On Christmas Eve we told the Christmas
story. And we should have, obviously.
But you know, sometimes, when we tell that story, we get a little too
bogged down in the details. And I’m as guilty of that as anyone. But we love to hear about the Joseph and Mary
being turned away from the inn and going out to the stable. We love to
sing about how Jesus was born there and was placed in a manger. And then we love the part about the angels
and the shepherds and the star and the wise men.
And that’s all great. I’m not criticizing it at
all. But the thing is that we sometimes focus too much on the “what” of
the story. What we don’t focus on enough, sometimes, is the “why”. Why did God do this? Why did God send Jesus, the divine Son, to
earth in the first place? Why, in short, is this story such a big deal to
us? That’s why, today, instead of
reading about the wise men or about Jesus’ circumcision or about any of the
other things that happened shortly after Jesus’ birth, we have a reading from
the book of Hebrews.
The book of Hebrews is really a
remarkable book. Someday we may do a sermon series just on the book of
Hebrews, because there’s a lot of really good stuff in it. We don’t
actually know who wrote it.
Traditionally it was attributed to the Apostle Paul, and some sources
still give him credit for it, but most scholars don’t think he actually wrote
it. We don’t know who did. But
whoever it was, was an excellent writer, because he or she could say an awful
lot in just a few words.
Look at the first sentence of
our reading for today. “In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it
was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make
the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.”
Let’s break that down.
“God, for whom and through whom everything exists”. Think about
that. We talk a lot, as Christians about
how everything was created by God. But Hebrews does not just say that it
is through God that everything was created.
It also says that everything was created for God.
In other words, all of creation
exists for God. It exists to give glory to God. Everything.
The animals. The birds. The
trees. The rocks. The snow.
The sky. All of creation exists
for the glory of God. That’s why you’ll read things in the psalms like
“The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims God’s
handiwork.” That’s in Psalm 19.
“Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar,
and all that fills it; let the field exult and everything in it! Then
shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord.” That’s in Psalm 96. We read something similar in Psalm 98,
too. And there are lots of other
examples. “God, for whom...everything exists.” All of creation exists for the glory of God.
And that includes you.
And it includes me. You and I exist for
the glory of God. And sometimes, we try to give glory to God. And sometimes we even succeed. But of
course, you and I are fallen, broken, sinful people. We may succeed in giving glory to God
sometimes, but there are a lot of times when we fail. As the Apostle Paul
says in Romans Three, Twenty-three, “All have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God.”
So God’s goal, as the first
phrase in our reading says, was to “bring many sons and daughters to
glory.” Now, in using that word many, I don’t think the writer was saying
that God purposely wanted to exclude some. I have no doubt that God would
like to bring all human beings to glory.
But God knew that some people were going to reject him. The only
way to avoid that would be for God to take away our free will, to take away our
ability to make our own choices, and God does not do that. So, God knew
that all human beings were not going to be brought to glory. But God still wanted to bring, “many” to
glory, as many as possible.
So, what was the best way, the
“fitting” way, as our reading from Hebrews puts it, for God to do this?
It was to become one of us. Jesus, “God
the Son”, would become human.
And it’s important that we
understand that. Jesus was, in fact, fully human. Yes, he was still the divine Son of
God. But he was also fully human.
As verse seventeen of our reading for today says, he was “made like
them, fully human in every way.”
There are a lot of things that
means, but one of them is that when Jesus died on the cross, he truly did
experience death. Jesus truly died, just as you and I will die. And that had to happen, because the purpose
for Jesus coming was, as it also says in verse seventeen, to “make atonement
for the sins of the people.” Jesus, by dying on the cross, took the
punishment that should go to us for our sins.
But there’s more to it than
that. I mean, that would be awesome enough, to have our sins forgiven by
the death of Jesus, but there’s more to it than that. Go back to verse
eleven. Listen to what it says. “Both the one who makes people holy and those
who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call
them brothers and sisters.”
Think about that. The one
who makes people holy--Jesus--and those who are made holy--you and me, through
our faith in Jesus--are of the same family. Jesus is not ashamed to call
us, you and me, brothers and sisters.
Is that not incredible?
By the life and death of Jesus Christ, you and I are on the same level as Jesus
himself. We are his brothers and sisters.
Jesus himself calls us that. In
verse twelve, Jesus is quoted as saying to God, “I will declare your name to my
brothers and sisters.” That’s you and me.
You and I are Jesus’ brothers
and sisters. There’s no way we deserve that. There’s no way we’re worthy of it. I
mean, you and I don’t belong in the same area code with Jesus Christ. And
yet, Jesus calls us his brothers and sisters.
Jesus, who was and is completely holy, makes us holy, too. And
it’s all because God, out of God’s tremendous, unbelievable love for us, wanted
to bring us, you and me, to glory.
That’s the why. That’s
the point of the Christmas story. That’s why Jesus came to earth as a
human being. He could not come as an angel because he did not come to
save angels. He could not come as a spirit because he did not come to
save spirits. Jesus came as a human
being because he came to save human beings.
Listen to how the letter to the
Hebrews sums it up:
For this reason he had to be made like them,
fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful
high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of
the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able
to help those who are being tempted.
This was such an incredible
sacrifice Jesus made. Think of it:
to give up his life in heaven. To
give up, even if temporarily, his part in the trinity. To sacrifice all
that, in order to save us. And to come
as someone who, as the letter to the Hebrews says, was fully human in every
way. To start out as a baby, completely helpless. To be a toddler. To have to learn how to walk and talk and use
a spoon and learn all the things that little kids have to learn. To grow,
to change. To go through being a young
person, learning about the world. To be
a teenager, to be a young adult. To
learn a trade. To learn how to find his
place in society. And then, eventually, to leave home, to leave his
family, to leave the only life on earth he’d ever known, so that he could truly
be the Savior that he was sent here to be.
And then, ultimately, to be killed, murdered, to take the punishment
that should have gone to us for our sins.
That is love. That is
incredible love. That’s a love beyond our ability to understand
love. And it’s the love God has for you and for me and for everyone.
The Christmas story is an
awesome story. But let’s not just think about the shepherds and the wise
men and the baby in the manger. Let’s go beyond the “what” of the
Christmas story. Let’s remember the
“why”. And let’s be grateful to God
every single day of our lives for the incredible love that God has for us.
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