Monday - A New Idea - The Night That Changed the Powerful
Last week we started a new series called, “The Night that Changed Everything.” We’re looking at the significance of Christmas, a night that changed much more than most of us imagine. We’ll see its impact on five segments of society:
The Night That Changed the Religious
The Night That Changed the Powerful
The Night That Changed the Poor
The Night That Changed You
The Night That Changed the Wise
This week we’re looking at how it changed the powerful.
This one can be hard for us to see. In Western culture, we’re used to thinking that those who celebrate Christmas are far from powerless. They have long been the majority in Western countries, and the Christian church has been a dominant player in society. Christmas is a visible sign of that power – it’s become a huge part of even secular culture, even if that version is stripped of its truth.
But what actually happened at Christmas was the birth of a baby boy – one of the most powerless things you can imagine. Human babies are so helpless and vulnerable, not powerful except in the emotional control they exert without knowing.
As we saw last week, the baby named Jesus was identified early on as a king – given gifts from Magi, and so on. But unlike Prince George, he wasn’t born in a private hospital with attendants and staff looking after it all. He was born powerless, in a stable, laid in a feedtrough.
And yet, he struck fear in the hearts of the powerful. We’ll look at that story this week.
Question: What scares powerful people?
Reminder: We have a great Christmas event coming December 14th, 2013: The Original Christmas Party. Hope you’re coming!
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Jesus always has the Pharisees, or religious lawyers, in mind as he teaches.
Pharisees were essentially seeking a checklist of laws they can work through.
Jesus says that wasn’t the point of the law. Look back to the beatitudes, the content that we started this series with. Jesus was always expanding the law to look at our motivations, not just outward actions we can check off our do/don't do list.
It's a good thing, because we know life isn’t like that. Life throws stituations at all of us that we never anticipated, and could never have listed in advance.
Jesus describes keeping God’s law with this line: So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
He goes on to recognize, this is no checklist, this is very difficult: narrow gate to pass through.
Baggage doesn’t fit. All your religious background, credentials, money, power, etc. all get left behind if you want to go through this gate.
Every human can go through this door if we are willing to let go of all the sin baggage that keeps us from God.
The narrow path – or the cramped path – does not allow us to take with us the things we can carry on the broad path. What are those things?
Our failure to live this way, to go through Jesus’ narrow door, is due to our self-centeredness.
We are instinctively self-centered, self-loving. Fall.
40% of millenials say that "being self-promoting, narcissistic, overconfident, and attention-seeking is helpful for succeeding in a competitive world."
Almost 80% say that their friends use social media for those reasons.
So Jesus uses that against us. Uses our self-love to love others. He redeems our self-love.
Self-love is powerful. Usually our guide – now Jesus says it’s for others, too.
Jesus calls us to an awareness of others as God’s beloved children, too.
We’re not the only ones.
Prevents need for endless rules for every situation. Put self in other’s shoes.
Question: Describe the most self-centered person you know. What do you have in common with them? What characteristics do you share? Why is this so hard to admit?
