This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ.”
–Frank McKibben
“And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new obedient heart.”
–Ezekiel 36:26 (NLT)
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Murders, hatred, bitterness, racism and everyone is looking for excuses, trying to rationalize it in some fashion, or blaming others. Fix this, fix that, and it will all be better. Give them better housing, give them free food, give them, give them, give, give, give. But no, that is not the answer. Anything man tries to do is only like putting a band-aid on a cancer. “The basic problem of the human race is sin and guilt–a real moral guilt, not just guilt feelings, and a real moral sin, because we have sinned against a God who is there, and a God who is holy,” so wrote Francis Schaeffer.
Sin, a term that is not to be used today, but it is the problem. People bemoaning their condition, when the root of it is sin. Think of the time when Jesus was born. “Three-fifths of the world was in slavery. The clanking of chains could be heard and slaves–human beings–were bought and sold as oxen, and they were beaten and bludgeoned and killed without hesitation or compunction. There was a law among the Imperial Romans, that if a man killed an ox–just an animal–the death penalty followed for such an awful thing, but if he killed a slave, his fellow man, it was passed by and nothing thought about it.” (George Truett) This was the world into which the holy Child was born. Think of what happened right after the Wise Men came–Herod had the babies in the region of Bethlehem killed.
Children were not often welcome in a home at that period. They were regarded as a burden, they were in the way in many cases, and they were just another mouth to feed, especially if the child were female. (Truett) A woman was little better off than a slave. She was a burden-bearer, not a homemaker. Think of what women are doing with their “freedom” today, they are again choosing slavehood in Islamic beliefs and countries or they are choosing slavery to career, clock, and gain. Truett said, “How can any woman keep from loving Christ, can keep from bowing before Him, from accepting Him as Lord and Master, is a deeper mystery that I can understand. The supreme champion of womanhood is Christ!” Read the Gospels and dare to find a place where Jesus spoke harshly to a woman.
How do we live like we are supposed to live? By ignoring sin? By deleting the term from our vocabulary? By hiding our heads in the sand, saying that sin doesn’t exist. Man is the solution to his own problems. “Christ gives us the right perspective, the right estimate, the right measure of a human being,” (Truett) and He begins by calling us to repentance. Man is eternal and cannot solve eternal problems. Do not let the devil confuse your mind and thoughts. Enjoy Christmas, think of Jesus coming as a baby, don’t get caught up in the false hubbub of the season. Celebrate, but mindfully. Understand that the Babe in the manger was God in the flesh. The Incarnation, oh what a glorious mystery! Never forget that “Jesus had to be fully human to step in as our substitute and sacrifice, and fully God to make that sacrifice count for eternity.” (James Merritt)
As man looks for answers, as he sometimes declares that he has the answer, know this–the answer was given to us that day long ago that we celebrate on Christmas. When you hear “give, give, give,” understand that the Gift has already been given. God sent His Son to take care of sin, not place a bandaid on surface problems. Why do people reject this wondrous Gift? John tells us, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” (3:19-21, NIV)