By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins….and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). Matt 1:21-22 That pretty much sums up Christmas…God with us, named Jesus, who came to save his people.
That brings up a few questions. First of which is Who are “his people”? Are we talking about the Jews?
If so, where did the Gentiles (that’s us) come into all this? If he only came to save the Jews, why are we celebrating Christmas…and they aren’t?
Peter wrote to the church scattered throughout Asia Minor which included Jews and gentiles (so we know Christ came for more than the Jew): “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1Peter 2:9) That’s us! You and me. And our job is to proclaim him to those who do not believe.
And it’s been working. Rev.7:9-10 reads; “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages”. So, for question one: Jesus came to save all people, and He’s been doing it for 2000 years along with his church, sharing the message.
Question 2 is: What sins? Or even, what is sin? We live in a time when the concept of sin has been nearly erased. Several places in Scripture tell us that there will come a time when everyone will do what is right in his own eyes. We’ve arrived!
There appears to be no right/wrong anymore that isn’t subject to our personal opinion. No longer do we recognize a permanent and consistent morality. I, or maybe we, as a society, determine what is right and what is wrong based on our collective thinking, but no longer based on God’s immutable Word. It appears that the judgments of the one who made us are now ignored.
That leads to the understanding that there is no longer such a thing as morally wrong or immorality, which we call sin. All our choices are subject to our personal thinking. If I decide it is OK, then it is OK even if you might disagree with me.
Ultimately, that means that the one with the most power determines right and wrong. Funny, but that’s how God sees it too. He has the most power and gets to decide right and wrong. Sadly, we seem to believe that a broken and imperfect human like us can have that kind of power. The only one who benefits from that scenario is us.
And then, only for a little while. The consequence of that kind of thinking is that we see no need for a savior to do what is right in our own eyes. We have no need of being saved.
So, here we are celebrating “God with us” yet seeing no need for his coming. It just leaves my head hurting when I see our convoluted thinking.
Maybe you and I ought to just accept our limitations and thank God for sending his Son to save us. And then go about reminding the others that they will answer to the One with all the power someday. Christmas opens the doors for these kinds of conversations.
Let’s “go, tell it on the mountain and the beauty shop and the office and the grocery store and the factory floor that Jesus Christ has come!”
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.