Third Sunday of Advent: Forgive Us Our Christmases...

Forgive Us Our Christmases…
Matthew 11: 1 – 19.

I. Introduction.

When I started my doctoral work at Truett Seminary (in Waco, Texas), I was pastor of a church in Mississippi. The doctor of ministry degree is a professional degree designed for pastors who are currently serving in a local church setting. The degree requirements included four doctoral seminars, an extensive reading list of over 50 books and a written project (my project was 265 pages long). I had a “field supervisor” in Mississippi who met with me regularly to guide me and keep me on task. But I only had to be on campus in Waco four times for 14 days at a time.
As you can imagine, it might be expensive to live away from home for 14 days. Some guys stayed in cheap hotels. Others discovered that Baylor would lease apartments for short terms. But, I had a friend. My friend Steve—who was in my doctoral class—has grandparents in Waco. So, we had a free place to stay.

Steve’s grandfather’s name is Tootie. His name is actually Walter, but everyone knows him as Tootie. And as you can imagine, Tootie is quite a character. Lots of jokes and joking…Even a few theories about life.

One of Tooties’ jokes is to suggest the title of our sermon today. Tootie suggests that we should change the words of the Lord’s Prayer to say, “Forgive us our Christmases as we forgive those who Christmas against us.”

Think about that. Do we need to ask forgiveness for the way we celebrate Christmas? It’s all according to how you “celebrate” Christmas.

I try to tell this story every Advent. Another one of my preacher friends once called me and recited all that he had done for the previous week: worship, meetings, parties, fellowships, etc, etc, etc… He called to say, “Next year, I am not going to ‘celebrate’ Christmas. Next year, I am going to ‘observe’ Christmas.”

What is the difference between “celebrating” Christmas and “observing” Christmas? Celebrating requires a lot of energy. Observing is a passive activity. Rather than hustling and bustling around, we would allow God to do his work, while we sat in observation of what God is doing around us.

Now, there is a lot about Christmas worth celebrating. The angels announced the birth of Jesus with joy and singing. The shepherds ran and jumped and told everyone they could find about this joyous event. The Wise Men brought expensive gifts. But there was something even bigger than a big Christmas party. God himself finally broke into our world and our history to reveal himself. God took an extraordinary step to demonstrate his love for us.

On one hand, we have something to celebrate. On the other hand, if we spend all our time partying and celebrating, we are going to miss something. We might fail to “observe” the extraordinary love of God revealed in his Only Begotten Son.

If all we do is celebrate, we ought to pray, “Forgive us our Christmases…”

The story of the first Christmas, is the story of God’s directing his attention on us. Of all the things God could have focused his attention toward, God chose us. Rather than being all consumed with the grand order of the universe—the planets, the stars, the solar system, the changing climate on earth, or the melting polar ice caps—God fixed his attention on the human beings who inhabit this planet. God turned his attention toward you and me. Where is our attention this morning?

Some of us are, in this very moment, trying to complete our Christmas shopping lists. Others are just now beginning to fret about the gifts we have not even begun to think about. Fathers and mothers, grandmothers and grandfathers are arranging schedules to host the entire family, while balancing the time children spend with their in-laws. We are thinking about Santa Claus, Christmas trees, candy and stockings. All the while ignoring the fact that God focused his full attention on us.

Forgive us our Christmases, indeed. Forgive us, Lord, because we are less concerned about you than you are concerned about us.

Our Scripture today tells us about the true nature of Jesus Christ and why he originally came to this earth. While it does not tell us about angels and shepherds, it does describe the work and purpose Christ had and continues to have today.


Read Matthew 11: 1 – 19.

Matthew re-introduces us to an important man by the name of John. Sometimes, the Bible simply uses the name John. Other times, it uses a brief description to distinguish this John from other John’s in the Bible. This is one of just a few biblical references to John the Baptist.
The Gospel of Luke gives us a little family history of John the Baptist. Luke tells us that John and Jesus were cousins. In fact, when the angel Gabriel told Mary that even though she was a virgin she would give birth to the promised Messiah, Luke tells us that Mary first went to her cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth was John’s mother and was expecting John at the time of Mary’s birth. The baby in Elizabeth’s womb recognized the significance of this meeting and leapt in his mother’s womb.

The next time we see John, he is preaching about the coming Kingdom of God. John told the people of Israel that God had finally had enough of their rebellion. The Kingdom was coming. The Kingdom would come when God’s Promised Messiah entered into our space and time. The Messiah would usher in a time of judgment. And the only way to avoid judgment was to repent and be baptized. John said, “I baptize you with water, but the One following me will baptize you with Holy Spirit and fire.” In other words, if you want to escape the fire of God’s judgment, get in the water.

Then Jesus came to John to be baptized. Once again, John recognized something special about Jesus. The first time, he leapt in his mother’s womb. This time, John refused to baptize Jesus, saying that Jesus is the One who should baptize John. Jesus insisted, and immediately the Spirit of God descended and a voice from heaven announced that Jesus is the Son of God.
There is an interesting thing about John the Baptist which I had never given much thought to before this week. In Matthew 4: 12 and 17, we read, “When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee…From that time on Jesus began to preach…”

This tells us a little history and gives us a timeline which is important for our Scripture today. John announced that Jesus was the coming Messiah. John thought that Jesus would usher in the Kingdom of God by bringing down God’s judgment against Israel’s rebellion. BUT, John never witnessed the ministry of Jesus first hand. John never saw any of Jesus’ miracles. John never heard any of Jesus’ sermons. He couldn’t, because John was in prison! The only thing John knew about Jesus’ ministry and preaching was what had been reported to him in prison.

According to Matthew 11, John had a group of followers, or disciples. Disciple is the Greek word for a “student” or a “follower.” We believe that these men—and all disciples were men in the ancient world—studied John’s interpretations of the Hebrew Bible and patterned their lives after John’s life. They studied like John. They preached like John. They might even have dressed like John and eaten the same foods John ate. One thing is certain, they told John everything Jesus did.



II. Expectations.

Matthew 8 and 9 tell the stories about many of the people Jesus healed as a part of his ministry. He healed an unclean leper. He healed the servant of a Gentile soldier. Jesus calmed a storm. He cast out demons. He restored a paralyzed man. He raised a dead girl to life. He touched an unclean woman. Jesus even gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. In short, Jesus performed miracles that only God could perform.

But there was no judgment. On one hand, John might have felt a little embarrassed that he had predicted Jesus would bring the fire of judgment, and now Jesus is doing the exact opposite. Instead of judging sinners, Jesus is calling tax collectors to be his followers. On the other hand, John might feel a little disappointed. He was looking for a different kind of Messiah. John wanted a judgmental Jesus, not a compassionate Christ.

This is what lay behind the question John’s disciples brought to Jesus: “Are you the One who is to come, or should we look for someone else?” Jesus was not meeting John’s expectations. But there is only One Jesus. And, when it comes to Jesus, what you see is what you get.

In fact, that is the way Jesus answered their question. He could have very easily answered, “Yes. I am the Promised Messiah.” But he didn’t. Jesus said, “Go and tell John what you have heard and seen. The blind receive sight. The lame walk. …”

John was looking for a Messiah who would bring the “Bad News” of judgment. But Jesus did not come to bring Bad News. Jesus came to bring Good News. And the Good News is that sick people can be healed and sinners can be turned toward God.



III. Incarnation.

Jesus came to bring us the Good News of healing and restored life. But there is a part of Good News that we cannot miss. The miracles Jesus performed were not possible for ordinary people. Jesus did things that only God could do! That is because Jesus is God. He is not God-like. Jesus is God.

God loved us so much that God became a man and dwelt among us. Jesus is God in the flesh—the Incarnation. He brings God closer to us, and he brings us closer to God. God turned his attention toward us and expects us to turn our attention toward God.

This is what John missed. John was expecting God to turn his attention to earth. But, John expected God to look at us with wrath and anger. Jesus shows us that God looked at us through eyes of love. In the person of Jesus, the Good News is that God loves us and wants us in a relationship with himself.


IV. Hear and See.

Notice Jesus’ words to John’s disciples: “Go back and report to John what you HEAR and SEE.” This indicates a progression of the Good News—both in Jesus’ ministry as well as in our lives.
We first HEAR the Good News. Then, we experience it first hand and SEE what Jesus can do in our lives.

It also describes the progression from John the Baptist to Jesus. John came preaching. Jesus came preaching and doing.

And John never got to see for himself all the things Jesus did to demonstrate God’s Good News.
We might feel a bit tempted at this point to criticize John for not understanding the Good News Jesus preached and performed. Or we might shake our heads, because John held different expectations for Jesus. However, Jesus never criticized John. In fact, it was just the opposite. Jesus gave John the greatest compliment we can even imagine. Jesus said that John fulfilled a God given mission to be like Elijah, who was to come before the Messiah. John announced the coming of the Messiah. John was the one who prepared the way.

Exactly how did John “prepare the way” for Jesus? Did he “smooth out” the road so that Jesus’ life and ministry would be easier? Of course not. Jesus did not have an easy life or ministry. He was despised and rejected, even crucified by the political and religious leaders.
John prepared the way by preparing the people to hear and see the Good News. He told the story. John announced that the Kingdom of God was coming. John called for people to repent and believe.

This is what we are supposed to do when God turns his attention toward us.



V. Conclusion.

There is only one thing missing in this story. There is no happy ending. We would like to think that John’s disciples returned to the prison. They told John about the Good News and the lives that had been changed. Then, we want to think John said something like, “Ah. I knew Jesus was the One.” But there’s nothing like that. There is not even a sad ending. There is just no ending. We are left to wonder.

We wonder…What did John do? And we wonder…What would I do?

And what will we do? It is Christmas. God turned his attention on us. God has become a human being. God shows his love to us and calls for us to respond with our love for him. If we are too busy celebrating the things of Christmas, we might just miss what God is doing around us.

If we miss what God is doing…Then, Lord, forgive us our Christmas…