One of the books that I use to teach bible history has a
picture of Adam and Eve after they have been kicked out of the Garden of Eden. In
the artist’s mind it must be several years later. Cain, their firstborn son is
in the picture. He looks like he might be about 12. Abel also is in the
picture. He looks like he might be about 6. The picture also has some of the
fruits of their labors. There is a humble shelter. Some wooden fences have been
assembled.
What I find most interesting about the picture, though, are
the poses and faces of Adam and Eve. Adam is resting his chin on top of his
hands while he leans on his hoe. Eve is sitting down with a tattered mop in her
hands. Both are looking at Abel who is contentedly playing with sheep. The
expression on both of their faces is best described with the word tired. They
are not exactly sad. They certainly aren't beaming brightly. Adam is tired of
hoeing out the thorns and thistles that infest the ground. Eve is tired of
cleaning that which, so very quickly, only gets dirty again.
This artist understood what life is like, particularly as we
age. Children still have some get-up and go, and it seems that the artist
understood this too. Cain and Abel do not look tired. They look ready to tootle
about. Adam and Eve look like they are ready for a vacation. Or retirement. But wait a minute: will that solve their
problems? Not quite. Vacations and retirement aren’t the fountain of youth.
They don’t make us into children again. About all that they can manage to do
for us is to offer us a little more pleasant way to pass the time—no hoeing or
mopping.
I’m going to be honest about what is going on here. Some of
you might get mad at me for this, but I think you have to acknowledge the truth
of it. As we age we get closer to death. Practically every part of ourselves progressively
breaks down. Our strength goes. Our flexibility goes. Our curiosity goes. Our
mind goes. Our energy goes. You see, “In the day that you eat of it, you will
surely die.” The curse of death hangs over us all.
Now what have I done? Have I gone and wrecked our holly,
jolly Christmas? That depends on how you answer this crucial question: “Is
there anything that can be done about death?” If the answer is, “No,” then the
best that we can do is try to ignore it. There are a lot of ways to do that.
You can eat, drink, and be merry. You can get drunk on the sentimentality of
Christmases past. You can spend your hard earned cash for stimulants—some new
toy or gadget that will allow you not to be bored for a while, not to feel so
tired for a while. Have you noticed how hard it is to buy a gift that an old
person really enjoys? That’s because they’re all strung out. They’ve all been
there and done that. A child, on the other hand—all you really need to give
them is a big cardboard box. Old people need new cars or to win the lottery to
feel good.
All of these stimulants are ways to try to deal with the
curse of death that hangs over us without actually facing it. They are kind of
like cold medicine. Cold medicine does nothing to make the cold go away any
faster. All that it can do is alleviate some of the symptoms. Although cold
medicine helps, we all know that it isn’t the real deal. Decongestant makes it
so you can breathe out your nose, but your nose still feels funny. There’s no
replacing the vim and vigor that returns to us naturally once the cold has
finally left us.
And so all the stimulants we buy are like shuffling along
with cold medicine while stubbornly denying that we have a cold. Nobody knows
of anything better, and so it is expected that we continue shuffling along,
taking our stimulants when we can get them. This is a hopeless and depressing
way of looking at life, and so I can understand why some of you might be
irritated. But this reaction is built upon the firm belief that there isn’t
anything that can be done about death, and so might as well just try to cope in
some way.
Believe it or not, something can be done about death—not
only can be done, but has been done. Furthermore, it doesn’t just deal with
death itself, but all the slowing down and irritation and dissatisfaction that
leads up to it. The cold that we have had since the moment we were conceived in
our mother’s womb has a cure—not just a way to treat the symptoms. We’ve never
known what is like to live without this cold, without death and all that leads
up to it, weighing us down. But there is a cure, and this cure is what is so
vitally important about Christmas.
The angel says to the shepherds that he has good news of
great joy. What is this good news? A Savior was born for you. When we use a
word frequently enough we tend to become desensitized to it. I think that
happens with the word “Savior.” It’s hardly possible to understand the word
without experiencing salvation. We can try to imagine it though.
If you were stuck in a burning building and the firemen sent
one of their ladders up to you and helped you through the window and down to
the ground in safety, you would start to know what a savior is. But this is
quite hypothetical. I don’t know if any one of us has been stuck in a burning
building. Let’s talk about something we do know. We’ve felt the blues of life,
which come with the curse of death. We know drudgery. The boredom, the sadness,
the restlessness of Adam and Eve, hoeing and mopping. The lack of curiosity and
of get up and go. The frustration, the impatience, the anger. There is
salvation from all of these things in the Savior who was born for you. He gives
us a new heart.
Furthermore, we can also speak of what is scariest of all.
We can speak of the ending to those nightmares, where we somehow get caught and
die. Unless Christ should come back first, this is what will happen to each and
every one of us will get caught by something. Jesus is the Savior who was born
for us for that too. The words that we say at the graveside of a Christian are
not empty. These words might be said at
your graveside:
We now commit the body of our
brother or sister to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust,
in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our
Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly bodies so that they will be like
His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subdue all things to
Himself.
Jesus is the Savior for us from the cold, dark grave. When
the time is right he will cause us to rise to life, cured from that cold, cured
from death, and, like we say after a long cold, we will feel like ourselves for
the very first time. Nobody will have to tell us to be energetic or curious or
joyful or all the other good things that we associate with youth, because we
will already be these things. We won’t be tired anymore. If your bodies hurt
now, they won’t hurt anymore then. All of that will be passed away as that
which is old. Behold, the new has come. All of this is because a Savior was
born for you.
Something to keep in mind here, though: We have not yet been
resurrected. We have to wait. Until that time comes, we will still feel the
effects of this fallen world. When someone becomes a Christian, their lives are
not transformed into paradises. There is no promise that they will have less
suffering or more pleasure. This can make unbelievers wonder what good it is to
be a Christian. Technology, hoeing, and mopping seem to hold out more promise
of making us happy so long as we try hard enough and never give up. There’s
some truth to this, as we’ve already talked about. Some of the symptoms can be
addressed. Technology will never progress to the point, however, where we will
be redeemed from the devil, death and hell, or be reconciled to our Creator.
Only the blood of God, the blood of Jesus, born in a stable in Bethlehem, can
do that.
And so there are two things that I think we, as Christians,
should keep in mind. First, be patient. In times past this was well known as a
good Christian virtue. It’s fallen off our radar in modern times. Perhaps it’s
because we’ve been able to fix so many things, that we think that we can fix
everything. But the things that we have talked about tonight cannot be fixed by
anything other than the resurrection from the dead. This is still in the
future, and so we must wait. God will help us while we wait. And when that time
comes, believe me, it will be worth the wait. As it says in Revelation, “They
shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their
shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe
away every tear from their eyes.”
First, be patient. Second, don’t let the way that you feel
mislead you. There’s a lot of pressure at Christmas to feel merry and joyful.
There’s an expectation that opening presents has to make us happy. What if it
doesn’t? Are your emotions so powerful that they are able to undo the work of
God? Do your emotions change Jesus being a Savior for you?
Paul says that we carry around the treasure of salvation in
jars of clay. Jars of clay aren’t known for their resiliency. The treasure of
salvation is one thing. Jars of clay are another. And so it happens that we as
Christians experience hardship and pain and frustration and heartache and
sadness and tiredness and all the other things that go along with this old
world. At the same time, though, we are being renewed inwardly day by day. What
he is referring to there is the promise of God that we hold to by faith. And so
it might very well be the case that we are sorrowful and yet always rejoicing,
as being poor and yet making everybody rich, as having nothing and yet
possessing everything.
It’s okay to feel tired or sad or any other thing like that.
That’s just the jar of clay being a jar of clay? Here’s what’s important: What
is your treasure? In what do you hope? If you believe that Jesus is your
Savior, then your treasure will not disappointed you.
We aren’t in control of our feelings as much as we might
think that we are. Sad things make us sad. Happy things make us happy. Why lie
about such things or pretend? Things are the way that they are. We don’t need
to be afraid of reality. Reality, because of Jesus, is on our side in the end.
When salvation is complete—when death and all that leads up to it is put away—then
we won’t need anyone to tell us to be happy. We will be happy, because we won’t
be able to help being anything but.
Until that time, catch as catch can. Enjoy whatever
happiness comes your way. Although we are under the curse of death, God still
gives us a lot of good and happy times. It is my sincere wish that such good
and happy and lively times are given to each and every one of you this
Christmas. But remember that you being blessed does not depend on that. What that
depends on is your God who loves you and who sent his Son into this dying world
to open up the way to everlasting life. This he gives to you as a gift to be
held to by faith, until he decides to bring it about.
