The child in the manger, surrounded by loving parents and adoring Shepherds and Wise Men and the odd farm animal too. It all helps to make Christmas such a warm time. Mince pies, brandy cream, and the baby Jesus.
But it's dangerous.
Because we can handle children (ok, maybe not all the time). What I mean is, we can manage the idea, the picture. We can draw on personal experience of taking up a babe in our arms - they're so small, so vulnerable, so delightful.
And, yes, when it comes to thinking about our Lord Jesus, there is something very helpful in remembering that he was, indeed, born as a weak, helpless, vulnerable baby boy.
If one of the friendly but clumsy cattle in the stable had accidentally threatened to squash him underfoot, the little baby Jesus wouldn't have stretched out his hand like some kind of budding Jedi knight and zapped it away.
It's good and right to picture our Lord as a baby. His full humanity - his ability to be our great high priest - depends upon it. But the danger is in letting that picture dominate our thinking. Because it’s not the whole story. And without the whole we have no real hope.
So, having raised the red flag, let's disarm the danger, by taking ourselves back into Exodus 3, to Moses and the burning bush.
However new you might be to the Bible you've probably heard of Moses. And there are some things that immediately come to mind about him:
- he was the baby in the basket
- he grew up in Pharaoh's household
- he killed and Egyptian and went into hiding
- he led Israel out of Egypt and through the Red Sea
- he received the 10 commandments
And he saw a bush that was on fire but not burned up. A very strange sight. But even stranger: the living God spoke to him from the flames.
That puzzling scene has the help we need so that we don't nullify the meaning and the experience of Christmas.
1. Moses meets Jesus
Who is this in the burning bush? It’s “the angel of the LORD”. Who’s that? Well, to cut a long story short: it’s the eternal Son of God - it’s Jesus before he became Jesus, before he took human flesh and was born in Bethlehem.
What does this tell us about him? What does it tell us about God?
It tells us that he is more holy than we could ever begin to imagine. Greater, far more majestic, far more pure. Untouched by the stains of sin we know all too well.
This is the living God. The creator of all. The eternal One. In his radiant holiness he’s not to be messed with. You need to take off your sandals, Moses.
Similar things happen in the NT:
We need to put away those cosy, air-brushed ideas of Jesus that keep him in the stable. He is burning, blazing light.
Moses is puzzled by the sight of the bush not being consumed by the flames so he goes to have a look (anything to break the monotony of watching the sheep). Curiosity gets the better of him but he is blown away when the Lord speaks to him from the flames: "Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God."
Who is this in the burning bush? It’s “the angel of the LORD”. Who’s that? Well, to cut a long story short: it’s the eternal Son of God - it’s Jesus before he became Jesus, before he took human flesh and was born in Bethlehem.
What does this tell us about him? What does it tell us about God?
It tells us that he is more holy than we could ever begin to imagine. Greater, far more majestic, far more pure. Untouched by the stains of sin we know all too well.
This is the living God. The creator of all. The eternal One. In his radiant holiness he’s not to be messed with. You need to take off your sandals, Moses.
Similar things happen in the NT:
- When Peter realises who Jesus is, he falls at Jesus’ knees and urges him to go away, “for I am a sinful man.”
- When the guards realise who this man in the garden is, they fall to the ground. Those possessed by demons do likewise.
- When John sees the risen, glorified Christ in a vision, he falls to the ground "as though dead".
We need to put away those cosy, air-brushed ideas of Jesus that keep him in the stable. He is burning, blazing light.
Moses is puzzled by the sight of the bush not being consumed by the flames so he goes to have a look (anything to break the monotony of watching the sheep). Curiosity gets the better of him but he is blown away when the Lord speaks to him from the flames: "Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God."
Moses meets the Son of God and he is aflame with fear at the sight. Christmas ought, in its own inimitable way, have something of that effect on us. We’re not dealing with a doll in the manger; this is full and proper deity, Almighty God.
2. The Holy One comes down to save
But what’s the point of this? Is God saying to Moses, ‘You can’t ever come close to me? You can’t know me, can’t ever be anything but terrified in my presence?’
No, it's not about that. Look at these words:
“I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
He has seen the misery of the people - the injustice and the pain, the terrible struggle with all the powers of chaos. He has heard their cries.
This is deeply moving. Jesus sees us and hears our cries. The places no-one else sees, the depths of our hearts, the canyons of our souls - he sees. And the cries that never break the silence but continually break our hearts - he hears.
But that’s not all. Listen to this - listen and be amazed and astonished and comforted beyond all your hopes:
He has seen the misery of the people - the injustice and the pain, the terrible struggle with all the powers of chaos. He has heard their cries.
This is deeply moving. Jesus sees us and hears our cries. The places no-one else sees, the depths of our hearts, the canyons of our souls - he sees. And the cries that never break the silence but continually break our hearts - he hears.
But that’s not all. Listen to this - listen and be amazed and astonished and comforted beyond all your hopes:
“I have come down to rescue them.”
Far from keeping them away from him, he wants them to be his people, to belong to him. The fact the bush isn’t burnt up is a sign and a picture of his people not being consumed by his holy presence.
He wants us - really and truly - to be able to live with him. Not consumed but comforted and consoled. And then sent into the world, bearing glad tidings.
Far from keeping them away from him, he wants them to be his people, to belong to him. The fact the bush isn’t burnt up is a sign and a picture of his people not being consumed by his holy presence.
He wants us - really and truly - to be able to live with him. Not consumed but comforted and consoled. And then sent into the world, bearing glad tidings.
This is the most amazing foreshadowing of Christmas - the language and the imagery: coming down, in order to save. Jesus comes into the world (comes down from heaven) to be the Saviour. That's why he's given the name Jesus, after all.
He didn’t come into the world to mock us in our unholiness but to make it possible for us to finally live in God’s presence, by taking away - carrying on his back - all that ever stood against us, everything that put our accounts in desperate debt.
Not to be burnt-up by his holy light but to live within it - to live in the light of his holy glory, to bathe our souls in it, to allow ourselves to be healed by it. Forgiven. Cleansed. Purged and purified.
That glorious prospect is only heightened by the reality of his holiness. He wants us to be his children. Astonishing.
Not to be burnt-up by his holy light but to live within it - to live in the light of his holy glory, to bathe our souls in it, to allow ourselves to be healed by it. Forgiven. Cleansed. Purged and purified.
That glorious prospect is only heightened by the reality of his holiness. He wants us to be his children. Astonishing.
He came down to rescue. Let’s finish by thinking about that.
3. The rescue
Israel's rescue would be through terrible plagues falling on Egypt, as punishment for the sin of standing against God's plans for the world (this was never just about Israel).
And Jesus? How does he save?
By taking the plague and the punishment upon himself. Christ was made a curse for us, when he hung on the tree. “Noel, Noel, the story of amazing love.” Yes indeed, Chris Tomlin.
Here is where it gets really real. We can't keep him as a baby in our mind's eye. Yes, people do that with their children - bring out the old photos, when they were tiny children, and smile with warm nostalgia.
But we must not do that with Jesus.
He came down to save - and saving meant the cross: the pain and the shame, the agony and the darkness. He allowed himself to be plunged into it to rescue us.
(Remember that powerful scene in the Christmas Day video, of the boy going into the mouth of the serpent?)
Into your world this Christmas - into your life, with all its complications - a voice is calling. It’s the voice of the Holy One. He’s calling you take off your shoes and to then come near, not to stay away. To bow in honour and worship of the child who became the man Christ Jesus.
Coming to him won’t destroy you, it will remake you.
And he’s calling you to come to him, afresh, as a Christian, from all the failures that grieve your heart and with all the burdens you carry. They will not - they cannot - consign you to endless rejection, because Jesus loves you freely and heals from all wandering and shame.
He commissions us to walk in the light, as he is in the light. Saved and renewed, in awe of the living God. With his light shining out from within us, into such a needy world as this.
Our eyes are blinded by that light and yet, strangely and wonderfully, we’re able to see better and more clearly than ever before. Because we’re seeing the burning and beautiful glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
The one who has now come down, to rescue us.
