Every manger scene should have little figurines of
Herod’s soldiers lurking in the background. The Christmas story is not a
Kinkade painting, with no hint of trouble anywhere at all. The incarnation and
birth of Christ came about to fix a huge mess, like what we saw in Newtown CT
last Friday. It is a potent reminder of our fall into sin and the resulting devastation
of mankind.
We like to say that Jesus is the reason for this
season, and He is. But why did He come? The reason He came was to enter into
our chaos and catastrophe, to take it all to hell, and to return with life and
peace and joy.
The chaos and catastrophe is the result of our sin.
I haven’t heard the backstory of the CT perpetrator yet, but we can be certain
that sin has been a part of the story, reaping these consequences. And sin is
part of our story, too. We have been the cause of conflict and strife in our
own ways. Perhaps we have not sought to kill Jesus like Herod did, but we often
pursue pleasure like Herod. Perhaps we aren’t tyrants desperately clinging to
power, but our every sin tries to dethrone Jesus. Perhaps we have not
personally given our okay to kill children like Herod, but our Supreme Court
has. And we put ourselves before God and others with our every sin. Jesus came
to forgive the repentant, judge the wicked, and fix this huge mess.
12/16/12
No comments:
Post a Comment