Episode 1. The Bread of Life
Heading towards Christmas – most of us know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But did you know that that word – Bethlehem – means “the house of bread”? And this – the man who said “I am …
It is just fabulous to be with you this week and it’s not just any week of course, it’s Christmas week. I remember how exciting this week was when I was a kid.
My parents were European so even though I grew up here in Australia we always had a fresh live Christmas tree. And it would be about now that we’d be decorating that tree with the decorations that actually I still have and use to this day.
They’re in a suitcase under my stairs for most of the year. Many of those same decorations we used way back then, forty years ago when I was a kid, have been handed down to me and my wife Jacqui and I still use some of them today.
And mum would be baking this special bread that she always baked for Christmas and these little horse shoe shaped hazelnut shortbread things called vanilli-kipfel, a German thing. So there would be these amazing smells happening around the house that excited my senses as a young boy.
Each day was so excruciatingly long, these few days in the final countdown to Christmas. Because when Christmas finally arrives, finally, finally, finally, after such a long wait we came to open the presents under the tree and that, that’s what Christmas was all about for me. Opening presents. Wow, that was an amazing time. With presents under the tree, that’s what Christmas is all about.
I remember one year getting a fishing rod. That was really exciting. And another year a sheriff’s outfit, you know with the little felt hat and the badge and the pretend holster with pistols on either side. Each year my parents seemed to manage to choose some presents that, for me, really hit the spot.
They knew who I was and somehow, miraculously, they thought about it and just bought these presents that, well they were me. They were just what a little boy wanted. All though mum, if you’re listening, I’m still waiting for the slot car set. They never bought me a slot car set. I don’t know why, they just never got around to it.
Anyhow, we weren’t a particularly wealthy family. Dad had a good job but it wasn’t the value of the presents that counted. It was the fact that they were especially for me. Of course now, you grow up and you become an adult and the presents don’t matter so much anymore.
I’m not one for presents these days, I’d be quite happy to see others open theirs but I’m happy not to receive anything at all ’cause that’s just me. And I guess we’ve all been on the receiving end of a present that’s completely inappropriate. That cheap tie or the bottle of aftershave that ooh, or that box of monogrammed hankies.
Or if you’re a woman, what do we buy a woman when we just don’t know what to buy and we think, ‘oh it’s too hard’. Some cheap earrings or a scarf. You know the sort of thing. Or something completely useless for the kitchen that she’s never ever going to use.
And you look at it and you smile and you make fuss and you thank the person but inside you’re thinking, ‘What a complete waste of money and time that was. What a waste. I’m just going to throw this thing in the cupboard or in the drawer and never use it. And then, a few months later I’m going to have a clean out and it will end up in the rubbish or the trash depending on what part of the world you live in.’
And that’s it. My immediate reaction to those sorts of Christmas presents is, ‘Why didn’t you give this money that you spent on this useless present to the poor. Why didn’t you buy food or clothes for someone who really needed it instead?’
It’s not just the present is useless to us and that it’s a waste. You know what hurts most about that sort of present, it’s that the person hasn’t bothered to stop and think about it. They haven’t taken the trouble or the effort to think about who we are and what we’re into and what we’d like and what we don’t like.
They’ve just bought something because they felt they had to and so it’s like this present, this thing that was supposed to bless you. It’s more of an insult than a blessing. A slap in the face. A put down that says I don’t care enough about you or think enough of you to bother to put any effort or time into getting you something that you’d really like.
So, the old saying ‘It’s the thought that counts’ is absolutely true. Nothing to do with the value of the present. Everything to do with what the present says about the relationship between the giver and the receiver.
Christmas has always been about presents. The very first Christmas, of course, it wasn’t called Christmas. There was no great holiday. There was no great celebration. The shops weren’t lit up. There were no Christmas catalogues in the letter boxes around Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
In many ways it was a day like any other day. It was a night like any other night. Of course at the time there was a great disruption and dislocation because the Romans had decided to have a census. And this was before computers so people had to travel to their ancestral homes, that’s how they sorted the people out into families and tribes.
And they were staying in inns and in peoples houses and the place was packed to the rafters. But it was just an ordinary day in many respects. For all God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel, in many respects a day like any other day.
But out the back of one of the inns in Bethlehem a young woman, probably a teenager, Mary was having a baby out of wedlock. And this baby, Jesus the Son of God, was the very first Christmas present. Not a tie or a scarf or a bottle of cheap perfume or after shave or cufflinks or a cheap set of earrings. Or even a gold watch or a diamond necklace. No, the very first Christmas present was a person, the Son of God.
Now I struggle sometimes to imagine what goes on in Gods heart and in His mind, what He’s thinking and feeling. His thoughts aren’t our thoughts. His ways aren’t our ways. But imagine, imagine someone who has everything. Someone who can have anything he wants. Someone who can give anything he wants. Imagine how He must have planned that first Christmas present.
From the beginning of time, from before time even began He conceived this plan. This plan to give you and me a free will. A plan born out of such a great and mighty love that He would give us the free will to accept Him or reject Him. Knowing full well that we would all reject Him. Knowing that it was only by doing this that He’d be able to tell us how much He loves us by giving us His Son.
Imagine the great and mighty Father heart of God as He looked down at His Son being born. Imagine what was going through His heart and His mind as He saw Jesus slip into this world the way you and I slipped into this world.
Out back there in that smelly, dirty stable. The overwhelming joy at seeing God the Son become a human being just like you and me. The sweet sound of that first newborns cry in this world as He sucked His first chest full of air in and let it out as a cry.
And the deep pain at the knowledge of knowing what His Son would have to endure. The rejection. The ridicule. The beatings. The spitting. And those nails, those cruel nails on the cross.
God the Father, my hunch is it was a bitter sweet time for Him but it’s an idea that had been in the making for an eternity. This first Christmas present, His one and only Son.
You know what they say, it’s the thought that counts.
Comments
Ropeti Faleatua
Thanks Berni, this is very supportive and encouraging. May God’s light be continuously shine through you to the world at large, God bless you.