Nothing to prove; nothing to lose
Merry Christmas to you all!
There is in Matthew’s Gospel account of the Christmas story, chapter 2, a reference to words spoken by a prophet on behalf of God. Actually, there are two. The first is from Micah and it speaks of the importance of Bethlehem despite it being a less than prominent town. Isn’t that just like God to work through the unexpected, the seeminly insignificant? He has done that down through history, with people like Moses, who didn’t feel capable of speaking, then Jacob, the “weaker” or “less manly” of the two brothers, Joseph and David and then a teenage girl named Mary. At the very center of the Christmas story is the angel showing up to shepherds, of all people, in the backfields of Bethlehem rather than in the political and religious center of Jerusalem or even Rome. We should find great hope in this truth. God’s uses ordinary people who don’t clamor for power or prestige to carry out his kingdom work.
But I digress. It is the second prophetic quotation that has captured my attention. It is found in verse fifteen of Matthew 2. Seven words: Out of Egypt I called my son. Why these words? What is the significance of these words spoken by God through one of the minor prophets? Do you know from which prophet they originate? I didn’t. I was first arrested by the mention of Egypt four times In Matthew 2. Of course, the mind of any good Jew—and Matthew was writing primarily to a Jewish audience—would immediately think of that salvific moment in the OT when God rescued his people from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. Hosea, where we find these seven words, was reminding the people in his day of their failure, why it was they would soon be confronted with captivity. They had failed to be who they were meant to be. Listen to what follows these words upon which Matthew draws in the eleventh chapter of Hosea: When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. Bu the more they were called, the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. Recall how Hosea was instructed to marry a prostitute to illustrate how God’s people were living in relationship to Him. So, what does this all have to do with Joseph and Mary taking the baby Jesus to Egypt?
In short, the early events of the babe we know as Jesus is a reenactment. Jesus will come out of Egypt and He will do what Israel was unable to do. The call on the people of Israel was to represent their God to each other and to the surrounding nations. Like Bethlehem, they too were small and insignifcant. But instead of fulfilling their mission, they became just like the nations around them. They became unholy. Their sin was their commitment to the Self at the expense of God. To be holy, to be set apart, is to be like God and unlike the world. To be unholy then is to be like the world and thereby, unlike God. Jesus would have to fulfill the role that Israel was unable to do and be.
If there is a truth that has helped me more than any other in the past few years, it is this: Jesus came to be and do what I could not be and do. When I fail, this is the truth to which I turn. “Lord, I have failed. I don’t like my critical spirit or my impatience or…. But I am grateful that you could do what I could not do." Jesus came to be the true “Israel.” He came to withstand the temptations in the wilderness that neither Israel nor we today could withstand. Jesus fulfilled the Law that we seem to repeatedly break. And because He did, the pressure is off.
I love the two truths that bookend the eighth chapter of Romans. On the front end, we are reminded that despite our ongoing struggle with the flesh (Romans 7), there is no condemnation. On the back end, no matter what happens in our lives, nothing can separate us from the love of God. Therefore, there is nothing to prove (no condemnation) and nothing to lose (no separation). Nothing to prove and nothing to lose. The pressure is off because Jesus did what we can’t seem to do.
But then this truth: Jesus’s life, death and resurrection now makes it possible for us to be a bit more like Jesus. We are freed from the bondage of sin. Jesus came out of Egypt to free us! He came out of Egypt to make it possible for us to be a bit more like Him, to be able to defy the Self and love sacrificially. That’s good news! That ‘s Gospel!
So, say it with me: Nothing to prove; nothing to lose. Because Jesus came to be and do what we couldn’t. Thank you, Lord. We worship you in deep gratitude and we find forgiveness and mercy in You. Let’s celebrate that truth during this holiday season.
As the angelic multitude came announcing peace, so I say over you: God’s peace to you this Christmas season!
Kent
p.s. The picture is from Tollymore Park in Northern Ireland, the playground of CS Lewis when he was a child.