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Prayer
Christmas Conspiracy
So glad to have you all with us tonight - beautiful evening, and wonderful time to gather to celebrate Christmas together
For those of you who haven’t been with us this past month during season of Advent, we’ve been doing a series called The Christmas Conspiracy
The thing about a conspiracy, there’s something secretive going on, behind scenes - only a few folks recognize that’s happening.
Most people are walking around blissfully ignorant.
We got the idea of talking about Christmas as a conspiracy from Dallas Willard, who talks about the Kingdom of God as the divine conspiracy.
This idea that God is establishing his kingdom, his reign, here on earth, so that everything in heaven and on earth would be under his rule, according to his will.
And he’s doing it through Jesus.
And it begins here at Christmas, with his birth.
It’s not just that there’s a cute little baby boy is born (although that’s true), it’s that the true king has been born.
One destined to rule - and to rule forever.
As it says in Isaiah 9, “Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.”
It will be the never-ending kingdom.
That’s great conspiracy, the Christmas Conspiracy.
When we come to Gospel of Matthew, you see all elements of a conspiracy happening - story of Jesus’ birth in Matthew is filled with intrigue and treacherous plotting, it’s wild.
Begins with scandal of a young woman who’s pregnant - and not married yet.
That’s fairly commonplace here today, but in days of Jesus in Israel, that was type of behavior for which you’d be shunned.
Joseph, her fiance, rather than expose her to scorn of the community, decides to divorce her quietly.
Then, through a dream, it’s revealed to Joseph that she actually has been faithful to him, that child in her womb is from the Holy Spirit - and that he is to take her and marry her and raise the child as his own.
My guess is, Joseph did not go around and tell a lot of people about the dream.
That’s kind of thing that they lock people up for.
So we have this scandalous pregnancy - and then, these strange travelers from a foreign country.
They’ve seen signs in the stars.
Signs that a new King of the Jews has been born.
This is huge.
Jews have not had their own king for decades.
They were under rule of the Roman empire, who had installed an Edomite, a non-Jew, Herod, as king.
This is revolutionary, subversive news, that a Jewish king has been born.
This is why Herod and all Jerusalem were disturbed when wise men come asking about the newborn king.
So Herod calls together religious leaders to find out what the prophecies say about where Messiah was to be born.
It’s Bethlehem.
So, he sends these magi off in that direction with instructions to go find the child and report back to him so he, too, can go and worship this king.
This is where the lies and treachery really start to kick in, because Herod has no intention of honoring this baby.
He wants to destroy it.
It’s a threat to his reign.
Wise men make their way to Bethlehem, following the star, and find baby in the home where he is living with Mary and Joseph.
Jesus may have been as old as two years old by this time.
Conspiracy stuff continues - we have these clandestine escapes - Magi are warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, so they return to their country, taking a different route home.
You can guess they avoided any soldiers they might have seen.
But not just wise men, Joseph, too, is warned in a dream.
He immediately gets up, gathers his family and belongings and they flee the country.
They become refugees, on the run, traveling all the way down to Egypt.
Just to get a sense of how conspiratorial this all is - can you imagine somehow asking them, so, what brought you to Egypt?
Oh, the King in Israel wanted to kill my son because he’s the true king of the Jews so we had to flee the country…(yeah, that new couple is nice, but they’re a little cuckoo).
We didn’t read this part of the story, but Matthew 2 ends with the terrible slaughter of the innocents - all the boys two and under in Bethlehem and the neighboring areas are murdered by Herod’s soldiers.
It’s hard to imagine how many mothers and fathers were weeping helplessly that night because of the paranoia of a cruel king.
It’s all here, plotting, treachery, nighttime escapes - conspiracy city.
King Herod was absolutely brutal, he ruled ruthlessly and did whatever he could to hang onto power, but there’s one thing he gets exactly right in regards to Jesus - it’s me or him
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen any of The Highlander movies, or the TV series.
Whole premise is that there are a tiny group of immortals that live among us - people that can’t be killed.
Except, if you sever their heads.
That’s one thing - so movies are filled with a lot of sword fights.
There’s one essential element to the story…There can be only one.
They all have to fight each other until only one of them remains.
Herod knew that there can be only one.
It’s me or him.
Either I am king.
Or he is.
Either I reign, I’m in control.
Or he is.
This is the very heart of the Christmas Conspiracy - and it’s part that really is most threatening - not just to Herod, but to all of us.
It’s one thing to really admire Jesus.
To pray and ask him for help.
To even trust and believe that he made amazing sacrifice, dying on the cross for our sins.
But Jesus comes to us not just as our help in need, as our Savior, but as Lord.
He comes to us as King.
He wants you to enter into his Kingdom, under his reign.
There can be only one.
One of the things I find most amazing about Jesus is how he comes to us as king.
It’s always never pushy, never forced or compelled.
Jesus comes with an open invitation.
When Herod comes with sword, he comes with a sword.
He will take what he wants and use whatever force needed to get it - including killing.
But not Jesus, Matthew 11:28-29…Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.
To take yoke of Jesus is to willingly attach yourself to Jesus, follow him, be willing to learn from him.
To come under his reign - It is to let him be the one.
Do you see how the invitation comes - not to put burdens on us, not to weigh us down, but to free us.
give us rest, rest for our souls.
This is the one place in all the gospels where Jesus describes his own heart - For I am gentle and humble in heart.
But at the same time that Jesus comes with this gentle invitation, what he asks for - is everything.
Complete surrender.
Your life given over to him.
Jesus is absolutely insistent that He be the Lord of your life.
Your King.
There can be only one.
It’s you or him.
He wants your love, your loyalty, your worship, your devotion - and nothing less.
That why he says such things as...
Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
(to deny yourself is to say “no” to yourself in order to say “yes” to Jesus.
“No one can serve two masters.
You cannot serve both God and money.”
It’s important to see that Jesus wasn’t just saying these things.
He meant them.
When a rich young man came to Jesus to verify that he was doing all things necessary to gain eternal life, he thought that by obeying the commands, that would be enough.
He was quite shocked when Jesus told him that in order to gain eternal life, he needed to sell everything he had, give that money to poor, and then come follow him.
We should be clear about what Jesus was doing here.
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