Intro: Video the Skinny on Christmas Skit Guys (3:57)

The Cross
Series: The Message of Christmas
Pastor Jason O. Mohn
First Covenant Church of Everett, WA
12/14/2014

What is the meaning of Christmas? It is surprising what a huge variety of answers there is to that question. If you ask around, you’ll get all kinds of answers. Christmas is about family. It’s about giving. It’s about presents. It’s about shopping. But what really is Christmas about? What is the purpose of Christmas? Let’s watch this video to get “the skinny on Christmas.”

Intro: Video “The Skinny on Christmas” Skit Guys (3:57)

Did you catch that “If it were up to me, mankind would be out of luck, because I don’t, I won’t ever love anyone enough to give up my son. Thank God He did.” What is the meaning or purpose of Christmas? To quote from this little booklet we handed out this Advent season,“For Christmas to have meaning, it cannot be separated from the Cross.”

Is that how you see Christmas? Maybe you have never put together the two central symbols of Christianity: the cradle and the cross. But when angelsannounced the birth of Jesus they saw the connection. They said that the birth of Jesus had a special purpose. They said Jesus “shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) Could Christmas really be all about saving us from our sin?

Not only did the angels see Christmas that way, when Jesus grew up, that is how he saw the meaning of his birth. When Jesus faced trial in front of Pilate, Jesus Himself said, speaking of His death, “To this end was I born.” (John 18:37)

Jesus was the only person in history who was born with the purpose of dying. Most people can come up with ideas about the purpose of their birth, but they focus on what they will accomplish with their life. Jesus understood that both his life and his death had great purpose and meaning. If Jesus understood the purpose of His death, we should understand it too.

Years after Jesus’ death, the apostle Paul summarized the purpose of Christ’s life and death very succinctly in 1 Timothy 1:15. Paul said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Jesus was born into this world to save sinners—people just like you and I. That is the truepurpose of Christmas.

Does the Purpose of Christmas Go Deeper Than Us?

Does the purpose of Christmas go deeper than us?Is Jesus interested in saving more than a few individuals? As Billy Graham said in his book “The Cradle, Cross, and Crown,”“The central message of Christmas is that Jesus Christ, by His death and resurrection, can transform both individuals and society.” The ultimate goal of the Jesus project (his life, death, and resurrection)is complete transformation of the whole world from the inside out.

Most of us will quickly own up to the fact that our society is in need of transformation. In every newspaper or magazine that we pick up, and in every newscast we watch, we see a picture of hate and lust and greed and prejudice and corruption manifested in a thousand ways. And the mere fact that we have policemen and jails and military forces indicates that something is wrong with humanity; something’s radically wrong with our society.

But while we can see brokenness in our world, many of us struggle to own up the fact that we personally need to be transformed. If you are like me, you likely play a mental game when you encounter “sinful” things in your life. You look at your sin and then you look around at others and you try to justify yourself as good, right, and holy. You distract yourself withthe brokenness of others to try to pacifyyour own feelings of guilt and shame: “Well, I am not as bad off as those people!” But could it be that we are all “bad off?”

It takes a large amount of humility and some swallowing of our pride to admit the truth. Right after the apostle Paul proclaims the purpose of Christ’s birth, he takes the whole discussion to another level when he says,“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.”

If there was a scale of sinners, graded from best to worst, where would you fall on that scale? Would you think you are doing allright? Or would you, like Paul, be evaluating yourself as the worst of all sinners? Is this just false humility or spiritual arrogance? Or is there actually spiritual wisdom and strength in seeing yourself as a wretched sinner?

How Do You See Your Self and Sin?
Living in the Pacific Northwest has introduced me to a whole new set of bumper stickers. I grew up in the Midwestwithlots of conservative fundamentalist bummer stickers like “I’m Not Perfect, Just Forgiven.” Or “Try Jesus: If you don’t like Him, Satan will always take you back.” You don’t see many of those whoppers around here!

The bumper stickers that I have seen lately come from a different perspective. They address the topic of sin, from an atheistic, agnostic or non-Christian perspective. One that recently caught my attention says, “Born right the first time.”I get it. I see it as a reaction to the Christian perspective that we must be “born again.” So what is so bad with the way we were born, that we must be born again?

I think everyone is tempted to think that we are all okay, that we can figure out life’s problems on our own,that we don’t need God, we don’t need others, and that we don’t need direction beyond ourselves. But if everything is all right with humanity, why does everything continue to play out so wrong in our world?

Where is the brokenness of the world most obvious to you? I am reminded of the brokenness every time I board an airplane. Think about the rigmarole we go through just to board a plane. We have to be sure to pack the travel size shampoo and toothpaste. We’ve got to put it in a see-through bag. Security then has to search our luggage or run it through some fancy machine. And then they even search under our clothes, to make sure we don’t have anything dangerous hidden on our person.

Standing in long lines at the airport it is common for me to reflect on the problem of sin within the human race. Why can’t we solve our problems? Why can’t the world find this peace that this Prince of Peace was supposed to bring?

Are People Basically Good or Bad?
For a long time, I have wrestled with this question about humanity, “Are people basically good or inherently bad?” I think many people would like a simple answer to that question. Which is it, good or bad? I’ve been on both sides of the fence on this one. I have gone for long seasons of life believing that humanity is basically good, only to be reminded through the pain and trial of life, that evil reigns in our hearts.

It is tempting to think that it is a cut and dry issue—thatwe are either one or the other. Some will say from a worldly perspective that humanity is basically good and from the Christian viewpoint that humanity is evil. But does calling humanity evil actually reflect the Christian worldview? It is very difficult to function in this world with the notion that there is nothing wrong with humanity. So where do we land on this question? Do we have to choose?

I believe that the Bible teaches that humanity is actually a paradox. A paradox is a set of two truths, which at first glance seem contradictory, but upon further reflection exist as truths in tension. Humanity is both good and evil. On one hand there’s brokenness and sin and on the other there’s goodness and kindness and gentleness and love. On the one hand we’re a complete and utter moral failure and on the other hand we havethe capacity to reflect the awesome nature of the Almighty God. The apostle Paul called this paradox of humanity “the mystery of iniquity.” (2 Thessalonians 2:7) There is evil and good in the same person. Both fully exist. And unless we are willing to do something about this paradox, evil will eventually win out. It is the fate of all of humanity.

The Disease the Bible Calls Sin
This paradoxical reality is why the Bible teaches that the human race is morally sick. We have a disease that has affected every phase of our life in society. The Bible calls this disease by an ugly, three-letter word: sin. What do we do about sin in our lives? Can we just ignore it and hope it will go away? Or do we have to respond to the reality that is us?

The Bible teaches that the only cure for sin is the shedding of blood. If you read through the Bible, just paying attention to the places where blood is spilled, you will find that blood is one of the key themes of the scriptures. Now, we don’t talk much about blood at Christmas. It seems too gruesome or graphic to fit in the holiday theme. But have you ever wondered why red and green are the holiday colors of Christmas? Could it be that Christmas and blood are intricately intertwined?

The Lamb of Christmas Devotional
My daughter, Amara, and I are reading this book together this Advent season. It is called “Seeking the Lamb of Christmas.” It is a family devotion which follows the ‘blood trail’ through the Bible. Now at first hearing that doesn’t sound too“Christmasy,” but it is actually bringing Christmas to life with new meaning and depth for me like never before.

The devotional starts with a discussion about the Garden of Eden. What did God do when humanity fell into sin? How did God respond to our awakening to our nakedness? God killed the first animals and fashioned their skin into clothing. Now when my eight year old heard that, she did what any eight year old would do, “Oh, gross!” Blood was spilt to cover our sin? This sounds serious. Sin must be a big deal.

And the blood trail continues and expands throughout the Bible from the Garden to the story of Noah. We know that Noah took two of each animal with him on the ark, but do you remember that He also took seven “clean” animals of sheep and birds with him on the ark? Why did God instruct Noah to bring extra “clean” animals on the boat? Noah seemed to understand. What was the first thing Noah did on dry land, after the flood reseeded? He built and altar and sacrificed these extra animals to God for the forgiveness of His sin. But you thought Noah was a righteous man? Why did he sacrifice these precious animals? The ones which he had just saved from a flood? Noah was so righteous that he knew He would sin again. And he knew that the way God wanted us to deal with sin was through the shedding of blood. Humanity was to give back to God something that was precious to signify our sorrow and our separation that is rooted in our choosing of sin.

From the garden, to the flood, we then follow the blood trail to a mountain with Abraham and Isaac. God asked Abraham to take his son, his one and only son--the son that Abraham and Sarah has waited 70 years to conceive--to the mountaintop to be sacrificed. The “ask” is outlandish. God asks Abraham to give up that which is most dear, this precious promise of a future for his family, for what?

Abraham and his son traverse the mountain, with wood and fire for the sacrifice and Abraham’s son Isaac quickly catches on to the missing ingredient for this sacrifice, this act of worship. “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.” What a statement of faith!

And God does provide. An angel of God stops Abraham in the midst of this deed and turns his attention to God’s provision: a ram is caught in a bush nearby. This ram will serve as the sacrifice and this story will serve as a reminder that God will provide the necessary sacrifice for our sins.

That’s what God is doing at Christmas. He is providing the sacrificial Lamb. He is dealing once and for all time with the sin problem that we have. This is no small feat; it is the greatest act of compassion, justice, and mercy the world has ever seen. No longer will we have to make our own effort to cover up our sin through temporary and fleeting sacrifice. Through Jesus God will cover our sin completely, with finality, for eternity, through the death of Jesus on the cross.

Jesus will save us from our sin. The angels proclaimed it on that first Christmas night saying, “He will save his people from their sin” and the declaration continued throughout Jesus’ life. When Jesus first began his ministry, the word on the street was that he was the Messiah; the promised one who would set God’s people free from sin. The word coming directly from the mouth of his cousin John the Baptist was, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”

This is why we celebrate Christmas with red and green. Because from the blood spilled by Jesus on the cross came new life and the opportunity for humans to live with God forever. Red and green go together. They are truly complementary colors in the color wheel of God. From the blood spilled on the cross of Jesus, we have the opportunity to do life with and commune with God again. We are no longer separated from Him because of our sin; a full and dynamic relationship is available in the here and now because of Jesus.

Communing with God at Christmas
Have you ever wondered what is the one thing that all churches hold in common? Every church--Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox--celebrates the cross. It is the central act of Jesus that we remember atcommunion, the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist. When we put the juice from thecrushed grapes to our lips, it’s the symbol of that blood that was shed. When we bite into the broken bread from that one loaf, it’s a symbol of the body that was broken on our behalf.

This is not new symbolism. It has deep roots in the story of God’s people in the Bible. One of the most prominent aspects of worship of ancient Judaism was the shedding of blood to make an atonement for sin. To atone means to bring back together that which was divided--“At one” again as it was meant to be.

Because of humanity’s sin,God and creation were separated. Sin is the problem Jesus came to solve and the entrapment Jesus came to save us from. Jesus came to bring humanity and this whole world back to the God from whom we have turned away. This return to fellowship could not happen without some serious effort and sacrifice. And God was willing to do whatever it took to bring us back to Him--even spilling His own blood. This is where the hope is found in the story of Christmas. The light dawns in the cradle and comes on full display at the cross of Jesus.

The Cross and the resurrection stand today as humanity’s only hope. It was on Good Friday and Easter that God did for us what we could not do for ourselves. The hope breaks into the story at the cradle, but we must not think that the story of redemption starts there. There is the whole Old Testament that sets the scene for this wondrous salvation story.

One of the primary take-aways from reading the Old Testament should be the obvious need humanity has for a savior. The Old Testament proclaims loudly that we cannot fix what is broken by ourselves. Over and over, we see humankind, blessed by God and chosen by God, falling all over themselves, trying to fix the problem on their own. And just it didn’t happen. It couldn’t happen. We just can’t fix the problem of sin on our own. God knew that from the beginning, but He needed us to know that, too. That is what most of the stories in the Bible are about. We can’t fix ourselves. We need God.

From these momentous events, God is saying to sinful [humanity], “I love you. I love you so much that I gave my Son.” But He’s saying more than that. He’s saying, “I can forgive you because of what Jesus did on the Cross.” And this is good news at Christmas!

God Did His Part, Now What Are You Going to Do?
So God did His part by giving His Son, the greatest Christmas gift. Jesus is God’s great gift to the human race. But we,too,must do something. This is a gift that requires a response.

What must we do in response to God’s Christmas gift? We must humble ourselves. We must admit our sin, our inability to make things right on our own. We must admit that we’re moral failures and turn to God by faith.