Something Greater is Here!
December 14, 2020
This morning, I was reading Matthew 12 and paused at verse 6. Jesus tells those who accuse that they are concentrating on the wrong thing. They are giving higher honor to the temple or to the Sabbath traditions than to God.
6 But I tell you, Something greater and more exalted and more majestic than the temple is here! 7 And if you had only known what this saying means, I desire mercy [readiness to help, to spare, to forgive] rather than sacrifice and sacrificial victims, you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord [even] of the Sabbath. (AMPC)
I don’t think giving greater attention to things or places or traditions was unique to that place and time. Don’t we also do this today? The very season we are in now, the Christmas season, is full of distractions and traditions that we focus on to the exclusion of the bigger picture. And we know this is a problem, because we have catch phrases, like: “Put Christ back in Christmas” or “HE is the reason for the season.” I am not saying these statements are false, because they are very true. But a catch phrase can become just a banner we wave over our heads, like wearing our favorite football team’s colors. It becomes a phrase that is more about proclaiming our identity and daring others to say anything against it. Frankly, the Christmas catch phrases can become yet another thing that divides us. After the year we have had, as Christians, we have to do better than that!
If we want to put Christ back into Christmas, we need to live our everyday lives like we mean it. If you want to truly represent Christ in this world, then your actions and attitudes must line up with Micah 6:8 (MEV):
He has told you, O man, what is good—
and what does the Lord require of you,
but to do justice and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
My heart hurt this year as I watched Christians take sides behind divisive catch phrases that sprang from social injustices caught on video. There are clear social justice problems in this country, but picking a side on a social justice issue is not a Christian stand. What does the Lord require of you? To do justice. Period. In fact, this is so important that our forefathers even wrote this into the pledge of allegiance: One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. As a Christian, I can’t wrap myself in the flag of the United States, call myself a patriot, and then commit acts of violence or yell at people who are not of the same opinion as me. As a Christian, I have a much higher standard by which I must conduct myself.
It is Christmas. Someone greater and more exalted and more majestic than my favorite 2020 catch phrase is here! The Lord requires something of you, Christian. We can’t afford to allow the craziness of the world around you result in forgetting the Lord’s expectation of us.
To do justice – and to demand it for everyone, not just those who look like me.
To love kindness – and to give it to everyone I meet.
To walk humbly with your God – keeping Him and His Word always in first place.
Jesus, Himself, promoted this manner of living. And living like this is how you personally put Christ back in Christmas.
