The question no longer is “Are you ready for Christmas?” The question now has become “Are you ready for after Christmas?” One church bulletin announced, “The choir will sing, ‘I Heard the Bills on Christmas Day.’” In a B.C. comic strip an ant asks, “Dad, who is Jesus?” The father ant replies, “He’s the reason for the season.” In the next panel the young ant replies, “But Dad, I thought Santa Claus was the reason.” The father ant responds, “He is—if you prefer Sony Play station 2 instead of eternal life.”

History leaves us with the beliefs that kings, presidents and prime ministers shape the world. In 4 BC Caesar Augustus was one of the most powerful of all the Caesars. It was said that he came to a Rome made of bricks and left it a city of marble. With his roads and armies he transformed the world, not just Rome. So who impacted the world more—Caesar or the baby born that night in a stable in Bethlehem? Interesting that we only know the name of Caesar Augustus as a side bar to the story of the birth of one Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph.

Every person has a story. Even God has a story that we call the Bible. Jesus’ story is a bit unusual in that it begins with a departure, not an arrival like the rest of us. From whence did Jesus depart? From heaven with all its beauty and splendor: walls of jasper and gates of pearl, streets paved in gold, and the River of Life flowing from the throne of God Himself. He left heavenly worship surrounded by the choirs of heavenly angels all praising the Father. He left the purity of a perfect place where there was no sin, evil, injustice, wrong, hurts, disappointments—only goodness and rightness.

Jesus’ departure also meant His arrival. And arrive He did. Not to a palace but to a stable and a feeding trough. Not to wealth and prestige but to a no-name, average, run-of-the-mill, nondescript blue-collar family. Not to a castle but to a borrowed animal shelter. Later Jesus said, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to lay His head.” (Mt 8:20) Jesus came into a world wrecked by sin and self-serving prejudice. Injustice was everywhere. The strong took advantage of the weak. The ‘haves’ lorded over the ‘have-nots.’ The rich abused the poor. The streets glistened of mud and manure, not gold. There was wickedness and violence everywhere. Humanity had sunk to new lows.

Jesus comes into our world today, to a place ravaged by the effects of sin and pride and the me-first mentality; to a place of brokenness—families, relationships, and government. Jesus left the splendor of heaven knowing His destiny. Why? Why did Jesus come? Would you come? Would you leave Sandals Resort for the streets of Camden? Some say Jesus came to fulfill the many prophecies of the Old Testament. Yes, he did fulfill those prophecies but that was a result of His coming, not the reason. Was it because of sin? Sin had ravaged God’s beautiful creation. People, families and nations were being destroyed by sin and that sinfulness had to go. Jesus went to the cross to break Satan’s power and remove the curse of evil. That is what Jesus did but that is not why He came.

The clues as to the motive for Jesus’ coming are found in the Christmas stories. In Matthew’s story of Jesus’ birth, the genealogy of Jesus is grouped into 3 sequences of 14 names. The first is from Abraham to David. The second is from David to the Babylonian exile. The 3rd is from the Babylonian exile to the birth of Jesus. Remember that Matthew was a tax collector and he dealt with numbers, spreadsheets, statistics, and comparative charts. Matthew was the consummate “beaver” of the personality types who love details, and organizing everything. Jesus’ genealogy was a very neat package. But Matthew does something out of character here. He inserts the names of 4 women. Even though they don’t fit into the flow of the spreadsheet, their names are important to Matthew’s gospel and to Jesus’ life. Every Jew would know the story of these 4 women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. What do we know of these women? Tamar committed incest with her father-in-law. Rahab was a notorious prostitute. Ruth was a Moabite, a hated enemy to the Jews. Bathsheba committed adultery with King David. And all 4 of them were Gentiles, not Jews! Hardly a hall of fame but rather a hall of shame in the ancestry and genealogy of Jesus! Why did Matthew dare to include these women with their sordid past in the ancestry of Jesus, God’s son?

Luke tells us the story of the shepherds in the Bethlehem fields who were the social cellar dwellers--poor, uneducated, unrefined, smelly, and irreligious. But please note that they were the first to hear directly from God’s angels about Jesus’ birth.

Nazareth was not noted for its association with elite Jewish culture. Remember when Nathaniel asked Phillip, “Nazareth! Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” The East Coast elite often have that same attitude toward people from Kentucky, or Arkansas, or even Wyoming! Nazareth was not Jewish enough for the Jews of Jerusalem because of its association with many unclean Gentiles. Yet Jesus called Nazareth His hometown.

The other Christmas story, that of the Magi, gives us an indication as to why Jesus came. The Magi were not Jews either but Gentiles. Jews were not to associate with Gentiles whatsoever, and yet God drew these Gentiles from far away to the East to the infant Jesus.

Matthew himself a Jew was a hated tax collector among his own people because he was a quisling, working for the enemy oppressor. In Matthew’s gospel (9:9-13) we read how Jesus said to Matthew, “Follow me.” And Matthew left his tax booth to be Jesus’ disciple. Once when Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and other sinners came to eat. When the Pharisees saw this they asked the apostles, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Upon hearing this Jesus replied, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick…for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

All of this gives us clues as to why Jesus came. Matthew was pointing out that Jesus came for the disenfranchised of society and those outside the established religion. Who are the disenfranchised today? The usual suspects include drug addicts, criminals, sexually immoral, murderers, extorters, and the like. But is that all? Are there others equally disenfranchised from God? The Bible declares that all of us are. Every one of us is on the outside looking in.

And that is why Jesus came. We read it profoundly yet simply in one Scripture verse, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) In Romans 5:8 we read, “But God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” That is why He left the splendor of heaven and why He came to a stable into our world. That is why He went to the cross.

His love motivated Him to come in order to reconcile us to God the Father, to be a bridge between God and us. Jesus came to restore us to God’s rightness in our lives. He came for all the people. Sin, evil, injustice, unfairness all creates problems, and pain and anxieties in our lives. He came out of love to offer us His life here and now and for all eternity.

That is why He came…Love in the flesh. The children’s song sums it up so well, “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” When you surrender to that love, you life will be transformed and better than you could have ever imagined. Let me invite you this Christmas to let Jesus “Cast out your sin and enter in and be born in you tonight.”

Thank You for Taking The Time to Read This Message.
May God Use These Words to Help You and Strengthen You.