I can remember a certain Christmas where we went shopping together for her husband Jeff. And while we were at the mall we happened to walk by a Goodwill thrift shop and my sister decided to go in and browse. She went down the shoe aisle and called me over and said, “Chris, look at these hideous shoes!” They were a pair of old brown leather orthopedic shoes where one of the soles was two inches taller than the other, they only cost 50 cents. They were so ugly!
She looked at me and said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if we bought these shoes and wrapped them up for Gina,” (who is our next oldest sister) “and put them under the tree?” For some reason I agreed with her – – I thought that would be hilarious. So we did just that. When we got home she found a big box and wrapped it in super nice wrapping paper. She signed it, “To Gina from Steph and Chris with love.”
On Christmas morning when all of us were sitting around the tree, Steph slipped the gift toward the front and Gina immediately saw it, picked it up, weighing it, and smiling. Steph and I kept quiet trying not to smirk or snicker. I must admit, she did a great job of wrapping it. When it was time for her to open the gift, Gina was genuinely excited, she probably was thinking, “Wow, they went out of their way this year. The wrapping is so beautiful, and it really was nice of them to get me a gift, I love my family.” Slowly…she unwrapped it… letting the anticipation build.
And then it happened, “What are these?” Gina cried. Steph asked with a straight face, “Do you like them?” Gina didn’t know what to say. All I could do is laugh. Gina never did.
What is the use of all the beauty, the glitzy wrapping, the sentimental thoughts that bring a warm tear if the gift is useless? What use are angels singing? What use are shepherds attending? Why does any of this Christmas spectacle, children’s choir, outrageous spending, dressing up and acting holy while singing “Silent Night” holding dripping candles, matter? And most of all, what use is a baby born in a manger?
Simple: This baby came to meet our need. Something I am afraid we often miss behind all the wrapping.
I want to take you to a story way back in the lesser known pages of the Bible. It is the story of a man named Eli, who had two sons with funny names: Hophni and Phineas. We find their story in the book of 1 Samuel 2:12-17, 22-25..
These were bad sons, they were priests who stole the best pieces of meat and slept with women who came to the temple, and Eli knew their behavior deeply offended God. So he tried to warn them and wake them up to their serious dilemma. There is nothing harder than trying to get rebellious young adults who think they are impervious to the judgment of God to listen? Eli tries appealing to their reason and so he asks them in verse 25,
“If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?” But they didn’t answer, nor did they want to, because as it says, “But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the LORD to put them to death.”
This question isn’t intended for only them to answer, it is meant for all of us. We are the ones the Spirit is trying to appeal to through reason so we will listen to God. And the meaning is clear, as one commentator writes,
“For man’s offences against his fellow-man, there is a third superior party to arbitrate and rectify the wrongs, namely God, or God’s representative, the duly appointed judge: but for man’s offences against Jehovah, there is no third superior party to intercede as a mediator.”
Why does it matter: why do I need an intercessor?
Is it that important for me to get an intercessor – – or can I just hope for the best, cross my fingers while believing that “time will heal all wounds, even the offences that I have caused toward God?”
I really believe this question needs to always be kept at the forefront of our minds. Human Beings, an animal species to which most of us belong, have an incredible capacity to lie to ourselves in two main areas:
(1) We are self-deceived about ourselves: We tend to believe we are not that bad and haven’t done that much wrong. As Cornelius Plantinga in his book “A Breviary on Sin” writes, “We have the ability to pull the wool over some part of our own psyche. We put a move on ourselves. We deny, suppress, or minimize what we know to be true. We prettify ugly realities and sell ourselves the prettified versions. We become our own dupes, playing the role of both perpetrator and victim. We know the truth – and yet do not know it, because we persuade ourselves the opposite.”
(2) The Character of God: We tend to downplay God’s awesomeness; even that word has been downgraded in our vocabulary. There was a time when “awesome” was used to describe an event that aroused mystery and awe, now is a way to describe a flavor of Ice cream, “That mint chocolate chip was awesome!”. Our view of God has been downgraded as well.In Psalm 10:4 & 11, the sentiments of the evil man are described:
· In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
· He says in his heart, “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”
Because of these two truths, most of us have waxed fat in our understanding of God (See: Deuteronomy 32:14-15). In other words, sin brings each of us through the process of adopting a callous insensitivity to the grandeur of God. This callousness has even allowed many of us to presumptuously take the role of judge and jury over God.
He “now” needs to give us reasons for the presence of pain, suffering and injustice. Where is he? Why doesn’t he answer for his failures? Who does God think he is by allowing bad things to enter into my life? (Ironically, I am posting this because the pipes just broke in our church – – “How could he allow this?” tongue in cheek of course!)
Oh, he knows who exactly who he is…and according to scripture, he never changes. We are the ones who change like the waves of the sea. But God is, as Malachi 1:14 says, “a great King, and his name will be feared among the nations.” That is why we need an intercessor – – because our dispute is with the King, we have sinned against him. And a King is not someone to trifle with, nor is he someone that we can mock and criticize like we freely do with our Presidents. A king is, well, a king!
Turn to Job 9. I want you to consider a little more what it means to argue, or contend with God the King on your own. Proverbs 20:2 warns us, “The terror of the King is like the growling of a lion; whoever provokes him to anger forfeits his life.” Arguing with a King is a deadly proposition — your life is on the line. Job is going to explain why. . .
- (2-3) How do we contend, or face him, toe to toe? That is Job’s question.
- (4) We can’t contend with him in intellect and understanding (he’s smarter and wiser) – – in fact, he knows everything. You and I, however, according to Einstein, “still do not know one-thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.” He even said, “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” Verse 4 also says we can’t contend with him in strength, especially since (5) he can move mountains, (6) he can shake the earth (try jumping up and down to shake the earth? Nothing happens, unless of course you are Chuck Norris and you are doing push-ups.), (7) he commands the sun, stretches out the stars, and has reached the end of all the mysteries. I will bet he knows if Amelia Earhart crashed in the Bermuda Triangle or not?
- (11) He is invisible, he is sneaky, he is impossible to control.
So Job’s conclusion can be found in verse 14: “How then can I answer him…I can not answer him. I must appeal for mercy.” Job’s despair continues through the rest of this chapter in ends in verse 32 “For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us.”
So here, in black and white, is our primary need. We desperately need someone to come between, an intercessor, because as it is. . .our standing before God is hopeless. So, Let’s go home. Merry Christmas; no, should I say, have a Miserable Christmas?
When you learn the Biblical story accurately and without the sentimental trappings, no wrapping paper or decoration, throw out the false piety of prattling priests; our problem of sin and the reality of the perfection of God brings all of us to a dead end – – there is no solution.
Paul agrees with this assessment in his great book of Romans where he says in chapter 3 “No one is righteous, no not one, no one understands, no one seeks for God, All have turned aside; together they have become worthless, there is no fear of God before their eyes.” In other words, like Hophni and Phineas, humanity has become a Hopeless, Helpless, Damned Brood. Collectively and individually, all of us are at an Impasse.
God Initiates
Did you know, the glory of God is not primarily found in his Awesome Might and Terrifying Majesty, but it is best revealed in his Merciful Meekness? He is the God who bends down to help people who are mired in their misery. Like a parent who patiently approaches his stubborn child who has locked himself in his room, knocks and says, “Can I come in and talk?” God also initiates with us. Turn to Isaiah 1:18 and listen closely,
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow”
Just like Eli approaching his son’s with kind reasonableness when they deserved unrestrained fury, God approaches us, you and me, with the soft- gentle approach of a kind-hearted Father; “Come. let us reason together.” He didn’t have to negotiate with us; he could have said, good riddance. Get lost. Be gone.
But he has the heart of a Father.
Our Father, who lives in Heaven.
Jesus once asked, “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?” You would never do that because most fathers love their kids. They are good dads — but God is even better!
Let me ask all fathers in here: What if your son offended a King or a President to such a degree that he deserved the electric chair, guillotine, or life in prison? Jonathan Edwards sees the violation of sin equal to the man who slept with the King’s wife. It is fatal, worse than bad.
But what if this King just happened to be your father? The one we offended is the one who is the most desperate to reason with you to make things right. Even though he sees the treachery that lies in us, our callous insensitivity to his grandeur, and out of merciful meekness he pleads, “Come, though your sins be as scarlet – – blood-stained, with gaping wounds — they will be clean. In fact they will be cleaner than freshly fallen snow?” The heart of the Good Father doesn’t want to judge, he wants to bring his children back to himself.
But let’s face it, I see no way for Him to accomplish this? The distance between us is too far. Job said it right, “He is not a man as I am. He is God.” Have you forgot, what is impossible with man is possible for God? He can cross the distance to us. Even in Isaiah, he starts revealing a plan he had in the works since the dawn of time. “Come, take a look, let’s reason this out….”
- Isaiah 7:11-14
- Isaiah 9:6
- Isaiah 11:1
- Isaiah 12
This is his solution. This is the answer to our need. But what does it mean? Well, let’s put the pieces together: a virgin, a child, a son who is given, a great name, from David’s ancestors, and somehow the anger of God will be turned away, there will be peace and joy? What does this all mean?
It means God has figured out a way for man to face his God — he found an intercessor, someone to negotiate on behalf of a sinful world before the mighty God. But how? Who?
And I wonder, how will God’s answer come? Probably with fanfare and high sentiment? No, scripture offers us something utterly unexpected … a baby. Why a baby? Or as the Grinch so eloquently put it as he stood puzzling and puzzling till his puzzler was sore…
“How could it be so? It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes, or bags!” Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!”
According to Matthew 1:21, this baby came to save us from our sin. He is both God and man. A perfect middleman! Here is what I am trying to communicate today — you need this baby in order to survive. You need him to intervene between you and God. You need to be saved. Have you ever believed in the Son to save you from your sins, and of course, the wrath of the King?
There really is one gift that is of use – – all the others are just finely wrapped useless pieces of trash, like a pair of orthopedic shoes, if you don’t have Jesus. Do you? Or is having a callous insensitivity to the grandeur of God ok for you this Christmas?
If you think it is Ok to face the King without Christ the King, you are lying to yourself again!
