Jesus' Address

Christmas has all of its cultural baggage and even controversy these days. The season (more accurately the marketing) begins at Halloween. The celebration is often warped by materialism as throngs of people step on each other to buy presents. Stores are afraid to use the term “Christmas” because it might offend, so they use the term “holiday” even though it comes from the words “holy day.” This season’s purpose has indeed become muddled. It is difficult to not get sucked into the vortex of controversy, wrapping paper, money, and stress over the people that are so hard to buy for.
As I watch Jacob get more excited about Christmas this year than any other so far, I wish I could recapture the wonder and excitement of childhood. I wish I could recapture that feeling, that “Christmas spirit” that seems so fleeting in adulthood. But Jacob’s questions and statements about Santa Clause made me realize where the true wonder lies in Christmas. Jacob said, “You have to be good if you want Santa to bring you any presents.” This concept is expressed countless times at Christmas in songs and among parents to their children. This concept departs radically from reality. The wonder of Christmas lies in the fact that the God of the universe didn’t go down a list and weigh out if we had been good enough to deserve being saved from a fallen world. The fact is, compared to a perfect and holy God, just one of our sins puts us on the “naughty” list forever. The wonder of Christmas is that the God of the universe who created us loves us so much that he came to us. He came to us in the flesh, a man, in surprisingly low economic and social status among the people 2000 years ago. The psalmist echoed this wonder when he wrote, “What is man that You (God) are mindful of him?”
Like us, the first disciples were caught up in the physical of the incarnation. The Gospel of John starts off with all of these lofty declarations of Jesus being eternal, from before time and the creator of all things. Jesus is called the Lamb of God and the Son of God. But when the first disciples meet Jesus their first question is “Where do you live?” Ravi Zacharias points out in Jesus Among Other Gods that we certainly could think of better questions to ask than the address of a man declared to be the savior of the world. The reader and the disciples get the same challenge from Jesus, “Come and see.” When one of the disciples learned that Jesus was from Nazareth, his response was “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Like us they were so focused on the limited portion of reality called the physical. Jesus’ address was not merely Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth was also God the Son of heaven. Jesus’ address is at the heart of what Christmas is all about. It carries us through the materialism and controversy of Christmas. It shows us what is important to the God who is mindful of us and loves us.
When we and the disciples want to know where Jesus is from, he challenges us to “Come and see.” Ultimately, Jesus was from beyond Nazareth. Jesus was born of a virgin, conception without consummation. His origin is heaven and that does indeed tell us his worth. “Can any good thing come out of heaven?” Come and see the baby, wrapped in swaddling and lying in a manger. Come and see that life is not a material pursuit or about our earthly address. Ravi Zacharias wrote, “For the disciples, Jesus’ answer to their simple question – “Where do you live?” – was to lift them beyond race and culture, beyond wealth and power, beyond time and distance to make them true citizens of the world, informed by the world to come…He showed them the inclusiveness of His love for the whole world. But in that was the exclusivity of His truth, for which they were willing to give their lives. We have reversed Jesus’ order. We have made truth relative and culture supreme and have been left with a world in which wickedness reigns.” I pray Jesus will reign with all his wonder in our hearts this Christmas.