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The Christmas Message Nobody Wants to Hear (Part 1)

You know what I hear? It goes like this:

Christmas is all about “hope.” But hope in what?

Christmas is all about “giving.” But giving what?

Christmas is all about “love.” But loving what?

And when I’m done with my little game, my response is always the same: “Big deal! I hear that everywhere.” To be honest, it makes me yawn. Sort of like Christmas dinner. When I’m done, I just want to take a nap. And that’s exactly what the world does when they hear the world’s “interpretation” of the Christmas message. (I can hear someone reading this right now thinking to themselves, “Jon, that’s not very nice to say at Christmas! You sound like Scrooge. You’re spoiling my holiday cheer”. Well, hold on. I’m just getting started.

Have you ever thought that yourself? Be totally honest right now. Am I the only one that plays that silly game? Have you ever thought to yourself that none of those TV commercials, billboards, and radio ads ever seem to “finish” the message? You know why? Because those are all messages that everyone likes to hear. They are not offensive. They are not convicting. And they are not really life changing (which is what I’ve always been told Christmas is suppose to be.) Everyone can hear those messages, nod and agree, and then go get close and cuddly. As one couple told me in counseling, “We just want everyone to come together at Christmas in one big happy world!” To which I responded, “It ain’t gonna happen!” (They looked at me like I had two heads and three eyes.)

Why do these “comfy” Christmas messages all have the same effect? Because they all are totally neutral. They blow in around December 1^st and then they blow out somewhere after January 1^st. They don’t change anything. And they especially don’t change anyone.

So, here’s what I did this Christmas just yesterday after meeting with a dear friend. We were talking about these “last days” we are in right now, our own lives and dreams, and what the world is always doing with every single Christmas. Out of nowhere, my friend began to quote Joni Erickson Tada years after she dove into a shallow lake at age seventeen and was paralyzed from her neck down for life. After years of struggling with why and how the Lord wanted to use her in a wheel chair, she came to this profound conclusion:

God uses the things He hates the most to accomplish the things He loves the most.

Wow! Stop right now and read that once more. Did it grab you like it did me? Then I opened my Bible and read the whole “Christmas Story” again with that quote in mind. It changed everything. It gave Christmas a whole new message. But here’s the problem. It’s the Christmas message nobody wants to hear!

As author John Eldredge says about Christmas, “…not only did God pull off the most daring night time raid in military history, but look how He did it!” Then he asks, “Is that the way you would have planned to save the world?”

How did He do it?

He did it by coming in the flesh as a newborn baby boy, not by coming in power as a reigning king.

He did it by willfully choosing to grow up to die, not to live.

He did it through an unwed teenage girl engaged to a blue-collar worker, not a featured couple in this month’s People Magazine.

He did it in a place full of obscurity, not on a platform full of celebrities.

But hold on. There’s more. Don’t miss what He chose to use:

He chose a filthy barn, not a five-bedroom beach house in Ponte Vedra.

He chose real life scandalous people, not make-believe Hollywood heroes.

He chose injustice and betrayal, not honesty and integrity.

And last of all, He chose failure and sin, not fame and success.

Really? That’s not at all how I would have done it. In fact, I couldn't have even written that script. But He did.

You see, He always uses the things He hates the most to accomplish the things He loves the most. He hates poverty, starvation, disease, and abortion. He loathes pornography, adultery, and infidelity. But guess what? He loves redemption. He loves to buy people back for Himself. But first, those people must become desperate. Desperate for Him. Just Him, nothing else. People who have gone and done the unimaginable. People who have become lost and can't begin to find their way home. People who have failed. 

That’s where redemption always begins. The word, redemption, is a financial term. It literally means, to “buy back at any price that which now lacks any value.” To do so, there must be what G.K.Chesterson called, "the great exchange." Someone must relinquish all so that someone can become all. 

Someone who? Like me…like you. To redeem means to reinstate to a place of priceless worth. Sort of like the commercial says: Repaired? Five dollars. Restored? Fifty dollars. Redeemed? Priceless! That's what redeemed people are worth because of the price Christ paid on a cross. He took that which he hates, like a cross, to accomplish that which he loves, like redeeming you and me. Through his own blood shed on that cross, He made available The way back home for the worthless to become priceless. And He made it available for all time to one at time. Jesus, the only Son of God, willfully gave up His priceless place so that I, a worthless man, could forever live a priceless life.   

My “redemption story” could go on and on. So could yours. Even as I type these words and think about my own journey home, it takes my breath away. I’m totally baffled. Aren't you? Baffled by Bethlehem. Baffled by Calvary. Baffled by Christ.

People ask me all the time, what does "being baffled" feel like? I always reply the same. It feels like a romance. It feels like love at first sight. It feels like intimacy. Intimacy with the God who calls me back this Christmas to the one thing that He loves the most: Life in His Lap. Meaning? Me in His lap. 

This Christmas, I want what every man and woman really wants. I want intimacy.  Intimacy with Him. Don't you? Am I wrong? I don’t want to miss that. I did in the past. The world still does.

Let’s stop here. Right now, right where you are at this moment as you read these words, just stop. In the middle of all the tinsel and glitter. Take five minutes. Get all alone. Read these words once again. But this time, read them out loud. Tell Him you want Him. Just Him. You may have done that before, but say it again now. 

I already did that very early this morning. Why? So I don’t forget this Christmas what the world always forgets: The Christmas Message Nobody Wants to Hear.