Our Savior says, "Come!" Reflections on The Nativity of the Lord

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!

I welcome you all to our celebration. Thank you for choosing to worship with us, as we welcome the new born Messiah. Christmas is a joyful season. It is a time to be grateful that God loves us so much that he chose to enter into our human experience in order that he might be one like us and help us become like himself. God saw the deplorable state we are in as a result of the fall of our first parents and our own repeated falls due to our daily choices, and he came into our sphere of existence so that he might redeem us from the destiny that is ours, which is death (Romans 6:23). This is the reason for the joy and celebration that characterize Christmas. I am so excited that God does not leave me to clean up my mess before coming to my aid. He knows that left to my own resources, I am unable to lift myself from the mud into which I daily plunge myself. He also knows that my efforts are inconsequential, and cannot win my salvation. His love for me would not allow him to leave me to expend my energies, even though it would still end in futility. He comes to elevate my little efforts in such a way that they become weightier and more effective. This is the love we celebrate at Christmas. It is this: “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…” This gift is completely gratuitous. We have done nothing to deserve it. In fact, we have done enough to be denied it. We have done sufficient to earn God’s ire and rejection. This gift, who is God himself, extends a simple invitation to us: “Come!” 

Our Lord Jesus, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas, is accustomed to the various experiences common to human beings. He was born of a virgin, who would have been ostracized and even put to death for conceiving outside of wedlock. He, the God of the Universe, could not afford a decent inn to welcome him into the word. Instead, he was born in the cold filth that was a habitat for animals. Without uttering a word, he incited the anger of the most dreaded ruler of his day and became a fugitive and a foreigner in Egypt. At age 12, he was abandoned by his parents in the temple but was still obedient to them. When he came of age, he suffered the loss of his custodian and guardian, Joseph; he wept at the death of his friend, Lazarus. He was betrayed by one of his closest allies, and denied by his right hand man. He was disowned by his own people who preferred a robber to him, the innocent one. He was subjected to the most degrading treatment by the creatures of his own hands, and died like a common criminal in the full glare of everyone. This same Jesus says, Come! He can identify with our own experiences. Have you lost a loved one? He did too. Have you been betrayed by loved ones? He was too. Have you been humiliated and stripped of your dignity? He is familiar with that as well. He knows whatever we are going through. And he says, Come! 

My prayer is that this Christmas will be unique, not be like any other you have celebrated in your lifetime. May you find comfort knowing that God loves you more than you imagine. No matter how far you think or know you are from him, no matter how much you reject him, no matter how infrequently you think of him, may you hear his voice saying to you, Come! He wants you to come and find rest in him. This rest which we all seek can only be found in abundance in him who said, “Come unto me all you who labor and are overburdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).