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December 25, 2006
The Most Important Lesson of the Nativity of Jesus
Philippians 2: 5-11
Christmas Day, 2006
Often at this season of the year we hear Christians plead with one another, "Keep Christ in Christmas." As a sign of this concern we hear many ardent folk try hard to place manger scenes on Courthouse lawns and in other public places. All this so that in the commercialization of Christmas people are compelled to remember, "It's not about buying presents; it's about Jesus."
It is a concern I can understand. But is Christmas really about manger scenes and about the birth of Jesus? First of all we know that Jesus was probably not born in December but in the spring when shepherds were more apt to be out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night. Second, only one of the Gospels tells of this scene. Matthew, who tells us about Old Testament prophecies about Bethlehem and the flight into Egypt, and about Joseph's anxiety that his fiancée was expecting a child and about the Wise Men, skips right over the event of Jesus' birth. No angels, shepherds, or the stable in which Luke tells us Jesus was born. Mark and John tell us nothing at all of the details of Jesus' birth.
So I wonder if we should not realize that the most important detail about Jesus' birth is given to us by the Apostle Paul in this passage from Philippians that we have read every year on Christmas Day. Here Paul gives us the great lesson of Jesus' nativity. And this lesson is about something that is to take place in our hearts and minds because this is what took place in the heart and mind of the Son of God. He writes: "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus." This is a good literal translation, but what does it mean. It means, "Think of yourself as Christ Jesus thought of Himself." Paul goes on to tell us how Christ Jesus thought. Even though He was in every respect Deity, He did not cling to the unique privileges of Deity. Instead He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, a human one [rather than an angelic one]. Not only that but he humbled Himself and was obedient to the point of death, death, in fact, on a cross."
The meaning for you and me of Christmas, then, is being reminded that as Jesus emptied Himself "of all but love," as Charles Wesley put it, so I must empty myself of that which makes me cling to rights and privileges I believe are due to me. This is a hard idea to grasp. Have we not been told to "love your neighbor as yourself," which means I must love myself? Does not my defense of my neighbor's well being find its standard in my defense of my own well-being? Does not the Bible present to us these paradoxes often? These are not contradictions, but apparently so. In this case it seems to me there is an ascending scale of value. It is indeed a high-minded thing to love my neighbor as myself, but I know I stand in danger of loving myself more than I ought as well as less than I should. So, to love my neighbor as I ought I really have to go one step farther than loving her as myself. I must empty myself in order to really be able to love her.
How often the problem for us is that we are so "full of ourselves." How important I am! How important are my opinions! How important is my well-being! I cannot love my neighbor as I ought until I do something about this primary interest in myself. And since loving my neighbor aright is parallel to loving God aright, I hear Paul's advice, "Think of yourself as Jesus did. He emptied Himself. He did not even claim His rights.
The lesson of Christmas for me begins with realizing what happened in the life of the Godhead as it pertains to the life in my head.
The lesson for me of Christmas unfolds from there. I who appreciate being served must see myself as a servant. When Paul tells us Jesus then took human form, I think it was to distinguish Jesus' service as a man from the service of angels. But a servant may be proud, so we need to see that Jesus was not a proud servant, but a humble servant. Jesus taught us that we should realize that even if a servant has done an excellent job, he "deserves" no praise to bolster his ego, or to feel good about himself. He's only done his job, after all (Luke 17: 7-10). If we have learned well the lesson of Christmas we will become tireless servants who ask for no reward, expect none, and are not bothered when none comes. This does not mean that God will not reward faithful servants. Indeed, Jesus taught about the reward of hearing God say to us, "Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world" (Matthew 25: 34). But look at the kind of faithfulness that draws this welcome word from God!
Finally, Paul taught us that Jesus' birth points to His obedience that is to be our frame of mind too. Jesus was obedient to the Father even to the point of death. We who value so much our freedom, our point of view, and our personal dignity have the example of Jesus, who was obedient to the task His heavenly Father gave Him, which was His complete delight to do, to point of the most horrific kind of death.
Obedience is not a virtue to us naturally. We endure it when we're in the military out of a sense of duty. We put up with it, sometimes more or less, when we're children in the home. But we look forward to the day when we're our own bosses. "I did it my way," ol' Blue Eyes sang in a very popular song. Jesus did it His way only in the sense that His will was to do the will of the Father.
Is this not the most important lesson of Christmas? So that if we are successful in getting manger scenes on every courthouse in the land, and have Christmas carols played as the musak in every department store and in every other way imaginable we flash before the world true Christian symbols of Jesus birth, but do not have in our minds and hearts the view Jesus had of Himself, we're not keeping Christ in Christmas.
Here is the secret of the Christian life. Here is the key to happiness in churches, to letting our lights so shine before others that they notice and give glory to God.
For many years now I have pondered this section of Paul's Letter to the Philippians that seemed to me to present the real heart of the Incarnation story. As Clement of Alexandria told us so well, "He became like us so that we could become like Him." He actually put it more forcefully than that. Christmas, then, is about us and Jesus; about Jesus becoming like us, and then about us becoming like Jesus." Merry Christmas. A very Merry Christmas through you to others in this
terribly hurting world.
Let us pray: O God, for the gift of Your Holy Child we thank you. And for the high call and possibility of becoming like Him we praise you. Help us to follow Him. Amen.
Pastor Stuart D. Robertson
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at December 25, 2006 12:46 PM