I assume by December 11th many of you have already started watching Christmas movies. I honestly haven’t watched any yet. I was trying to wait till my boys come home from school to start watching but then I found out they have started watching Christmas movies with their friends so I figure I might as well get started. The problem is I don’t know where to start. There is no shortage of Christmas movies to watch. I could start with the classic cartoons Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, The Grinch who stole Christmas. Or I could try to be more mature and go with Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life, or my personal favorite A Christmas Carol. I suppose, if I wanted to cash in a man card, I could always cuddle up with a cup of cocoa and a box of Kleenex to watch a Hallmark Christmas movie and allow myself to be swept up in the lives of two completely different people who at first don’t like each other but through a series of random events end up falling in love while making a snowman or building a gingerbread house or ice skating under an unusually bright moon, perfectly timed snowfall and a magically appearing mistletoe.
For many of us Christmas movies are a fun tradition and entertaining distraction in an otherwise very busy time of year. But if one were to try to discern the essence of the season from Christmas movies you would be led to believe that Christmas is fundamentally about fairytales and folklore. Thankfully, we have better resources to consult when determining the essence of Christmas. In Matthew 11:2-11 we are reassured Christmas is fundamentally about historical evidence and empirical data; our Christmas story is based on fact.
Our lesson begins, as all good stories begin, in a deep dark dungeon beneath the palace of an evil king. John the Baptist (so named for the baptism he performed in the Jordan River not his affiliation with the modern Baptist church) has been imprisoned by king Herod because John had the gall to rebuke Herod for marrying Herodias his brother’s wife. From time-to-time Herod would pull John from his cell so that he could hear John ramble on about repentance. Herod didn’t understand what John was saying but he knew he was a righteous man, so he liked to listen to him talk. Herodias, on the other hand, wanted John’s head served to her on a silver platter. John likely sensed Herodias would eventually get what she wanted.
I always think of John the Baptist as a bug eating burlap sack wearing hard-core Christian. John told it how it was. He preached the law. He preached it right in your face. It didn’t matter if you were a peasant, pharisee, or prince John was going to tell you what you needed to hear whether you wanted to hear it or not. As Jesus is about to say, John was not a man manipulated by people’s opinions like a “7… reed swayed by the wind” nor was John a man who chased after success like “8… a man dressed in fine clothes”. John was the real deal, a real hard-core Christian.
But I imagine sitting in a deep dark dungeon awaiting an inevitable death sentence makes one contemplative. I imagine being confined to a cell was difficult for a guy like John, not so much because of the isolation, indeed John had spent his fair share of time in the isolation of the wilderness and perhaps preferred the quiet his cell provided. I think rather it was the inability to do what he was born to do that frustrated John. John was born to be a voice in the wilderness crying “repent for the kingdom of heaven is near!”[1] but his voice could scarcely be heard from the depths of Herod’s cell. Also, when John heard about the things Jesus was doing, I think he was even more frustrated. John had told everybody that the Messiah was coming with an axe in one hand to cut down the fruitless tress of the faithless and a winnowing fork in the other to separate the wicked from the righteous. John expected Jesus to pronounce judgement upon the people, but instead, Jesus spent His days teaching prostitutes and eating with publicans. Jesus seemed to be more concerned about showing grace than passing judgement and John, who couldn’t separate Jesus’ first Advent from His second, didn’t understand why Jesus was acting the way He was acting.
Have you ever, like John, found yourself in a dark place and frustrated with Jesus? The human mind, under the influence of the devil, the sinful world, and our sinful selves, can feel like a deep dark dungeon. And, despite the way the world portrays Christians, you are capable of critical thinking. So, I am sure, when forced to contemplate the world and your place in it, you have had questions. Maybe you question the things Jesus has allowed to happen, or the things Jesus has, in your opinion, failed to do. Maybe you question some of the things Jesus taught or some of the miracles He performed, I mean He said some difficult things about loving enemies and carrying crosses and He did some amazing things like casting out demons and raising people from the dead. Maybe, when the devil takes a naturally lost and condemned creature, such as yourself, to an exceptionally dark place, you even start to question the promises of forgiveness and salvation that Jesus makes. I have been there; I have been in a dark place and found myself frustrated with Jesus and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out that you have been there too.
It is naïve to think that just because we believe in Jesus as our Savior, we won’t have questions. I think most contemplative Christians have questions, even the hard-core Christians like John. The important thing to remember is, when those questions come, we know who to turn to for answers. John sent his disciples to Jesus to ask Him, “3… Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” John likely had a multitude of questions, but he knew the answer to one question would answer them all and he knew Jesus was the only one who could answer that one question. John asked Jesus, “are you the one”? Are you the one who will “crush” the serpent’s head[2], are you the one who will bring a “new covenant”[3] to God’s people, are you the one who will be our “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”[4]? Are you the promised Messiah we have been waiting for? John knew the answer to that one question would answer all the rest because if Jesus was “the one” then John knew no matter how many questions he might have he could have confidence that Jesus would have all the answers. Whether Jesus chose to share those answers with John now or in eternity didn’t matter as long as John knew Jesus was the one.
That is really what it boils down to for us as well. If Jesus is “the one”, the promised Messiah then all our other questions don’t matter. We may not understand why “bad” things happen or “good” things don’t happen, we may not understand all His teaching or be able to explain His miracles, we may not feel like we can be forgiven or saved, but if Jesus is “the one” then we can have confidence that He is in control of the world, his teachings are true and miracles are real, and his promises of forgiveness and salvation will be kept. If Jesus is who we think He is, then nothing else matters. All that matters is that Jesus is “the one”, the promised Messiah.
It is at this point that our story takes an entirely different direction than the traditional Christmas movie. Jesus doesn’t answer John’s question with a fairytale story or folk legend. Instead, “4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” Jesus is referring to our first reading for today from Isaiah 35. Jesus was telling John that He was doing the very things that Isaiah prophesied “the one” would do. Jesus answers John’s question with historical evidence and empirical data that can be seen with the eye and heard with the ear so that John would know, Jesus was “the one”.
Just as He did for John, Jesus reassures us that our faith is founded on fact not fairytale or folklore. In addition to the prophecy from Isaiah 35, there are hundreds of prophecies concerning the advent of the Messiah. This time of year, we tend to focus on the prophecy from Jeremiah 33 about the Messiah being born from the house and line of David or the prophecy from Micah 5 about the Messiah being born in Bethlehem Ephrathah or the prophecy from Isaiah 7 about the Messiah being born of a virgin. We see these prophecies fulfilled in the baby who was placed in a manger that first Christmas, but when we lift our eye from the manger to the cross we also see the prophecies from Zechariah 11 about the Messiah being sold for 30 pieces of silver, or the prophecy from Psalm 22 about the Messiah’s hands and feet being pierced, or the prophecy from Isaiah 53 about the Messiah being crushed for our iniquities and punished for our peace. As I said there are hundreds of prophecies about the Messiah, for a person to fulfill a fraction of these prophecies by accident would be a mathematical impossibility, something like one in one hundred quadrillion[5], … but Jesus fulfilled them all. For critical thinking Christians who have questions it is refreshing to know that our faith is founded on historical evidence and empirical data. It has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt Jesus is “the one”, the promised Messiah.
Critical thinking Christians have questions, even hard-core Christians like John have questions and that’s O.K. Indeed, Jesus seems to appreciate a questioning Christian. After Jesus answers John’s question, He turned to the crowd of people gathered around Him and said, “11 I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.” Jesus did not condemn John for having questions and He does not condemn you. Jesus wants you to contemplate the Christmas story with a critical mind, not a mind that doubts or despairs but one that comes up with some fair and honest questions. Jesus wants you to bring these questions to Him in prayer and seek the answers to those questions in the pages of scripture. In Scripture you will find many specific answers to specific questions but even if your specific question is not answered the most important question is. Jesus is the one. Scripture is full of historical evidence and empirical data that proves Jesus is the promised Messiah who was sent to save you from your sin.
Our Christmas story is different than the multitude of Christmas stories presented in the movies. Our story is not a fairytale it is not based on folklore. Our story is a fact based on historical evidence and empirical data. That Jesus was laid in a manger to be our perfect substitute and hung on a cross to save us from our sins is a fact. Which is why even though many of us enjoy the fun tradition and entertaining distraction Christmas movies provide we have gathered here today to pray, Come, Lord Jesus! Our Messiah. Amen.
[1] Matthew 3:2
[2] Genesis 3:15
[3] Jeremiah 31:31
[4] Isaiah 9:6
[5] Professor Peter W. Stoner was Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College and Chairman of the science division at Westmont College