It is said to be a true story from the old West. It is about a group of Apaches who attacked a Cavalry unit and successfully captured the paymaster’s safe. They had never seen a safe before. But they knew it contained precious gold. They tried to open the safe but were unsuccessful. They beat it with tomahawks. They dragged it over the ground with their horses. They heated it on a fire. They tried to blast it with gunpowder. Finally, they dropped it off a cliff into a great ravine. In spite of their best efforts, however, the safe held tight. Finally, they gave up and left it behind.
Later the army found the abandoned safe. The paymaster immediately rushed to it, turned the combination, and within a few minutes had it open. What the Apaches had been unable to accomplish with enormous effort, the paymaster accomplished in just a few moments with the twist of his wrist. Why? Because he knew the combination. Some things are like that . . . we cannot penetrate them until someone is found who knows the combination.
Four hundred years before Christ, Plato, the great Greek philosopher, sought to penetrate the mystery of reality. He described the human condition like this: Humanity is imprisoned in a cave. He is shackled in a world from which he cannot escape. He wears blinders so that his perspective is limited to what is directly in front of him. Before him are only the shadows of real objects. Given these restraints, he is able to view only a small part of reality, to comprehend a tiny fraction of truth. No wonder Plato’s name lives even today. His was a brilliant recognition of the human situation before the coming of Christ. Plato taught that all humanity can see on its own are shadows in a dark cave.
Plato was a great philosopher, but even the simplest Christian believer has an advantage over this noble Greek. The simplest Christian believer knows that into that dark cave of the human condition God has shown a wondrous light. That, of course, is what Advent and Christmas are all about.
An ancient theologian named Origen tried to simplify the message of this season of the year something like this: Suppose there were a statue so large that human eyes simply could not take it in with one look. How could we ever grasp the essential form and substance of this statue? Of course Origen could not imagine a world of drones that could fly overhead and take pictures of the giant statue. Origen’s imagined solution was to make a small copy of the giant statue to an exact scale but much reduced. Then humanity could see what the greater statue was like.
Origen went on to say this is what God has done in Jesus Christ. He shows us what He himself is like within the bounds of our human ability to understand.
Here, then, is the first glorious truth about Advent and Christmas. God has come down in Jesus Christ. Christ is an exact replica of God reduced to human size.
Al Lindgren, a professor at Garrett Evangelical Seminary, tells about taking his junior-high-school son fishing years ago. It was one of those days when the fish wouldn’t bite, so the two of them had a lot of time to talk. Out of the blue his junior-high son asked, “Dad, what is the toughest thing God ever tried to do?”
Even as a minister, Al said that the question caught him off guard. He didn’t know what to say, and so like a good teacher he answered a question with a question. “What do you think it was, son?” he asked.
His son responded, “Even though you’re a minister you don’t know much about God, do you, Dad?” The boy then proceeded to answer his own question.
“Since taking science in school, I thought the creation of the world might be the hardest thing God ever tried to do,” he said. “Then, in Sunday school we got to talking about some of the miracles, like Jesus’ resurrection, and I thought that might be the toughest thing God ever did. Then after thinking some more and talking to others, I decided that no one knows God really well. So now I think that the toughest thing God ever tried to do is to get us to understand who He is and that He loves us.”
Out of the mouths of babes . . . Al Lindgren could simply say to his boy, “Son. I think you’re right. That is the hardest thing that God ever had to do and there was only one way he could do it.” (1)
God has come down in Jesus Christ. That is the good news of the Gospel. Why did God come down? Because that was the only way He could reveal Himself to us.
God has come down. God humbled himself in our behalf. That’s the second thing we need to see. God humbled himself in our behalf.
There was an interesting article in a national magazine several years ago about a former Alabama football player a few of you may remember named John Croyle. Croyle, a devout Christian, started a ranch in 1975 called the “Big Oak Boys Ranch.” Over the years that ranch has taken in more than 2000 homeless, unwanted, and abused boys.
Thirteen years later, a Big Oak Girls’ Ranch was added. The Girls' Ranch evolved from a court case involving “Shelley,” a 12-year old girl who had been physically and sexually abused by her father. The folks at Big Oak Ranch pleaded with the judge to let Shelley live at the Boys’ Ranch, but the judge refused and placed Shelley back with her parents. Shelley was beaten to death by her parents three months later. The Girls’ Ranch was built in 1988 in Shelley’s memory.
Croyle once said he has seen hundreds of miracles among those boys and girls. At the ranch the children are exposed to faith, love, and hard work. Over the years Croyle has received much help from football friends like the late great coach Bear Bryant and many NFL luminaries,
John Croyle married his childhood sweetheart. At the time of the magazine article, they lived in a small farmhouse at the Big Oak Ranch. “The boys say they know I love them,” said Croyle, “because I live in a smaller house than they do.” (2)
That sentence caught my attention. So often servants of God seek to live like royalty. Press reports sometime back told about a famed radio preacher who lives in an 8,000 square feet $2,000,000 house. It would be interesting to see what kind of sermon he is be able to deliver on the subject of missions. “The boys say they know I love them,” says John Croyle, “because I live in a smaller house than they do.” By the way, today Croyle is assisted by his son, John Brodie Croyle, also a former quarterback at Alabama as well as with the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL.
God needed to communicate His love to us and so He humbled Himself. He moved into a house smaller than ours. A manger, some straw, some sheep and some shepherds were just the thing. Maybe the little town of Bethlehem was the only place that could have happened. We mortals would have had our Son born in Rome or Athens or, at least, in Jerusalem. But not God. The little town of Bethlehem would do just fine.
There was a small book from Doubleday some of you are familiar with titled, Dear God. It was a collection of Children’s Letters to God. One young man wrote, “Dear God, was there anything special about Bethlehem or did you just figure that that was as good a place as any to start a franchise? Your friend, Jim age 12.”
Obviously God thought that was the best place on earth to start a franchise. God humbled himself and came into a stable and a manger, among cattle and sheep and shepherds, in the tiny town of Bethlehem in order to communicate to us His love and His purpose. God has come down in Jesus Christ. God humbled himself in our behalf. Those are the first two great truths about Advent and Christmas.
Here is the third: Humanity has been lifted up. Even though we are unworthy of any action on God’s part, God came down that we might be lifted up.
There is a humorous story about a church having an outdoor Nativity Pageant. They decided to use live animals in this pageant. It was quite a feat, because the church was located in the very heart of downtown in a large metropolitan area.
The evening of the pageant everybody was busy making preparations. Nobody noticed that the donkey that was to be used in the pageant wandered off and trotted down the street. He caused quite a commotion. Finally he entered a nearby bar.
Obviously, one of the customers was startled when he saw a donkey come into a bar. The customer pushed his glass aside and decided he had had enough. The bartender, seeing that he was startled, tried to calm him by saying, “Oh, don’t let that donkey bother you. He belongs to the Methodist Church up the street.” Thinking about that the man decided it was time to leave.
Well, there are some donkeys in the Methodist Church, in the Presbyterian Church, in the Baptist Church and there are donkeys both inside and outside every church. In fact, all of us act like donkeys at one time or another. But when Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem of Judea, all of us donkeys were raised to a new level. God has come down. Humanity has been lifted up.
It is said that the famous French author Balzac fancied himself to be an expert at interpreting handwriting. He believed that he could determine the character of a person by analyzing their script. One day an old lady brought him a little boy’s homework book and asked this great writer and expert on handwriting to give an opinion of the child’s potential. Balzac studied very carefully the irregular, untidy script and then asked, “Are you the boy’s mother?”
The old lady replied, “No.”
“Perhaps you are related?” he asked.
“Not at all,” she answered.
“Then I will tell you frankly,” he said, “the youth is slovenly, probably stupid. He will never amount to much.”
“Ha!” said the woman, “It might surprise you to know that this notebook was your own when you were a little boy at school.”
A study of humanity’s past would be depressing at best. Thousands of years of bloodshed, hate, bigotry and war point to a future as dismal as our past. Nevertheless, 2000 years ago in the little town of Bethlehem, God paid humanity the ultimate compliment. He took on human flesh in order that He might reveal to us His great love for us. We are that important to God.
God has come down. God humbled himself in our behalf. Humanity has been lifted up. Here is the final thing to be said: Salvation has drawn near. That was the message of John the Baptist in the wilderness. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, he proclaimed, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord. Make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth. All flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
Have you seen the salvation of God? We know that God has humbled Himself and come into our world. We know that His purpose was that the world through Him might be saved. But what is our response to that stupendous news?
Pastor Barry Davis noticed some interesting statistics in a recent issue of the Harvard Business Review that you might find enlightening in this season of gift-giving.
One of the most popular gifts in stores today is gift cards. Research shows that 39.2 percent of shoppers will purchase a department store gift card for friends and family, followed by 33.4 percent of shoppers opting for a restaurant gift card. But according to estimates reported in the Journal of State Taxation, the typical American home has an average of $300 in “unredeemed” gift cards lying around unused. These cards are often misplaced, accidentally thrown out, or only partially redeemed. According to this report, between 2005 and 2011, $41 billion in gift cards went unused. (3)
That’s amazing! What good is a gift card that is never used? What good is God’s gift of his Son if you and I have not opened our heart to His love?
God has come down in Jesus Christ. God humbled himself in our behalf. Humanity has been lifted up. Salvation has come near. Where the horizontal and the vertical intersect, there is the cross of Jesus Christ.
A famous artist painted a picture of the Nativity. In his painting, across the crib falls the shadow of the cross. Salvation is God’s eternal plan for humanity. This is why He has come down. This is why we have been lifted up. Heaven and earth have intersected at the cross of Calvary.
We, then, are the recipients of a great free gift. That is why it is right for Christmas to be a time of gift-giving. We are the recipients of the greatest gift of all. The God of all creation has become the babe of Bethlehem. The babe of Bethlehem became the Lamb of Calvary. Because of the Divine drama of which the stable of Bethlehem was only a part, our salvation has been made possible. It was in our behalf that God humbled Himself, and the salvation that He offers is free to all who will receive it.
We do not have to do something grandiose in order to earn our salvation. There is no material gift that we can offer the Christ child in return for what God has done for us.
We are like the young fellow at college who couldn’t get home for Christmas. So he sent his Dad a set of inexpensive cuff links and a matching inexpensive tie clasp. Along with these gifts he sent a little note. “Dear Dad. This is not much, but it’s all you could afford.”
When we try to offer something material to God, or something derived from our own accomplishment, God must smile with appreciation and understanding, but the gift He offers us is totally, unconditionally free. There are no strings attached.
There is only one gift we can offer Him in return. That is to receive the gift that He offers us.
God has humbled Himself and come down in Jesus Christ. Humanity has been lifted up. Salvation has drawn nigh. All we have to do is receive it, joyfully, and make it our own.
1. From a sermon by Dr. Donald Strobe who cites the bulletin of the Metropolitan UMC, Detroit, 1987, as his source.
2. Tim Allis in People magazine, date unknown.
3. Barry L. Davis, 52 Topical Sermons Volume 1 (GodSpeed Publishing. Kindle Edition).