Christmas Unwrapped

Pastor Tony Jones

Trinity Central Church, Lansdale

The Emirates Palace is a seven-star hotel in Abu Dhabi. Their week-long package is a snip at $1million and includes a private butler, a chauffeur-driven Maybach luxury car during your stay, as well as a private jet for trips to other countries in the region. The hotel is home to the world’s first gold ATM, and this winter to world’s most expensive Christmas tree. Unveiled this December and located in the gold leaf bedecked hotel rotunda it’s worth a staggering $11 million and is decorated with silver and gold bows, ball-shaped ornaments and small white lights. But the necklaces, earrings and other jewellery draped around the tree’s branches are what give it a record value. It holds a total of 18 diamonds, pearls, emeralds, sapphires and other precious stones. So how do you compete with a value like that? How about with the Christmas story?

Because Luke wants us to see that even of that tree was ours at $11 million, it would be dwarfed in significance compared to the incalculable value of what Jesus came to bring us at Christmas. But as we turn to Luke 2, our problem is the story is too familiar. We approach it like someone living under a busy flightpath at JFK, so used to the roar of the engines they never no longer notice the planes. We’ve all grown up with the nativity story. And it’s been tamed and sentimentalized with the tinsel and the lights. But Luke’s nativity is not familiar, safe or tame. It’s a raw high intensity drama.

The Christmas drama opens in v8. The location is a Palestinian hillside and the camera is closing in on some local herdsmen – and in the same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night. It’s a normal night’s shift just like any other. There’s nothing really to see. The duty shepherds are counting down the hours to dawn, probably bantering with each other – sitting around the cracking fire. But then, suddenly, without expectation or warning something momentous happens. One minute they’re talking in the blackness of the winter sky – and then – suddenly the next moment the whole sky is lit up in blinding light of the glory of God almost as if a flare or a nuclear bomb has just gone off – An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.

The word “appeared” here is the word from which we get the word “epiphany” – this is a sudden revelation. And it isn’t far off on the distant horizon, but upfront and personal. And it’s not pleasant. The sight is totally overwhelming. This is terrifying! Because what’s happening is that heaven is arriving on earth. And in the middle of the blinding light, an angel appears. Our problem is we sentimentalize this scene. We think of the angel as a cute little third grader with wings and tinsel. But the angel in the Old Testament is the agent of destruction and judgment.

In Psalm 78:4 He sent upon them His burning anger, fury and indignation and trouble, a band of destroying angels. In Genesis 19:13 – the angels say for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy it. In Isaiah 37:36 – Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, all of these were dead. And in 2 Thessalonians 1:7 – he will give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire.

What the shepherds are expecting is their complete destruction. This is the final judgment of God. They’re finished – undone so v9 – and they were terrified. It’s such an understatement. The KJV is closer they were sore afraid but what the original actually says is that “they were terrified with a great terror”. This would be the terror you would feel on a plane you knew was going down. Or if you were caught up in a terror attack or a shooting on a city street. They were petrified – scared stiff – frightened to death – paralysed with fear – and horror struck.

Yet – what the angel says is extraordinary. Do not be afraid. The word angel just means messenger. This figure is the ambassador of heaven on earth, an envoy. So this is not a personal opinion but the very announcement of heaven itself. This is the meaning of Christmas. This is the message of the gospel. And this is the mission of Jesus. What is the holy God’s message to rebellious sinners? We’d expect: “be afraid”. But it’s the reverse: do not be afraid. Because the mission of Jesus is not to bring condemnation but comfort. Not retribution but redemption. Not punishment but peace. And this isn’t a minor message of temporary comfort just for these guys that night. This announcement is of global magnitude. It’s cosmic, universal, eternal – good news of great joy for all the people.

Good news here is the word ‘gospel’. And “Joy” is the Greek noun “chara”, the word from which we get our word charity – from the word “charis” meaning “grace” or “gift,” – and the word “great” here is “megas” – from which we get our word “mega”. And the good news of mega grace – which is for all the people is that a savior has been born.

To save is to rescue, to deliver, to set free. If I am trapped in a burning building and can’t get out, I need a fire-rescuer. If I’m drowning, I need a lifeguard, If I need to get to the hospital and can’t drive myself, I need an ambulance. When we need a rescuer, it is because we are in danger. And Jesus came not to save “us” from “them”, or from “it” but to save “us” from “ourselves” – because we are all headed for the eternal judgement of the holy God.But the savior has been born!

In 2015 an asylum seeker was before a court in Leicester in the UK. The man in his 20s was ordered to pay the fee in June by another court and had appeared before him as a fine defaulter. The man’s inability to pay the fine would mean he would be further criminalised. As an asylum seeker, he cannot legally earn money and to do so could jeopardise his status as an asylum seeker. It was a Catch-22 situation. He could not pay but had to. But it’s what happened next that was extraordinary. The magistrate Nigel Allcoat, 65, decided to pay part of a £180 criminal courts charge levied on a refugee who appeared before him at Leicester Magistrates’ Court three weeks ago. It was an incredible humanitarian act, but one that came with immense sacrifice. The punishment of the court fell on him, and he was suspended from the bench.

And it’s like that for us. At Christmas Jesus was born into the world so that at Easter he might die for the world. On that first Christmas day, God became like us so that he might stand in for us. And take our place. But can this Jesus save me? Yes because of who this rescuer is. The name of this baby is breathtaking: Christ the Lord –Messiah the Lord. Infact this phrase is used nowhere else in the New Testament in exactly this way. It’s the highest conceivable and most lofty title in the cosmos. He is the Messiah Lord – the Lord Messiah.

What heaven is announcing is that the long-expected king has at long last come! And the location is significant: Bethlehem. Royal David’s city because millennia before the prophet Micah writes: But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times…. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace.”

The point is that Christmas changes everything. The deliverer – the king has come! C S Lewis calls the incarnation is God’s great invasion. Just like the allies established gained that initial foothold, so the incarnation is the initial bridgehead, God’s great “D-Day,” where the rightful king landed to begin to reclaim his kingdom—this is the first phase of the conquest – the final phase will be the cross. This is of such cosmic significance it divides time into two ages. The Greeks tried to date time from their Olympiads. The Romans tried to date time from the founding of their imperial city. The French Revolutionists tried to date time from the year one of their revolution. The communists from the year zero. And all failed—miserably, yet our calendar is founded on his birth. He divides history into two epochs BC and AD.

The problem is we are a sceptical generation. Is this for real? And can this be trusted? If these shepherds were in any doubt what happens next is off the richer scale. As the whole of heaven confirms this announcement – suddenly v13 a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests. The Greek word ‘host’ is a military term. It means “army.” So here is the whole army of heaven. Warrior angels, who should be executing judgment are announcing salvation.

But can I really be rescued? After what I’ve done – the affair the abortion – the good news of Christmas is yes. Good news of great joy for all the people and this Christmas revelation is not in the temple to the religious establishment or in the palace to VIP royalty but to outcast shepherds.

The message of Christmas is – do not be afraid – to Joseph – do not be afraid – to Mary – do not be afraid – the shepherds do not be afraid – so it was Roosevelt who famously said “all we have to fear is fear itself” Yet the world of 2024 will be a scary place. What will happen in the 24? What are you frightened of? Geo-political conflict? The collapse of American culture? A wayward child? Your financial security? Worsening health? Bereavement? The darkness of the future? Being alone? Or death? The angel says do not be afraid.

One of the most touching kids’ Christmas movies is Snoopy’s Christmas. And Linus loves his blanket, and carries it everywhere, and just cannot survive without it and really suffers when it is being washed. But Charlie Brown challenges Linus reliance on the blanky. And he reads the words of our angel – do not be afraid I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: today in the city of David a savior is born to you: he is Christ the Lord.

The problem is that we are all little Linuses. We all have security blankets for coping. What’s yours? A teddy bear? A bottle of whisky on tray? A scented candle. Your financial portfolio? Your spouse? The family? What is it that you seek comfort in, that makes you feel safe. The cartoon was written by Charles Shultz a Christian. And the security blanket stands as the picture of our coping mechanism in the face of fear. If we really understood Christmas and the Lord Christ born to save us, we would place all our trust I him.

This Christmas come to the manger – to the Lord Christ – the saviour who will redeem us. And as you see the crib, see too the cross, and beyond it the crown. Trust in this king, and know his love and peace. And whatever 2024 might bring – do not be afraid!