As a child, making your lists for all the things you want, gets you ecstatic for Christmas Day. Then waking on that morning to rush out and find what presents are under the tree, it’s what your last few months has led up to. Then the moment comes and the opening begins. That lasts only a few moments, but the play that comes later, lasts the rest of the day. The aftermath is just as important to the build-up and event. It’s the payoff, the what happens when this great thing finally happens. And God’s payoff, his aftermath of Christmas is greater than any other payoff.
This brings us back to our final week in our Christmas series, where we’ll be looking at the third light of Christmas, the light of Ramifications.
In the first two lights we looked at both the build-up to the event of Christmas and the Christmas event itself. In our first week we looked at three groups of prophecies. First we looked at the prophecies surrounding who the child would be and his mother. Then we looked at the prophecies surrounding the kingly visitors who came to see the child. And finally, we looked at the prophecies that concerned the family lineage that the child must come from. All of these were the build-up to the Christmas event, and were are our first light, the light of Prophecy.
Then last week we took some time and looked at the whole of the Christmas event, which was the candle we called the light of Revealing. As best we could, we looked at the whole story of Christmas by putting it into a rough timeline. In that whole event we saw several people who were called to meet the child at his revealing. These were the Magi, the shepherds, Mary and Joseph, and Simeon and Anna. And as we saw those who were called to the child’s birth, we saw how those that should have been there were not. How the religious people, though they knew of the Messiah’s birthplace, decided not to come to meet him. We saw how they were disturbed by Jesus’ coming and therefore didn’t go and see him. It was here that we talked about how Jesus should disturb us because he is perfect and we are not. Jesus should disturb us in our sin, because he calls us out of the darkness that our sin creates around us. And it’s okay to be disturbed, if we pursue Jesus, if we go to Bethlehem and see. What isn’t good, is if we are disturbed and not seek Jesus on his own terms.
As we’ve looked at the build-up to and the moment of Christmas, we now turn our attention to the aftermath, or as we’ll call it today, our third light, the light of Ramifications.
See a lot of the time, we don’t realize just what Jesus has done for us. From the change of human morality, to how society works, to history itself, Jesus’ arrival radically changed how the world worked. This should be only natural because if God came to earth, the earth should not be the same, and as we’ll see, it isn’t.
In fact, we’re going to take a look at three areas in which Jesus’ coming changed the trajectory of the world.
We’ll start with morality. Something that doesn’t get taken seriously today, is where we get the morality we use in the western world. A lot of people claim that we are a product of the Greco-Roman world in how we do things, yet this isn’t the case. In a previous series we talked about how the Greco-Roman world treated children as throwaway materials. In an article concerning the Spartan treatment of children Evan Andrews writes, “Infanticide was a disturbingly common act in the ancient world, but in Sparta this practice was organized and managed by the state. All Spartan infants were brought before a council of inspectors and examined for physical defects, and those who weren’t up to standards were left to die…If a Spartan baby was judged to be unfit for its future duty as a soldier, it was most likely abandoned on a nearby hillside (https://www.history.com/news/8-reasons-it-wasnt-easy-being-spartan)."
Yet, as we have talked about before, Jesus completely changes this idea. And as the disciples spread the good news of Jesus coming, death, and resurrection, God’s morality took root in society. Psalm 82:3 calls God’s people to, “Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.”
This carries down to day, where children are seen as precious and valuable, not as commodities. And it’s why Andres says, that “Infanticide was a disturbingly common act in the ancient world…” Yet as we move away from biblical morals, we see children again used as throwaway materials.
The second ramification from Jesus’ revealing, deals with social structures. One of the things that has been brought up a lot in the last several years is the ramifications of slavery. But let’s be honest, slavery still exists. Sex slaves are couriered across this world and though nations try to stamp it out, it is still an industry in Asian, Africa and the Middle East. Even in the western world there are underground funnels for this type of slavery. But why would it even be a problem? I mean, in the Greco-Roman world is was a common practice. Mark Cartwright states that 1 in 5 people were in some form of slavery in the ancient world. Cartwright even says that, “upon this foundation of forced labour was built the entire edifice of the Roman state (https://www.worldhistory.org/article/629/slavery-in-the-roman-world/).”
Yet, though slavery has been around since the dawn of human history and continues today, it is through the teachings of Jesus that in the western world, the abolition of slavery has long been sought. In his letter to Philemon, Paul writes concerning a slave. Onesimus was a slave to Philemon who had run away. Onesimus met up with Paul and became a believer like Philemon was. So, Paul writes a letter to Philemon and returns Onesimus to him. Paul writes this, basing his thoughts on the Word of God and Jesus in particular,, “12 I am sending him—who is my very heart—back to you. 13 I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. 14 But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary. 15 Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— 16 no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord. (Philemon 1:12-16).”
In Paul’s letter there is a heavy emphasis on Philemon releasing Onesimus of being a slave, because of the Philemon’s own relationship with Jesus. The freedom that is found in Jesus became the basis for the social structure of slavery to be looked down upon and eventually eradicated in places that took seriously the Word of God and Jesus’ coming.
The final ramification that comes from Jesus’ revealing, deals with the historical ramifications. In particulate, us here today. If you live in the United States, or long to come here and taste it’s freedom, you have Jesus to thank for it. I’ve heard it said that we got out governmental style from the Greeks and Romans who also had governments similar to ours. People say we have the Greeks to thank for their view on giving the people power through democracy. Others say, we have the Romans to thank for the idea of a republic.
Yet, though we do have these civilizations to thank for the ideas, it’s the execution of the US experiment that has its foundation on Jesus. In his 1801 inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson hints that a true democracy would take away the rights of the minority when he states, “though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression (https://www.ushistory.org/us/20b.asp).”
It was this understanding of how Greco democracy worked that the founders came up with a constitutional republic. A form of government that sought to recognize and protect the rights of all people. It was because of this understanding of rights that do not come from people, that we have the famous words of the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness (https://billofrightsinstitute.org/primary-sources/declaration-of-independence?gclid=CjwKCAiAh_GNBhAHEiwAjOh3ZFojmErsdmLP2nIxwIXczxNxj_dj8qFw941jQW2BBDK9_0ss6oabJRoCtakQAvD_BwE).” Following these rights, the Bill of Rights outlines in deeper detail the rights of the people.
These freedoms are based on such passages as Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” and James 1:25, “But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”
John Adams recognized the role in which God’s Word and the reveling of Jesus has on the forming of the nation of the United States and wrote, “Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
These are just some examples of the ramifications of Jesus’ revealing to the world. Our morality has been changed, our social structures have been changed, and our history has been changed. Without Jesus, the world would not have been changed in this and other areas. We can see in other parts of the world, how children are still scene as commodities, how slavery is still practiced, and how no other countries in the world codifies the rights of people as being beyond the gifting of a government.
But it isn’t just in the these things of the world that Jesus has changed. Countless people’s lives have been changed because of the cross and resurrection. This is the biggest change. Moving humanity out of sin and into God’s life. Jesus’ apostles experienced persecution and death for following him because they trusted in him as their Savior. Today, the Bible is banned in a lot of countries because it points to freedom in Christ. And those who would dare read the Bible, could find themselves in prison, or worse. In the US we experience the fruits of a society based on God’s Word, but all around the world, people cry out for freedom, and believers are on the forefront of persecution for their beliefs. Because to follow Christ, is to follow in a different flow than the rest of the world. To follow Christ is to reject sin, where as the path of the world is to embrace sin.
This is how we continue to feel the ramifications of Christmas, even though we might not realize it. Every moment of our day, we press against the ramifications of Christmas, and God desires that we realize what has happened through Jesus’ revealing that Christmas morning.
My challenge this week is to finish up reading John chapters 1-14, and to light the third candle on our paper Advent wreath, the Light of Ramifications. The build-up to, the event itself, and the results of that event all weigh heavily. If we are serious about our own life, we must wrestle with the life of Jesus. Because he is unique among all others when he claims to be the only way. If he is, then Christmas is a pivotal point in every person’s life, because it calls us to encounter the only Savior of the world, and to bow down at his feet.
So when you light that third candle, the light of Ramifications, take some time and praise God for the world that changed that Christmas night. And if you would be even bolder, do some research on the Greco-Roman world and how our world today is vastly different than what would have been if there was no Jesus.
Let us be people who bow willingly at Jesus feet, because willingly or forcibly, all will bow to Jesus. So let us bow willingly and excitedly, because he is good and gracious to all. Christmas is the first coming of Jesus, and on the horizon is his second. Let us rejoice in the past works of God and look forward to his future work. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment