John 1:1-14 - The Real Reason for the Season - December 25, 2019

I’m not going to pretend to be able to read minds, but…I’m pretty sure I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that with a theme like The Real Reason for the Season you already know what this sermon is going to be about. You’re thinking that we’re going to spend the first 10 minutes decrying the culture around us, the unbelieving world that thinks that this Christmas season is all about gifts and family and food while either intentionally or unintentionally ripping Christ right out of Christmas. And then we can spend the last 10 minutes kneeling as faithful believers at Jesus’ manger, pretending to be one of those shepherds, and invisibly patting ourselves on the back for coming to church on Christmas Day – because everyone knows that only the very best Christians come to church on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Well, as you can probably guess, that’s not the way this Christmas sermon is going to go. John does give us the real reason for this Christmas season, but it’s probably not what you think and it’s better than you would have ever imagined.

“Jesus is the reason for the season.” You’ve seen the bumper stickers, the coffee mugs, the t-shirts, the Facebook posts and hashtags proclaiming that message, haven’t you? It seems like a good message. One that would remind people that Christmas is not really about maintaining family traditions or giving gifts. There’s only one problem. It’s totally, completely, absolutely wrong. Jesus is not the reason for the season of Christmas. Think about it. Jesus didn’t need to come to earth, to take on flesh and blood for his sake. Jesus was not unhappy, not unfulfilled, not bored in the glory of heaven reigning at his Father’s side. John makes that clear when he writes in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. “In the beginning” is a reference to Genesis 1:1, the beginning of time, the beginning of human history. But before there was time, matter, or space; before there was an earth, a single man or woman or angel – there was God the Son, and things were just fine with him. John says in him was life. Jesus wasn’t just alive; he was life itself. He needed nothing. He wanted nothing. He had everything.

Of course, Genesis 3 records how shortly after creation the darkness of sin and death fell like a disease infested blanket over all creation. But don’t think for a moment that this darkness reached Jesus in heaven. No, the light went right on shining in the darkness. Darkness is no match for light. We experienced that truth for ourselves again last night. Did you notice how, even after all the lights were turned off as we heard the Christmas Story from Luke 2 and sang Silent Night, this room was still glowing brightly? Just a few dozen candles chased the darkness out of here. In the same way, Jesus, who is the Light of light, went right on shining in spite of the darkness of sin and death. So it was not necessary for Jesus to come here to take care of the darkness for his own sake. Darkness is powerless against him.

Jesus is not the reason for this season. What we celebrate last night and today are not for his sake at all. Jesus didn’t need Christmas. He didn’t need to be conceived in the womb of a virgin. He didn’t need to be born in a stable or laid in a manger. He didn’t need the praise of angels, the visits of shepherds or the gifts of wise men. He certainly didn’t need to be persecuted and mocked, beaten and crucified to save the world. As the second person of the Trinity he could have simply decided to scrap the whole mess and start over again. You know he gave that option to Moses in the wilderness. Several times the Lord told Moses to step back and he would wipe the Israelites off the face of the earth and start over with him (Exodus 32:10; Exodus 33:5; Numbers 14:11-12; Deuteronomy 9:13-14). If Moses had that option, then surely the Son of God did, too. God the Son didn’t have to have this season. Jesus isn’t the reason for this season at all.

The darkness was not a problem for Jesus, but it was and is for us. The darkness had overcome us. We were the people Isaiah referred to as walking in darkness (Isaiah 9:2). You know about walking in the darkness of sin and death, don’t you? How most of our time and energy are spent repairing the damage done by sin and concocting schemes to prevent it from doing further damage. We know how many broken hearts, broken homes, scars both visible and invisible sin has left in its destructive wake. And this darkness is more than just physical, it’s more than just out there. The darkness lives within, too. What can you do to stop yourself from being a 24/7 sin factory? What can you do to control your sinful words and actions, much less your sinful thoughts? We refer to some of our sins as our “pets” – as if we have them under control. When the reality is that our “pet” sins have us locked under their control. What can you do to stop death from grabbing your loved ones away from you? What diet or exercise plan or lifestyle change do you plan to implement to keep death from grabbing you? Add this all up and you finally reach the truth: we are the reason for the season.

Then why do so many think Jesus is the reason for the season? Because the world, in its blind arrogance, has convinced itself that we all but have sin and death all but licked. Medicine has made remarkable strides in recent years. It can replace organs. It can stop cancer…sometimes. It can make the blind see and the deaf hear. Even the slavery of habitual sin is often dealt with in terms of medicine. If you have a problem with anger or depression or addiction or violence or you can’t sleep because of your guilty conscience – no problem! There’s a pill for that. And death? Ha! Death is no match for gene editing and organ transplants and stem cell therapy. The message of our highly scientific and highly secular culture is that you don’t really need this season of light and life. We’ve got sin and death under control. If anyone needs it Jesus does. He might start to feel bad if we don’t take a few moments out of the year to remember just how cute he was when he was born in that stable 2000 years ago.

But the truth is that the world has it all wrong. It’s not just a matter of trying your hardest not to sin and trusting in medicine to keep you from dying. Because the truth is that the moment Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they died and as a result we, their children, are born dead (Ephesians 2:1). So what if medicine can keep us alive 70, 80 or more years? Death is still at work in us (2 Corinthians 4:12). Death still reigns as the heavyweight, undefeated champion of the world. And do you really think that any pill that treats symptoms like anxiety, depression, addiction, anger – can really treat the underlying, systemic disease of sin? Do you think that if you can just keep the resolutions you make this year that you could earn a ticket to heaven? Not a chance (Romans 3:20)!

Man’s best medicine is no match for sin and death, and neither are the petty and invented manmade “miracles” of Christmas. Do you think that throwing a few bucks at the person ringing the bell by those red canisters at the grocery store can really make poverty and hunger go extinct? (They’ve been ringing those bells since 1891 and haven’t been successful yet![1]) Do you think that gathering together as a family to eat together and exchange gifts can heal broken relationships or white wash the fact that some at your cheerful gathering are living in unrepented sin or unbelief – and thus have all but spit on baby Jesus? Do you think that a fat guy in the red suit can just “ho, ho, ho” death away?

“Yeah, but December 25th is Jesus’ birthday and he’s our Savior and Lord and so he really is the reason for the season.” First, we don’t actually know what year, much less what day Jesus was born on – so we can forget about that. Second, you know as well as I do that we have other national holidays to celebrate the birthdays of some of our nation’s most influential leaders. Turning Christmas into nothing more than a birthday party trivializes it, robbing it of its eternal and universal importance. Christmas is not about Jesus’ birthday, but about God’s incarnation. It’s about the fact that in a manger in Bethlehem God parachuted out of heaven like a Navy Seal to rescue us from the sins we could never pay for and the death we could not avoid.

Christmas is about Jesus. But Christmas is not for Jesus. Jesus didn’t need Christmas – but we certainly needed Jesus. He’s the only one who could stand fast against the darkness of death and the guilt of sin. Jesus was the only one sin couldn’t enslave, couldn’t put in its cage – just think about his victory over temptation in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11). Death buried its fangs in Jesus on Good Friday, but come Easter morning it was death that lay crumpled in a heap (Isaiah 25:8). Jesus didn’t come for his own benefit, he came to destroy the devil’s work (1 John 3:8), John writes. And do you know what the devil’s work is? Our sin and our death! Jesus didn’t come on Christmas so that we could give each other gifts as a way of celebrating his birthday; he came to give us the priceless gifts of forgiveness and eternal life. Christmas is about nothing less than God breaking into human history in order to reverse the hell-ward spiral mankind was on.

That’s why I say that Jesus is not the reason for the season. I am. You are. Christmas is one of those golden summaries of the Gospel message because Christmas is for us! So we don’t dare celebrate this season like the people John describes in these verses: he came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Do you know what the Greek word for “his own” is? ἴδιοι – from which we get our English word idiot. We don’t dare celebrate Christmas like idiots – that is, thinking that we somehow have sin and death on the ropes and don’t really need a Savior. We don’t dare celebrate like Christmas doesn’t make any difference – that we must continue to live under the bondage of sin or the cloud of guilt that haunts us from the past. While we may certainly shed tears over the empty spot at the table this year – we don’t dare forget that the Christmas being celebrated by our faithful departed is the best they’ve ever had! Finally, we don’t dare give in to the Christmas blues of depression and despair this year – because whatever problems may still be plaguing us today, this truth remains unchanging and undiminished: the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us to destroy the power of sin and death over us once and for all!

THAT is why this is a day to celebrate, a day for singing and smiling and laughing and eating and drinking and yes, even gift-giving. God has fulfilled his promises! He has given us his Son to save us. He has changed everything. God has come to earth to win our fight against sin and death for us so that we might go to heaven to live in peace and glory forever. If that doesn’t call for an annual day of celebration, I don’t know what does.

You are the reason for the season. You are the reason the Word became flesh. Your salvation is the reason you should celebrate today. But you knew that, didn’t you? because that’s what the angels told the shepherds: I bring you good news of great joy…today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:10-11). This Christmas sermon was not what you were thinking, was it? But is it better than you imagined? I sure hope so. You are the real reason for this season – your forgiveness, your life, your salvation. It’s Christmas and Christmas is for you! So get out there and celebrate. Amen.

[1] https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/red-kettle-history/