Sunday After Nativity—Two Responses to Jesus

12.29.24

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—one God—Amen. Christ is born! 

One of my favorite authors is C. S. Lewis. He wrote The Chronicles of Narnia—made into movies that are fun and good to watch. He also was an apologist—He defended the faith, the traditional faith against atheism, as he himself was an atheist.

He was also a medievalist and very learned in history. He brought those gifts into his apology—into the way he defended the faith. And one of the things that C. S. Lewis says is that when you read the Gospels, you have two options about how to respond to Jesus. 

The first option is to say that Jesus was a lunatic. That He, with the things that he said, that He is speaking nonsense and He is crazy.    

He says things like—I AM—which is the name of God, which is given in Exodus to Moses. He says things like—I and My 

Father are one. He says things like—I will destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.

So he says things that, if He's not God, make Him sound absolutely crazy.  

The other option is that what He says is true. 

And that we ought to believe what He says.  

There is no third option 

I am teaching a history class right now at a classical school, and we are going through the 

Qur'an. The kids are really interested in learning about this and hearing what the Qur'an has to say. 

In the Qur'an, a third option is presented which says that Jesus was a great prophet. He was born of a virgin, he did many miracles, and so on. BUT if you read the Gospels this is simply not a choice we are given.

He's not just some great teacher or great man. He's either crazy…or He's God.   

Those are the two options that we have.  We, obviously, here as Christians, believe that Jesus is the Son of God. That He is who He said He was.    

In the Christmas story, we have these two options presented to us but they are inverted in a way. In the Christmas story they these two options have to do with how we respond to God. 

If we believe that Jesus is not God then we find that we ourselves are insane 

BUT if we believe and confess that Jesus is God we put ourselves in proper relationship to Him

The first option of of deciding that Jesus is not God is presented to us in the person of Herod. 

Herod is angry, he's filled with exceeding rage, right? He's so angry that he's been deceived by the wise men, and that there is one who, another one who is the king of Israel, that he kills 14,000 children. All of the children two years old and younger. 

Only a demented lunatic would do something like that. 

Herod was challenged in this way that he didn't like.   

Sometimes it's easy to read the scriptures and say—Wow, that's pretty bad, but I'm not like that.  

But really, when we read the scriptures, we have to see how we are a part of the story. 

Now, none of us have killed 14, 000 children. 

And none of us are going to do that. I know you all, you're not going to do that.  

But, we do suffer from the sin of anger.   

And anger, our Lord tells us in the Sermon on the Mount—If you are angry with your brother, you have committed murder in your heart…

Anger is this destructive thing that separates us from our brother. And if we're separated from our brother or sister, then we're separated from God. Anger cuts us off from other people and removes us from communion with God. In the ancient Church—and still in the church today—murder is one of the things that keeps us from approaching God in holy communion.

You must show that you are wanting to be back in the community through a long period of repentance. 

Even soldiers who go to war they are blessed in a certain way if they're fighting for their country, but still, when they come back, there is a time of being reintroduced into communion with the church.  

This is not something the Church does to pass judgment 

It's just expressing a reality of what has happened.  

Someone has been separated form the communion of God by taking the life of another person. 

And so we have to be very careful with anger. That it doesn’t grow in our hearts. 

Because the end of anger is separation from God. And so we have to be careful with anger.

This descent into the insanity of the passions connected to how we receive and respond to Jesus. If we do not accept Him we find that we descend to nothingness—to less than a human being, to a beast controlled by its passions. Herod is that example for us. Lord keep us and protect us from this descent into hell.

Another way that we can respond to God is like the Magi, who worshipped the stars. 

They looked at the stars for understand the world around them. 

And through doing that, they came to understand who the real King is.   

That this little child born in a manger was the Creator that the stars and all of creation were pointing to him as the King.

The true King.  

And so we can also, we can respond in this way, like the Magi did. 

And this, responding as the Magi did, puts us in our right mind, puts us in a right relationship with Christ.  

What did the Magi do that showed they had the proper response to Jesus? 

They brought gifts. 

They brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And these are things that we can also bring to God.  

We bring our possessions. We bring our increase, what God has given us. And we offer it to Him. We say—Lord, use us as you will. Help me to let my possessions not be something that ensnares me or takes hold of me. I offer them to you.  

Frankincense. What is incense? It is what we use in the Church showing our prayers ascending to God.  

We burn incense as a physical reminder of our prayers, that our prayers are ascending to God. 

And that we must be praying people. Because a person who prays is a person who is, in some way, humble.  

And God can make His home—He can dwell in someone who is humble.  

So a person who prays is someone who is humble because you're recognizing that you are not the King, or you are not God—That you need someone else to help you. You need God. Prayer is the start of doing that.

Now there are different degrees of prayer, but starting to pray is at least showing some humility in our hearts.   

The third thing the magi bring is myrrh.  

And what is myrrh? The hymns tell us, the Christmas carols tell us, that myrrh is for one who is buried.   

Ultimately, one who is completely sound in mind—in possession of their mind—gives their life to our Lord Jesus. 

We lay down our life for Him, just like He laid down His life for us.  

When we offer these three things, our possessions, our prayers, and then our life itself, we become united to Christ.

So let us respond to the Lord not as the lunatic Herod but as the Holy Magi, offering ourselves to the king of our lives confessing Him as the son of God, and so find peace and resurrection in Him. Amen.