To
say that Christmas is a time for love seems unnecessary as it's very
hard to avoid sentiments of love at Christmas. Love for our nearest
and dearest shown by cards and presents, love for our fellow humans
shown by charitable giving, Christmas adverts speaking of 'real
love'. This is unsurprising
as, in the words of Christina Rossetti: “Love came down at
Christmas...Love Incarnate, Love Divine.”
This is the
acceptably religious side of Christmas: celebrating the birth of
someone who had a God-given mission to teach the world that we should
love one another; someone who could be said to have been the most
loving person that ever lived; who embodied love and practised divine
love. But if this is all that we believe about Jesus, we've only
grasped a tiny part of the significance of his birth. Yes, he was a
loving person, and yes he was the most perfectly loving person there
has ever been, but he is so much more than that.
The Bible tells us that God is Love (1 John 4:8), and that in Jesus
God became human, he was literally (Divine) Love Incarnate. That's
what's so amazing about Christmas! As Paul writes: Jesus although
“being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself
nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human
likeness” (Philippians 2:6-7).
The worship song writer Matt Redman put it this way, “The voice
that said 'Let there be light' is heard within a
newborn cry” ('The Name of Emmanuel'). Another worship song writer, Stuart Townend wrote
this: “the mighty Prince of Life shelters in a stable. Hands that
set each star in place, shaped the earth in darkness, cling now to a
mother's breast, vulnerable and helpless” ('Joy has Dawned'). Read those words again
to yourself slowly and let the mind-blowing truth sink in!
The
miracle of Christmas is the miracle of God becoming human. But he
didn't become human just to give us a good example to follow, he came
to express his love for us. In his earthly ministry Jesus healed the
sick and lifted up the weak and vulnerable, but these demonstrations
of his love were limited to that one area of the world at that one
time in history. God had bigger plans than that! He wanted to do
something that would demonstrate his love for all people, from all
times and all places, and what he would do would be achieve the
restoration of our relationship with him that has been broken through
our sin.
That restoration required reparation for the
punishment that we owe because of that sin. We can't pay that price
because we are not perfect, but God could because he is perfect. So
“God expressed His love for the world in this way: He gave His only
Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting
destruction, but will have everlasting life” (John 3:16 The Voice
Translation). And “[t]his is how God showed his love among us: he
sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through
him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and
sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).
And “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were
still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
So our
Advent theme of Love prepares us for the Love that came at Christmas;
the Divine Love Incarnate in Jesus, which also reminds us to
“Celebrate the cradle to the cross, celebrate the gift, celebrate
the cost. For one without the other, the significance is lost.
Celebrate the cradle to the cross” (Karl Berg - 'The Cradle to the Cross'). And our response? “Love so amazing, so Divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
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