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With you and all your families this blessed holiday, please be seated. I can’t relate, but I understand that the birth of a baby is pretty awesome, and that’s what we celebrate: the birth of baby Jesus. Babies are so cute; even a fake baby Jesus lying in a manger always seems so cute. People seem to love baby Jesus, especially Ricky Bobby in the movie *Talladega Nights*. If you haven’t seen the movie, that’s okay. I’ll explain. If you have seen it, shame on you. I jest, I jest a little.
The movie is a parody of the NASCAR racing scene, and the main character, Ricky Bobby, he’s at a meal and saying grace. And he prays thusly, “Dear tiny infant Jesus,” and the others at the table interrupt him and give him a hard time about praying to baby Jesus. But Ricky replies, “I like the baby Jesus. I like the Christmas Jesus best.” And he continues praying thusly, “‘Dear eight pounds, six ounce, newborn infant Jesus, in your golden fleece diapers, so cuddly, don’t even know a word yet.'” And then the others at the table tell him to stop and they went, “‘Jesus grew up.’ They said, ‘He became a man. He had a beard.'”
Well, along with Ricky Bobby, I think most people like baby Jesus. They like the Christmas Jesus. And I would venture to say that most people, Christians or not, realize that this holiday involves the celebration of the birth of baby Jesus. And they may even know the story of the events of how Jesus was born. But the bigger question, though, is why was Jesus born?
Now we just heard the Christmas story that Mary became pregnant and there’s the trip to Bethlehem. There were no comfortable accommodations for the birth, and then there’s baby Jesus in the manger. Then the angels appear to the shepherds and they go visit the newborn baby lying in the manger. And in there, in that Christmas story, is the reason why Jesus was born. It’s when the angel said to the shepherds, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” A Savior. That’s why Jesus was born. And you see, that’s why he’s named Jesus. Actually, in the Hebrew language, the language of the Jewish people, Yeshua, or in English we say Jesus, it means Savior. That’s why he was born: to save his people, to save them from their sins.
Another question then: how did he do this saving? Well, not just by being born. Jesus wasn’t born just to be a cuddly, 8 pounds, 6 ounce infant in golden fleece diapers. No, He did grow up. He did become an adult, a man. Maybe He even had a beard. People love the baby Jesus. They like the Christmas Jesus best. But it’s the adult Jesus that’s the Jesus that people can have trouble with. That’s the Jesus that’s maybe not liked as much as the baby Jesus because it’s the grown-up adult man Jesus who pointed out people’s sins. That’s the Jesus who challenged people about loving God and loving others above all else.
That’s the Jesus who chased crooked merchants out of the temple. That’s the Jesus who said, “Woe to you who cheat others, who are greedy and self-indulging, and woe to those who look good on the outside but inwardly they’re full of sin.” People have trouble with the Jesus who said, “Repent and stop doing sinful things.” The little eight pounds, six ounce baby Jesus, gentle meek and mild and lying in a manger, wasn’t born just to be a friend, or a good teacher, or a moral guide, or a life coach, or some sort of model for living. He wasn’t born to be a Republican, or a Democrat, or a socialist, or anything political. He came to be a Savior. He came to be your Savior.
And people can have trouble with that too. They say, “I don’t need a Savior. I don’t want a Savior.” But yeah, you need a Savior. You need saving because we all do things that are wrong. We all do things that hurt others or hurt ourselves and hurt God. Oftentimes we’re all on the naughty list. We all sin. We all do our part to make this a hurtful world because all have sinned. In the book of Romans in the Bible it says, “All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.” And that the wages of sin is death. Death isn’t just the result of sin; death is what you deserve, what you earn because of your sin. Yeah, your sins are that bad.
And maybe you’re hurting from the effects of sin—from violence, injustice, financial problems, worry, or stress, or an unsure future. Maybe you’re hurting from that, and you’re struggling maybe with guilt over something that you’ve done wrong—guilt over sin—and you want to be saved. Well, that’s why Jesus was born: to save you by being born, yes, and by growing to be a man and to die. That’s how Jesus is your Savior. He died for you.
Jesus died a horrible death. It’s a death that we deserve because of our sin. Because yes, our sin is that bad. It takes death to pay for sin. And people can have trouble with that. Again, the Christmas Jesus is what they like best. They like the baby Jesus. They like the Christmas Jesus, but not the Good Friday Jesus. The Jesus who was whipped, and beaten, and spit on, and nailed to a cross, suffering a very painful death. People have trouble with the suffering, dying, and getting buried Jesus. Jesus, the one who does all of that to save you.
That’s why Jesus was born. That’s why Jesus became a man. That’s why Jesus died. People have trouble with it because they don’t want to think that their sins are that bad. And then people can have problems with the resurrected Jesus. Jesus was born, He suffered, and He died, and He rose again. People have trouble with that because, well, dead people just don’t get up again. But a loving God can do that, and God loves us so much that He sent His son Jesus to be born but also to die for us, to be our Savior.
In a way, we can say that Jesus was born to die—born so that one day He would be nailed to a cross and die for us, die for you, to forgive your sins by giving His life. Jesus died for you and forgives you of all your sins—all of it! But He also gave His life to give you life. He did this by rising from the dead—that thing that dead people don’t do—but a loving God will do that because He wants you to have life, so He raises Jesus from the dead, giving us eternal life.
See, there’s always this connection between Jesus’s birth and His death, between the manger and the cross. The cuddly little 8 pounds, 6 ounce infant baby Christmas Jesus lying in the manger—the purpose He had was to save His people from their sins, because dying for you is the reason why He was born.
Now I have an illustration here. Hopefully, this will work, and I have to come down here to do it because it just doesn’t work up there, I don’t think. But something to illustrate. So this, what does this look like, anybody? A manger! It’s like the end of a manger; it’s kind of the universal symbol for the manger here. Well, with just a little bit of adjustment, we just bring it down like this, and there’s the cross.
You see, there’s always this connection between the manger and the cross, between Jesus’s birth and His death. The purpose of being born to be our Savior and dying to make that happen. So yeah, you can celebrate the cuddly, eight pounds, six ounce newborn infant Jesus who doesn’t even know a word yet, but celebrate also the adult Jesus—the man who died to fulfill that purpose of Him being born. Amen.
