HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
CHRISTMAS EVE
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 2:1
DECEMBER 24, 2008
Most of us love a good story. Most of us love a great storyteller, and I’d like to begin this message with a little mention of the story called The Princess Bride. Perhaps many of you have seen the movie The Princess Bride. You have to love a story where the hero and the heroin are named Wesley and Buttercup and where the villain is the evil Prince Humperdinck. I remember when Barb and I went to see Princess Bride when it first came out. I had a smile on my face the whole way through. The movie was charming and I love a good story. And I love a great storyteller and I think most of us are like that. We love a good story. We love a great storyteller.
This time of year, we think of other stories. We think perhaps of Charles Dickens. We think of his great work called A Christmas Carol. A Christmas Carol was written in 1843. It was written in a period of just six weeks, and incredibly, there are over 250 movie, TV, and stage adaptations of A Christmas Carol. 250! I think most of us know that story. We know about the Ghost of Christmas Present. We know about the Ghost of Christmas Past. We know about the Ghost of Christmas Future. We’ve heard of Ebenezer Scrooge. We know about Tiny Tim. We know the story. But understand, that’s not really the Christmas Story. That’s not really what Christmas is all about.
Christmas is the story of Christ. It’s all about Christ and it’s about the greatest storyteller of all time coming into our world. You see the Bible tells us that the greatest storyteller is God, and that in Christ God has come to Earth. Jesus, God’s son, is Emmanuel. He is God with Us, and He has come into our world, the greatest storyteller of all. So, the Bible tells us that Jesus taught and Jesus spoke in parables. What’s a parable? A parable is a story. It comes from the Greek word “parabole,” and parabole means “to make a comparison.” And a parable is a story which makes a comparison and teaches the truth by means of comparison. Jesus was a storyteller, the greatest storyteller this planet has ever seen. He told parable after parable after parable, all revealing truth to the world.
This Christmas Eve, as we look at storytelling, I want us to take a look at one of the greatest parables of Christ. It’s a story that most of you are familiar with and I want us to take a fresh look at it. It’s the story of the Prodigal Son. The story of the Prodigal Son is found in Luke’s Gospel, the 15th chapter, and sometimes this story is given a different title. Sometimes it’s called the Story of the Loving Father. Other times it’s called the Story of the Forgiving Father. And there’s a sense in which this story, told by Lord Jesus Christ, is a story about parenthood.
Many of you are parents. Some of you are moms and dads. Some of you are perhaps newly married and you want to have children and you’re hoping and you’re praying that God will bless you with children. There’s a test that you can take that tells you whether or not you’re really ready to be a mom or a dad. It’s a three-fold test and some of you might be familiar with it. The first is for moms: get a dress and put a bean bag chair inside of it and wear that bean bag chair inside of your dressing gown for nine months. And at the end of nine months, empty the bean bag of ten percent of the beans. That’s a test for you.
The test for dad (this is a little stereotypical a little more financial) is just take your wallet to the local pharmacy and give it to the pharmacist. Call the supermarket and give them direct access to your paycheck and salary. Then go home and get the newspaper and read it in peace for one last time. That’s a test for dads.
My favorite for moms and dads to see if you’re ready for parenthood is get a melon, put a hole in the side of the melon, empty the melon and then string the melon from the ceiling and begin to swing the melon on the string. Then get a bowl of soggy Fruit Loops and begin to spoon up the Fruit Loops pretending you’re an airplane trying to stick the Fruit Loops into the hole in the side of the melon. When you are halfway through the bowl of Fruit Loops, dump the rest of the bowl on your lap and onto the floor. Then you know you’re ready for parenthood.
Of course, all these tests of parenthood really have to do with little kids and whether you’re ready to raise little kids. But sometimes, for us as parents, the hard times are when our kids get older. Sometimes the emotional pain comes when our kids are grown and make decisions that grieve us.
This is true in the story that Jesus tells, the story (the parable) of the loving father. You see, the loving father has a son who rebels. His younger son, fully grown, rebels. He demands his inheritance. He demands all that is coming to him. He rebels against his father and runs away to a distant country. He lives, Jesus tells us, a profligate life. He lives a life of extravagance and ruin, a life of debauchery. Over a period of time, this rebellious son loses all the money—everything that he has, everything that he’s been given by his father. It’s a time of great economic recession, a time of famine, and Jesus tells us that this rebellious son can’t get a job. He tries desperately to find work and finally finds a job tending swine and feeding pigs.
For a Jewish young man, no job could have been more unthinkable because in the Jewish law, the rabbinical law, pigs were considered unclean animals. Yet this young man, this rebellious son, was so desperate and so destitute that he fed swine. The implication of the story is he ate the food that the pigs would eat, or even the food leftover from what the pigs had eaten. He was desperate.
In the course of time, Jesus tells us in this story, this young man comes to his senses. He thinks to himself, “My father has servants who are better off than I am; he has servants who eat better than I eat and who are clothed better than I am clothed. I’ll do this. I’ll go home and I’ll say to my father, ‘Father, I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.’” He begins the long journey home.
As Jesus tells the story, the father sees his son approaching from a great distance. We’re left with the idea that the father had been watching and waiting for his son’s return and was just scanning the horizon one day when the son happened to come. The father, as Jesus tells the story, is moved with compassion and great love and he runs out to meet his approaching son. He embraces his son. As Jesus tells the story, the father hugs his son and kisses him. And the word is intensive and it probably means repeatedly kissed him, hugging him, kissing him. The shock to the audience. The father represents God the Father, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Son of God. He knows the Father, and He’s telling the world, “This is what the Father is like.” Jesus in the story is saying that the prodigal son represents the people of the earth. The people of the Earth have run away from home. The people of the Earth have rebelled against God and are prodigals, but the heart of God is revealed in the story. It’s a heart that scans the horizon, looking for people all over the world to come home. He is a father who would run to them and hug them and kiss them repeatedly.
In this great story, Jesus tells us that the father does four things when the son returns, and they all represent promises to us. The first thing the father does is he gives his son shoes. This was tremendously important. The word is “hypodemata,” from “hypo,” meaning under. It means “to trod under,” but this word is used for good sandals that were never worn by slaves. In fact, slaves generally went unshod; they did not have shoes. This is a way, through the story Jesus tells us, the father is accepting his son back as a son, not as a servant. The son says, “Make me as a hired servant,” but the father says, “No, you will not be unshod. You are my son. I receive you as my full son.” And so, he gives him shoes.
Then we are told that the father commands that the best robe be brought for his son. Now, in the Bible there are four different Greek words used for a robe, and this particular Greek word is a word that refers to the finest robe and it’s the word “stolen.” “Stolen” refers to the best robe. In fact, it’s almost redundant because in the text Jesus says, “Bring the best, finest robe.” So, this is the absolute best and it’s a symbol of honor. The father receives the prodigal back and brings into sonship and then honors him.
The third thing is the father in the story Jesus tells says, “Give my returning son the ring.” The Greek word here is the “daktylion,” which almost certainly refers to a signet ring. So the father is saying, “Son, you are not going to be a servant. You are going to be my son, though you’ve been a prodigal. I am going to honor you though you’ve lived a wild life and though you’ve rebelled. I’m going to honor you. You have full sonship. I’m going to honor you and here’s the signet ring, which represents the authority of the family.” The impress of the signet ring sealed any kind of a deal. It represented the authority and the power of the family. So, in the story as Jesus tells it the father receives the rebellious prodigal back. He brings him into sonship and honors him and gives him the family’s authority and power.
By the way, this fits with everything else the Bible tells us—that when we come home and join the family of Christ, we are given the authority of Christ. The Bible says again and again that we who believe in Christ will reign and rule with him forever and ever. And how mind-boggling is that thought? The Bible teaches that God gave dominion to mankind, male and female, created in the imago Dei, in the image of God. In Genesis God gave mankind dominion over the Earth. In the life to come, God will give mankind dominion over the cosmos, over all the works of His hands, and we will reign and rule with Christ forever. The signet ring is an incredible part of the story.
And then in the story Jesus tells us the father commands that they bring the fatted calf. The word for calf is “moschos,” which refers to any young animal. But there is a special Greek word that Jesus uses to describe fatted, and it referred to a young animal that had been fed a special diet to make it very special in its taste and would only be used for the best and most special of occasions. The father says, “Bring the fatted calf that we might make merry. For my son who was lost has been found.”
We see a God who celebrates and rejoices when we come home. This is an amazing story. Actually, it is a beautiful, beautiful story. I hope you understand that this story, told by the Great Storyteller, told by our Lord Jesus Christ, is in a sense at the heart of the gospel, the good news. “And the angel said to the shepherds, ‘I bring you good news of great joy, which shall come to all the people.’” So, we take this message to the world and it is good news of great joy. It is really at the very, very heart of the gospel. God wants to celebrate our homecoming.
Many of you who know anything of American history have heard of the Witch of Wall Street. I know it seems to many of you today like Wall Street itself has become a witch, but the Witch of Wall Street died in the year 1916 and her name was Hetty Green. She was called the Witch of Wall Street, and many historians and many economists believe she was the richest woman in the world when she died in 1916, with a worth in terms of equivalent dollars billions and billions today. So, she died in 1916. Her witchery had nothing to do with occultism. Her witchery had nothing to do with spiritism. All of her witchery was socio-economic. She was called a miser, perhaps the biggest miser in the history of the world. She wore shabby clothes; this richest woman on earth, she wore shabby clothes. And why did she wear shabby clothes? Historians tell us she wore shabby clothes because she didn’t want to have to give anybody anything. She didn’t want anyone asking her for anything. She didn’t want anyone begging for her to give them something. She wanted everyone to think she was poor. And so, she went around in horrible clothing, shabby and looking destitute. She didn’t own a house. She just lived in boarding houses. Every day she’d go down and buy a newspaper and, having read it, she would then rewrap it very carefully and fold it back. Then she’d go back down on the street and sidewalk and try to sell it. She went out in a carriage where the main structure was made out of a chicken coop—again, because she didn’t want people to know she was rich. She was a miser.
Now, the word miser comes from the Latin word “miseri,” and is related to our word miserable. “Miseri” means to pity, but it referred to somebody who was stingy, somebody who was pitiful because they were not generous and somebody who was tragically stingy. Understand that in the Latin language the opposite of “miseri” is “gratis,” and “gratis” means great. It means giver, it means unmerited favor. It means to receive gifts that have not been earned, gifts that are unmerited. It means great generosity, “gratis.”
Of course, this church is on Grace Boulevard, “gratis boulevard.” We were given the privilege by Highlands Ranch years ago to name the street that our church would be on, and so, we named it Grace. Because we want to focus on Jesus, and Jesus is all about grace. We want to focus on the Bible, and the Bible is all about grace. We want to focus on the Gospel. The Gospel is all about grace. It’s not about stinginess. It’s about unmerited favor and unbelievable generosity, and that’s what Jesus tells us God is like. God the Father is generous, merciful and forgiving, unmerited favor.
As we wrap things up this Christmas Eve, I have a second and final teaching. The second and final teaching is simply this: Come home. Come home. This Christmas Eve maybe it is time to come home. Maybe you’ve always had doubts, maybe they were doubts based on hardship in your life. How could there be so much suffering? How could God allow that? Maybe you have doubts based on intellectual doubts and some conclusions reached through some linear thought, some scientific method, some epistemology, but doubts. And yet there is a seed of faith in your heart and that seed of faith can save you if you’ll respond to it. Coming home might seem to you like a really hard thing.
Barb and I, we have a little dog, a Yorkshire terrier. We found it abandoned at Daniel’s Park about four years ago, and we’ve really grown to love this little Yorkie. When I was growing up, we didn’t have a Yorkshire terrier, but we did have a collie. In fact, my grandfather on his farm in Missouri had a collie named Louie. Louie would round up the cattle and I loved that collie. We had a collie growing up in Southern California named Fancy. We had her for 10 years. She was a beautiful, beautiful dog. I used to read collie stories and all the books I could find about collies. I remember one story called Treve to the Rescue, and Lad of Sunnybrook Farm, and of course all the Lassie stories and the Lassie movies. Many of you are too young to maybe remember that book or that movie, but for me it was quite nostalgic. It was a great story. I remember the book. I remember the movie. I remember the incredible journey that Lassie made in order to get home: Hundreds of miles, forging rivers, stowing away on freight trains, fighting wild animals, danger after danger, hardship after hardship, weathering storms, and everything else, to make her way home.
It might be that some folks in the world today (and maybe some of you here tonight) think that it’s a hard journey home. You might think, “Wow, I don’t know whether I can come home. It’s a long ways, and it’s very dangerous or it will involve a lot of hardship.” But, oh, that’s not what the Bible says. It’s easy to come home. That’s why the gospel is the Good News. That’s why the angel said, “I bring you Good News of great joy.” Because it is not hard to come home and it’s all about Jesus. Jesus is our ticket home. Understand this is why we have Christmas; this is why Jesus came into the world: That He might be our ticket home. Therefore, in John’s Gospel, the 14th chapter, in the sixth verse, Jesus makes this amazing statement: “I am the way. I am the truth. I am the light. No one comes to the Father but by me. I am the way home.”
I know this is not PC, I know it’s not politically correct, but it is true. See, Buddha didn’t die for you. I’m not knocking Buddhists. Muhammad didn’t die for you. I’m not knocking Muslims. Krishna didn’t die for you. I’m not knocking Hindus. But you can read the Tripitaka, you can read the Bhagavad Gita, you can read the Koran or the Hadith, and they would honestly tell you that no one within those faith systems died for you. Jesus died for you! He died for the sins of the world. He died for the sins of the whole world. This is what the Bible says. 2 John 2:1 says, “He is the expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world.” So, we are not out here judging anyone. I’m not here to judge anyone. We don’t judge the world. Jesus is the judge. He’s the judge. He died for the whole world. He has the right to save anyone He wants to save and that’s up to Him. But this we know: All who believe in Him, all who embrace Him, come home. All who believe in Him, all who embrace Him, are saved. He’s our ticket to Heaven. The Bible makes that absolutely clear.
There’s another story that Jesus told, and we don’t have any time to deal with it in any detail, but the story is found in Matthew’s Gospel 21, in Mark 12, and in Luke 20. It is sometimes called the story of the Wicked Tenants, sometimes called the story of the Leased Vineyard, sometimes called the Story of the Rejected Son. It’s the story about a vineyard that’s leased out to tenants and then the owner of the vineyard sends his son and he’s rejected. The vineyard in its context represents Israel, chosen of God, and the tenants to whom God has leased the vineyard represents the Jews, again, chosen of God. The son is Jesus; He is the son rejected.
But you see, the parable is bigger in its scope than that because, in the broadest sense, the vineyard is the world. The whole Earth is God’s vineyard. All of us are His tenants. I mean the whole Earth in a sense has been leased by God to us and we’re tenants. He has sent His Son. The warning of this parable… Some parables are comforting, some stories are a little scary. This one is a little scary because Jesus is saying, “Don’t reject Me. Don’t reject the Son. The Father sent His Son saying, ‘Surely they will honor and respect my son.’” So, I hope you understand that. I hope you also understand that you’re precious. If you were the only one, Jesus would have come to Earth. If you were the only sinner, Jesus would have died for you. Jesus makes that clear again and again in some of His stories—stories like the Lost Sheep or the Lost Coin where Jesus is the shepherd. He’s the good shepherd, and having 100 sheep and one runs away and is lost, He leaves the 99 and goes after the one, because He loves you individually. And He loves you with a seeking love. And He loves you with a joyful heart, for when He finds the lost sheep, He brings them home and rejoices with His friends. “My sheep, which was lost, is found.” So, this is the love that Christ has for you tonight.
We want to invite you to come home. You can do that just by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, thanking Him for dying for your sin, and asking Him to forgive you and then making a commitment to seek to live your life for Him. You’re not going to be perfect; none of us are. We’re sinners saved by grace, but Christians have made that commitment to seek to live for Jesus. And by His grace and His mercy He brings us home and He saves us. Let’s close with a word of prayer.