heart and imprinted on your conscience. This is the law that we were all born under. This law is powerful. There’s nothing seasonal or cultural about it. We feel the power of this law most when someone else breaks it, especially at your expense. When someone takes something that is yours, when someone deceives you, when someone dishonors or discredits you unfairly, your blood boils. This law helps you determine who is a good guy and who’s not.

But you also live under the pressure of this law. The law that compels you to do what you know is right, even when it’s inconvenient or taxing, exhausting or painful. At times, this law also speaks against you, too. You know the guilt that comes after failing to perform. You know how guilt gnaws away at you. How guilt remembers failures that everyone else has long forgotten. How guilt ruins moments when everyone else is happy. How guilt can dominate your inner thoughts.

So how do we deal with this guilt? Well, we can try to outrun it. Keeping ourselves busy with all kinds of things. But guilt is a persistent bugger. We can try to deny it. But telling ourselves we have no reason to feel guilty doesn’t actually do anything to the guilt. Discrediting it by pointing out everyone else’s failures might turn guilt’s volume down a bit, but it will never silence it.

Guilt is a little like that pink spot in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. The more we try to clean it up, the bigger it grows and spreads. We can try to wipe it away, but it stains. We can try to sweep it or blow it away; beat it with bats and rakes; but it just becomes a bigger mess.

Of course, The Cat In The Hat Comes Back is just a children’s story. As in most children’s stories, in the end, things get resolved. The pink spot gets cleaned up. That tiniest of cats, Cat Z, takes off its hat and releases the VOOM. What VOOM is, no body knows. But it works. It cleans every spot. Sets everything right. Imagine if VOOM were real.

But waiting for things to turn out “happily ever after” seems naive. So what do we do? Most of us being to play the “if only” game. If only we could get a do-over. If only we go back in time and take back those words. If only we could move back the hands of time and do the right thing. But we know we can’t. Even if we could go back in time, why do we think we’d do better? How many times don’t we fall short of the standards of right and wrong today— right here and now? A time-machine wouldn’t fix that, because the problem is us.

So instead we try to live with the guilt. We get used to feeling the pangs of regret. And we tell ourselves that everyone who’s honest with themselves is in the same boat.

And that’s true. There is nothing you or I can do to get rid of our guilt. But that doesn’t mean that nothing can be done.

Tonight I bring you (Lk. 2:10) good news of great joy that is for all us guilt-ridden people. (Gal. 4:4-5) When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the pressure and the stress of the law, to redeem those who’ve failed to live up to the law. That is God’s gift to you in Christmas. In sending his Son, God has given you a graciously guilt-free Christmas. That’s why the tiny Christ-child was born. To redeem you from the pressure to perform, to take away the guilt of all your sins, and to give you the confidence of a kid at Christmas.

The God who made the law—because it revealed his heart and nature—also made his way into this world, at just the right time. What Scripture tells us here is truly marvelous. (Gal. 4:4-5) When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son. Our eternal God did not respond to our sin and guilt by playing the “if only” game. If only Adam and Eve had not fallen into temptation in the first place. If only Satan’s lies had not been so convincing. If only mankind feared, loved, and trusted in the One True God as they should. Our all-knowing Lord did not respond to our guilt by saying, If you all band together and work hard enough you can clean up your own mess. He did not say: Show me why this time it will be different? Prove to me you’re worthy of my love.

Instead God chose, purely out of his mercy, to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. He promised to send his perfect Son into this sinful world. He promised that God would become man, that the Almighty Lord would take on the nature of a helpless little baby. (Gal. 4:4-5) When the time God set had fully come, God sent his one and only Son, born of a woman, born in the town of David, to redeem those who, like David, could not atone for the guilt of their own sin.

God’s own Son took on the pressure to perform. Not for himself. But for us and for our salvation. And he knocked it out of the park. Jesus was perfect. Without spot or blemish. No skeletons in his closet. He was always loving. Always truthful. Always forgiving. Always forbearing. A patient teacher. A friend of sinners.

Not only did he live this way, but he also took our guilt upon himself. He made his way into this world to (Heb. 9:26-28) do away with sin, by sacrificing himself. He insisted that our failings fall upon him. Our iniquities were heaped on his shoulders. He is the bearer of our guilt and our sin. He paid for our transgressions—the wicked things we have done and the good things we have failed to do—with his own life. That was the only way to redeem us. He couldn’t just take off his hat and unleash VOOM, like cat Z. So he allowed himself to be mistreated. Crucified alongside career criminals. We think a lot goes into getting ready for Christmas. So much more went into redeeming us. (2 Cor. 5:21) Jesus became sin for us; experienced his Father’s righteous wrath. Securing us a graciously, guilt-free Christmas and eternity was costly. But Jesus was overjoyed to purchase it for us. And the Scriptures tell us why. That we might be (Gal. 4:5) adopted. Jesus wanted you to be part of his family.

You see that’s the good news of Christmas. (Lk. 2:11) Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. He is (Jn. 1:29) the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is your (Job 19:25) Redeemer. And he is (Heb. 2:11) not ashamed to call you his brother.

So much goes into getting ready for Christmas for so many of us. But for some of us, Christmas may feel like it has gone and went. The kids are moved out. The old tree feels like too much. Good gifts are hard to come by. Guests from out of town are welcome, but not so willing. Part of you may pine for the packed pace and pressure of past Christmases. God has a gift for you, too. The King of Love, the Lord Almighty has adopted you. You are invited to celebrate Christmas with (Is. 9:6) the Prince of Peace and Lord of lords.

God invites you to do with that with the confidence of a kid at Christmas. What do I mean by that? Well, you know how kids are. When they see presents under the tree—no matter how many they have already gotten—they are convinced there’s one more for them. Why? Some might say they’re being selfish. And that is probably part of it. But they are convinced there is more because they have come to know that, in this place, they are loved. And love means gifts—many gifts. God’s love for you means many gifts this Christmas. You have been redeemed from all the pressure to perform. You have been set free from all your guilt. You have been made God’s own beloved child. Christmas is packed with gifts from God. (2 Cor. 9:15) Thanks be to God for these indescribably wonderful gifts! Amen.