On Wednesday evening, a small group gathered at our church to remember Annette. Born to immigrant parents living in one of our apartments, Annette was born with multiple birth defects and serious problems.
There was no way Maria could bring her daughter home. For seven months, she visited Annette twice every day in the hospital. The family lavished Annette with love, fully aware that it might never be compensated or even comprehended.
The prognosis wasn’t good. Despite the best efforts of doctors, nurses and public health workers, Annette’s short life ended barely a week ago.
We are reminded, too often, that life in this world is not exactly as the Creator intended. Those who are Christians ache for that promise of a time without crying or sickness or pain. We struggle to articulate our faith, hope and love in the context of a world that mocks all three.
It was into such a context of poverty, suffering and political unrest that Jesus was born. Delivered in a makeshift emergency shelter. His family was economically underprivileged, politically uninfluential and socially inconsequential. His earthly lineage was peppered with a wild variety of people from politicians to prostitutes.
The establishment of his day felt threatened by his strong character, outrageous message and miraculous transformation of lives. He engaged in religious debate and analysis of public policy. He counseled friends, played with children, and relaxed with outcasts. Politically incorrect, he regularly defied distinctions of race and class.
He healed multitudes without a medical degree and brought peace to many without psychiatric or diplomatic credentials. His life continues to inspire innumerable points of learning and countless songs of praise – despite the fact that he never wrote a book or composed a song.
So why do some people get so offended by the Christ of Christmas?
Many folks can tolerate some spiritual talk. Many like Jesus’ good moral example, and his teaching on the golden rule. They can even relate to the social radical. But when they hear Jesus claiming to be able to forgive sins, asserting that he is the only way to heaven, they start to squirm.
There’s a guy in our neighbourhood who hates our church and the God we worship. I know this because he’s told me so – many times. He mocks our faith. He condemns what he calls the arrogant assertion of Jesus as the only way of salvation.
I’ve reassured him that those who think that claim insane will not be forced to spend eternity with the man who uttered those claims.
We couldn’t be further apart in our perspective on Jesus. But, oddly enough, I think he gets it more than those who patronize Jesus with secularized spirituality and selective recollection of his moral teachings.
C.S. Lewis said it best. “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of thing Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.”
“You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
I guess the offensive thing to some is not the sweetness and vulnerability of the baby Jesus. It’s not the holiday gift-giving, bright lights, and feasts. What really upsets people is that the baby grew up. And he called for a response to his claims to truth, salvation and life beyond life.
We believe the Christ of Christmas is God become man, to lead us back to God. Our Creator went to great lengths to identify and communicate as clearly as possible with his creation.
This Christmas, Annette’s parents are grateful for the promise born in Bethlehem. More than for any material gifts. Even as they mourned the loss of their child, they expressed gratitude for One in whose arms Annette is safe and secure. The same one who said, “Behold I go and prepare a place for you…”
Rev. Harry Lehotsky
514 Maryland Street
Winnipeg, Mb R3G 1M5
(204) 775-4929
lehotsky@escape.ca