C158 12/7/58 Christmas Communion Message
© Project Winsome International, 2000

"GOD'S GIFT ON MAN'S TREE"
Dr. John Allan Lavender
Mt. 8:20-28

All of us have warm, vivid childhood memories of Christmas. The slender tree aglow with glittering ornaments. The whispered secrets. The happy laughter. The hasty hiding of half-wrapped packages. The turkey. The tinsel. The familiar family scene. And we're grateful for these memories. They warm the cockles of our heart. They make us glad we were born. They remind us of how rich we really are.

And yet, with all of our fond affections for these memories, we are most grateful for the discovery of the growing years that Christmas is more than seasonal excitement. More than turkey, tinsel and toys. Christmas finds its deepest and dearest meaning in an event which took place thirty-three years after the first Christmas morning. An event which placed God's gift on man's tree. And, in the process, the crib and the cross were inextricably bound together for all time to come.

One Christmas eve, near the turn of the century, Professor Franz Spehmann said something like this to a group of German students --
"At Christmastime some people think of the shepherds or the wise men. Others are reminded of the mother or the star. But my thoughts are not of these. Instead, I think of God the father, standing on the threshold of heaven, bidding farewell to his Son."

For this is the heart of the Christmas story --
"God so loved the world that he gave his Son". . . to die!
There is simply no meaning to Christmas apart from the fact that the babe of Bethlehem and the Christ of Calvary are one.

It's a simple matter for us to be filled with syrupy sentimentality about the baby Jesus. He is so easy to love. He makes no demands upon our mind or will. We can look down upon the manger, give an imaginary "coo" or two, and turn away lighthearted, but unmoved.

Certainly, we do not despise nor do we lose the wondrous lure of the Christ Christmas. But let us not forget that the baby grew up and became the Christ of Calvary. A man of muscle and maturity. A man who did make demands. Insistent demands. Uncomfortable demands. Unreasonable demands, or so they seemed to many. So they killed him.

They hung God's gift on man's tree and left him there to die. As a result, we cannot faithfully celebrate Christmas if we divorce the crib from the cross any more than we can celebrate Easter if we divorce the cross from the empty tomb.

There have been many characterizations of Jesus. If all the books which have been written about him were put together they would stretch a good way skyward. Yet, the best characterization of the life, ministry and purpose of Christ coming to earth is that which was given by the Lord himself. He put it this way in exactly twenty-two words --
"The Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mt. 20:28).
I'd like you think with me for about a moment about the words -

A Ransom for Many.
In the life and time of Jesus, a ransom meant several things.
It could be the price one paid to receive a slave from bondage.
It could be the amount of a fine levied against a man for some critical act, the payment which was accepted as an atonement for his crime.
It could mean the offering which a father made to Jehovah, which was made for his failure to dedicate his first male into the priesthood, which was the custom of the day. God was always given the first born son.

It seems to me all of these meanings are caught up in the amalgamation of the crib and the cross.

Redeemed From Slavery to Sin
First, as we witness the hanging of God's gift on man's tree, we cannot escape the fact that Christ gave his life as a ransom, that we might be redeemed from slavery, our slavery to sin.

The biggest thing in Jesus's day was the Roman Empire. So gargantuan was this monster of government it dominated the known world of it's time. Yet, believe it or not, Jesus never mentioned the Roman Empire once.

The biggest thing in the minds of most Israelites at that point in history was how to shuck off the shackles of Roman domination. They longed to be free. They were weary of being slaves. Yet, Jesus said little or nothing about this colossal concern.

Why? Was it because Jesus didn't care about the frightful indignities which were heaped upon his people by the Romans? No. Was it because he didn't care if the Jews were kept in bondage? No! It was because Jesus knew Israel's real problem was not the Roman Empire. It was Israel herself. He knew Israel's real slavery was not to any secular society, but to the insidious practice of personal sin.

Jesus knew the world into which he had come would not be a better world until there were better people in it. He knew there would be no solutions to the big problems which oppressed the world, until salvation had come to the little people who caused those problems.

So Jesus spent his time, and gave his life, to root out the cause of all other slavery -- the slavery to sin. He came, he lived and he died to set us free.

Atonement for Sin
Second, as we witness the spectacle of God's gift on man's tree, we are reminded of the fact that Christ gave his life as a ransom to make atonement for our sin. He paid the price we could not pay. That's what a Savior is. A Savior is one who does for you what you cannot do for yourself.

Suppose you and I were in a boat off the sun drenched shores of Miami beach, and the boat tipped over. If both of us could swim and made our way to shore, neither of us would be a Savior. But, if I couldn't swim and you could, and you dragged me ashore, you would be my Savior. You would have done for me what I could not do for myself. Swim!

In a similar way that's what Jesus did. He paid the price of our sin which we could not pay ourselves. He spread his cross between the righteousness of God and the sinfulness of man and bridged the chasm which divides us. A chasm no man, in and of himself, could cross.

Suppose that, by some miracle of grace, you should never sin again. From this moment forward you would never think an evil thought, never say an evil word, never do an evil deed. But what of the sins of yesterday? What of the thoughts, words and deeds of the years gone by? What of those transgressions which have been written indelibly in the record book of life? You see, "all of have sinned" and, the bible says that, "the wages of sin is death."

Thank God, it doesn't stop there. It goes on to say,
"But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

The spectacle of God's gift on man's tree, is a constant reminder that he came, he lived and he died to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. To be our Savior. To make a full and final atonement for our sin. To pay the "fine" of death which sin has levied against us.

To Live As We Ought
Third, the sight of God's gift on man's tree is evidence of the fact that he gave his life as a ransom -- as an offering to God -- for our failure to give God our first and our best.

Someone has suggested the real issues of life lie between one and two. For instance, if a man decides to share his love with a woman other than his wife, the sin of unfaithfulness lies at the point of that second woman. The issue is between one and two. From there on out, any further involvement is but a complication of the original sin.

The same thing is true in our relationship to God. He says, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God." If we decide to put him second, then the issue has been established. It makes little difference whether we put him second or fourth or fiftieth. The issue is between one and two. There are many black, heinous, fleshy sins. Thank God, most of us are not guilty of them. Our large guilt lies in the fact that again and again we have chosen the good instead of the best. We have fallen short of what we might have been. We have missed the mark God set for us.

That's why Jesus described his reason for coming into the world by saying --
"I have come that ye might have life and that more abundant."
He wanted to take the world where it was and lead it to where it ought to be. To take people as they are and make them what they may become. And his purpose hasn't changed! It is the same today as it was two-thousand years ago. It has not been altered one iota. Jesus still stands ready to give people life. Abundant life. Eternal life. And this offer of life is not a seasonal one, valid only on December 25. It is unrestricted. It is available to you this morning, if you will only receive it.

The sight of God's gift on man's tree is a constant reminder that Jesus gave his life -
As a ransom.
As an offering to God for our failure to give God our first and our best.
As an atonement for our sin.
As a payment to release us from slavery to sin and free us
to live life as it was meant to be lived.

There are many ideas in the bible which are at complete loggerheads with those of the man on the street. One of these is the idea of death. To most people it is something to be shunned, feared, avoided at all costs. In the minds of most people, death looms as a somber anti-climax. But that is not the Bible's view. Nor is it the view of Christmas. Paradoxically, the message of Christmas is that Jesus was born to die. Primarily to die. Deliberately to die. So through his death and ultimate resurrection, we might have life abundant and everlasting. This is the real meaning of Christmas. The sight of God's gift on man's tree reminds us that the crib and the cross are one. If we are to gain the Christmas blessing, we must follow a route which takes us hard by Calvary.

Mrs. Clayton Eulette, one of the neighbors of our church, put it this way in a lovely poem she sent to me in the mail this week. It's called The Manger and The Cross.


With simple dignity of form and line,
Eternal stands the cross.
The sacred symbol of our highest hope.
Man intended it to be the sign
Of bitter shame and utter loss.
But he who suffered on that lonely mountain slope
Arose, triumphant, as the Lord of life.
He banished for all time the specter, death,
And offered in its stead the gift of faith.
He came into the world of sin and strife
And gave us Christmas. One glad and holy night
A host of angels sang, "Good will to men."
And the sky was filled with heavenly light.
It was then, in quiet Bethlehem,
That a baby's birth
Revealed his father's love to a waiting earth.
Today in joyous hearts we reverently enshrine
The manger and the cross.