Scripture: John 3:16-21; Matthew 5:13-16
At Christmas time, we celebrate God’s Gift of
salvation that He sent to us through Jesus.
Since this was a Gift that came directly from God, you would think that
this glorious present would be accepted and praised by the vast majority of
people throughout the world. But the
truth is that acceptance has always been anything but universal, and as
a matter of fact, the denial and rejection of the Gift is far more common than
it is celebrated and honored!
Jesus even offered a parable describing this denial
in perfect detail – and it has come to be known as the parable of the Tenants, which
actually appears in three of the gospels – Matthew Mark & Luke (Luke 20:9-19). God’s
Gift to the world was, as is any gift, given at the Lord’s expense and out of
His love and compassion for His creation.
Recipients would all be receiving a gift that would bless them through
eternity, and the Giver would be honored through the praises and faithfulness that the people show to the Gift.
Anyone who accepts this great and gracious Gift
would be freed from the power of condemnation, and would be welcomed into the
Lord’s family as full and beloved members.
And yet, the vast majority of humanity have rejected this most precious
gift for centuries!
During this season of Advent, we will be considering
some of the additional gifts that Jesus will also be bringing to our
lives. Today’s gift for us to reflect on
is the gift of clarity of vision and understanding.
Read John 3:16-21
The problem that Jesus came to address in our lives
is our inability to understand the vast difference that exists between the
worldly life, and the life that reflects the way that God desires for us. Jesus was given to all who would accept Him
as a God-given gift. No one was excluded
in the giving, but many have refused to accept the gift before they even
understood what they were being offered!
Imagine, if you will, discovering a present
underneath the Christmas tree with your name on it. When it is handed to you, you decide after
simply looking at the wrappings, that the package couldn’t possibly contain a
single thing that you could ever want!
And so, you tell the presenter that you don’t want their gift, and that
they can keep it, regardless of what it may contain!
I don’t know of a single person who would do that,
and yet, I do know of many who either reject Jesus outright, or decide that He could be OK, but only after implementing a few changes that they want to make to His
ways. Do any of us truly understand the
depth of the condemnation that we have built up in the life we have been
living? Without Jesus, the way that we
have chosen to live is so far removed from God that we will never be able to
find our way back to Him, without His help!
John’s gospel tells us that one additional item of
help that God has included in this Gift is “Light”. In John 14:5-7,
we read that only Jesus can be our guide to eternity, that He alone is the “Way”
that will put us on the right path to salvation, that He brings us the “Truth”
that we can always depend upon, and that He is the clarifying “Light” that will
reveal both the way and the truth that we will certainly need if we have any
desire of finding the way to the Father’s Throne.
This Gift is perfect! The Lord has completed all of the
preparations and final arrangements, and all that we have to do is accept it
and apply it to our lives!
Unfortunately, the downside is that the first coming of Jesus into this
lost and dark world isn’t the last – it is the first step in carrying out God’s
final Judgment on His creation!
Condemnation is not the Lord’s first choice for humanity, but it will
certainly be the last without Him. We
all will notice in this reading that until Jesus arrives the second time,
condemnation is totally on our own head.
But on that day, we will be examined for the depth of the commitment
that we have made and lived out through our Lord and Savior, and neither we nor
Satan will anything to say about it – Jesus will already have all of the
evidence that He will need to hand down the proper decision. (Zechariah 3)
His salvation has been available to us all, and if
we have chosen to ignore it, we will have decided, by default, to accept
whatever the final decision may be. Will
it be condemnation, or will it be salvation?
The point is that it will be based in the choices that we make during
our lifetime – whether we choose to follow and live in Jesus and His way while
we still can, or to reject the greatest Gift of reprieve that has ever been
offered to the condemned of Earth!
Will we choose the Light of the world, or the
darkness that surrounds it? God sees
all, and there is nothing that we will ever be able to do to hide from that
divine and all-knowing gaze.
Read Matthew 5:13-16
Matthew presents the teaching that Jesus lifted up
during his Sermon on the Mount. And this
is what will be expected of all who choose the way of Jesus. The life of discipleship in the way of Jesus is
obviously intended to be one that is obvious to the rest of the world! Our life must, apparently, be lived for the
benefit of the world, just as Jesus lived His (Matthew9:12-13). By our
example, we are called to have relationship with others, to share the Light of
Christ wherever we go. Salt is
purification in the example of Elisha in 2 Kings2:19-21, and seasoning as in Job 6:6 and
Colossians 4:5, and preservation through salt has been used for
centuries.
Elisha used salt to purify a spring that provided
water that was terrible to drink, and couldn’t even be used to irrigate a field
without killing the crops.
Job referred to salt as that which improves the
taste of certain foods, just as our witness to the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ should be “seasoned” so that it will be a blessing for the life of
others.
And in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he teaches
that our conversations should always be “full of grace, seasoned” so that
our words will provide wise and understandable answers for the questions that
others may ask of us.
Jesus also referred to the Light that comes to us by
faith in Him. But what are we to do
about that holy light that shines within us?
Remembering that the purpose of light is not that it might be seen, but
that it will illuminate other things that we need to be able to see. The point is that we are to let the Lord’s
light shine for others, that they might discover the truth of Jesus for
themselves.
And the third comparison, that the church should be
like a city on a hill, means that we are 1) to be obvious to all who are still
a long way away, and 2) to be a place of refuge, safety and welcome for all,
and not just a place that forbids and condemns those who are strangers to the way of Jesus.
Our Almighty God has given us the Gift of Light and
Life, but the question remains – what are we ready and willing to do with that
gift? And the answer that is waiting to
be proclaimed, is that we must always be ready to share it with as many others
as possible! God’s gift of salvation was
never meant to be kept hidden away within our own life – it must be given away,
and when we do, we will discover that it will never run dry within us.
The gift of Christmas will never break, never wear
out, never pale, and when we open God’s Gift and allow Him into our hearts,
that is the beginning of our realization that this is truly the greatest
gift of all time.
