FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture References: Matthew 2:1-12

Guiding Light

Jesus Christ, to whom the star led, also leads us somewhere. He leads us in two directions, to God and to our brother. These are the two poles of great religion.

The God to whom Jesus leads us is no cosmic blur. You can almost say He is a God with a face. He is a God of truth, love, and justice, and He demands these of us. There is rigor in the demands of this kind of faith.

Jesus also leads us to our brother. He leads us across all kinds of barriers and all kinds of social proprieties to get to Him. He takes us to where men and women are lonely, rejected, poor, dehumanized, sick, and lost. Follow Him in any of the four Gospels of our New Testament, and He will take you to where people are hurting.

There are those who want Jesus to lead them to God but not to their brother. They want a religion that is essentially personal, spiritual, ethereal, and other-worldly. They want to be lifted above the loneliness, injustices, and brokenness of our world. Such a religion will allow us to live side by side with the inequalities, racism, and exploitations, and never lift a hand to change the situation. Indeed, it will allow us to profit from these inequalities and to share in these injustices in a most respectable sort of way. To those who are satisfied with this kind of religion Jesus says: “It is not enough. Come, let me take you by the hand and lead you to your brother. He is afraid and he is hurting. He needs you.”

On the other hand there are those of us who are willing to be led to our brother but not to God. Personal and spiritual religion turns us off. We had rather spend our time feeding the hungry, healing the sick, defending the weak, and championing the cause of justice in our world. If we are to believe in anything, let it be in humanity. Essentially they say, “our works are enough. Our works are our religion.” Jesus says to us: “It is not enough. Come, let me take you by the hand and lead you to God. You not only need to serve; you need to worship. You are too weak and frail to be the object of your ultimate trust. You are like a broken reed and cannot stand the weight of heavy faith. You must trust in something and somebody beyond yourself.”

Light in the Darkness

The light of the star that identified Jesus will never go out.

Someone has said that there is not enough darkness in the universe to put out the light of one small candle. It is true. If darkness cannot put out the light of a small candle, how helpless it is to put out the light of a star.

John in his Gospel speaks of the light in Jesus which the darkness has not put out. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). The New Living Translation (NLT) says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Where noted, Scripture taken the Holy Bible, New Living Translation®, NLT © 2015 by Tyndale House.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture References: Matthew 2:1-12

The Light – Continued

The Bible says in effect: When you have peeled away layer after layer of things as they appear, you come to the heart of things as they are and you can call it by no better name than light.

Light is the answer to darkness in the moral and spiritual realm just as much as it is in the physical. You can’t cast out darkness with darkness, you cast out darkness with light. Truth is the answer to falsehood, justice is the answer to injustice, love is the answer to hatred and self-centeredness, and only gentleness can bind up the wounds that cruelty inflicts.

It is not strange then that Jesus was identified by a star and that we still speak of Him as light.

There is a tradition that states the wise men, who were likely among the most prestigious persons in Persia, combining in themselves the roles of scientist, statesman, and priest, went home, gave away their great wealth, and became preachers of the gospel of the Prince of peace. They felt He was the answer to their darkness. True or not, the analogy is fitting.

Focused Light

The star that identified Jesus led somewhere. It was not diffused light that shone everywhere but nowhere in particular. It was light that was focused, that shone somewhere in particular. Where did it shine? Over a thing as tiny and small as a baby. The wise men followed the star and “behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was” (Matthew 2:9).

We are tempted to follow a star with diffused light. We like to believe everything but nothing in particular. Such faith makes no demands on us. We take from it what comfort and meaning it can give, but it puts no yoke on us. And, what is worse, such a faith has no real power. It doesn’t change life and doesn’t make us agents of change.

The sunlight when mildly diffused will warm your hand. But catch it in a concave lens, focus its rays, and it will burn your hand. You can set a piece of paper on fire with such concentrated sunlight. The same is true of faith. If it is to be powerful, it has to be focused. It has to be concentrated.

Jesus was born into a world of many gods and many lords. Paul, speaking of the religious situation of his world and contrasting it with the uniqueness of the Christmas faith wrote: “For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Corinthians 8:5-6). The religious situation was a diffused one. You could believe in as many gods as you wanted to. But not so with Christian faith. It was focused on one God and His mighty action in Jesus Christ. Like the star of Christmas, it shone in a face.

The Pantheon in Rome is the best preserved building of the ancient world. It was a great architectural and engineering feat from the beginning and was erected as a temple to all the gods. It was indeed a temple of diffused religious devotion. Several hundred years passed, and the temple to all the gods became a Christian church. It was stripped of all its altars save one, and that one was dedicated to Jesus Christ. The diffused religious situation was transformed to a concentrated devotion centering in Jesus Christ as Lord.

The most ancient confession of Christmas faith was not, “the many gods are lords,” but “Jesus Christ is Lord.” The star had led to Him, and the church has never been able to forget that.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture References: Matthew 2:1-12

Matthew in his beautiful story of the birth of Jesus makes much use of a star. He tells how wise men came from the East to Jerusalem, having followed the light of a star. They asked: saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2). They continued to follow the star beyond Jerusalem “until it came to rest over the place where the child was” (Matthew 2:9).

It was His star and Jesus was identified by its light. He was a baby with the light of a star in His face.

Eternity Entered Time

Light is one of the best marks of identification for Jesus. Matthew saw the coming of Jesus as the fulfillment of a prophecy that said: “The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” (Matthew 4:16).

Luke spoke of His coming as “whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high” (Luke 1:78). The birth of Jesus was like a dawn, like the coming of morning. And Luke in his exquisitely beautiful story of the birth of Jesus tells how “the glory of the Lord shone around” (Luke 2:9) the shepherds as they kept “watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8). John at the beginning of his Gospel wrote: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).

The climatic event of Jesus’ life, His resurrection, was set within light, the fresh lovely light of early morning. The women who brought spices to anoint His body discovered He had risen at the breaking of the morning. They looked into His empty tomb by the light of dawn.

Jesus said of Himself, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

It is not strange, however, that light is used to identify Jesus since the Bible as a whole makes such extensive use of it. It is one of the best metaphors to tell what God is like, what He is doing, and His presence in our world. It speaks eloquently of such moral and spiritual forces as, love, truth, goodness, and justice.

The Bible begins with light. The first thing God created was light. God said, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3), and light broke over a dark, restless, chaos. The Bible ends with light. There is a new city perfectly lighted with no trace of darkness or evil in it. From beginning to end the Bible makes an extensive use of light.

The Bible speaks of the light of God’s countenance and His causing His face to shine upon us. His truth is light, and His Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Isaiah tells us that “the Lord will be your everlasting light” (Isaiah 60:20).

There are three bold attempts to define God in the New Testament. God is spirit. God is love. God is light. “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). All three definitions are so simple. All words in the definitions are monosyllables. It must be the route of simplicity that leads us to reality.

Isaiah’s simple yet urgent invitation is typical of the spirit of the Bible: “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:5).

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture References: John 1:1-18

Full of Truth

Not only is Jesus full of grace, He is also full of truth. Truth is one of the watchwords of John’s Gospel, occurring over thirty times. Jesus embodied truth. He said once, “I am the truth.” The truth Jesus incarnated was more moral than intellectual. His truth was the kind of faithfulness, trustworthiness, goodness, and love we see in God. Jesus said once that “the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). It was a liberating truth. It could snap the bonds that hold people, strike off the chains that enslave them, and bear away the bars that imprison them! It found captives and left them free. It found people serving powers that would one day destroy them and left them serving the God who alone had the right to possess them.

The Spirit Jesus would send in His place would be like Him. He would be the Spirit of truth. Jesus stated, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13).

There was no room for greed, selfishness, or possessiveness in the life of Jesus. He was full of grace. There was no room for misrepresentation, falsehood, or propaganda. He was full of truth.

Jesus was so much like us and yet so unlike us. He had our humanity, lived in our kind of world, spoke our language, and knew our pain and the limitations of our time and place. Yet He was so unlike us. He was so full of grace and we are not. He was full of truth and we are not.

Lawrence of Arabia once stated, “No man could lead Arabs except he ate the rank’s food, wore their clothes, lived level with them, yet appeared better in himself.”

Jesus met this qualification to a superlative degree. He ate at our tables, wore our clothes, and lived with us. He was like us. Yet, there was a quality of excellence in Him which we can never begin to achieve. His face had light without shadows. His love was without blemish and His goodness without marring of any kind.

John tells us, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:11-12).

The same thing will happen this Christmas. He will be coming to His own, those whom He loves and claims. There will be those who reject Him, turning into ways of darkness and death. There will be those who receive Him, turning into ways of light and life. Let us be among those who receive Christ.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.