The magnificent gift given from God given to man was his one and only son Jesus who modeled sacrificial love. Jesus left his beloved place in Heaven seated at the right hand of God to come to a war zone. He came as the gift to the world that the religious mocked, the Romans hated and the poor misunderstood. Even his disciples were slow to believe his worth. Consider this passage of scripture describing his sacrificial journey: “Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. ...Isaiah 53:1-12 So the essence of agape love is what Jesus himself said in John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” He came as the sacrificial lamb for our sins. He came to build relationships with a people who were content to do life without the “giver of life.” (Psalm 36:9)
Through many countless acts of loving kindness, Jesus modeled the finest example of being a servant. At the last Passover Jesus had supper with his twelve disciples and after supper, he washed the disciple’s feet. Now that was one dirty and foul-smelling job. In his commentary on John 13, Chuck Smith records this explanation: “And Jesus, knowing that this is it, this is the last time He'll be sharing a meal with the disciples, He took a towel and He girded himself with it. A man girded with a towel was a bond slave. This was the sign of a slave, a slave of the lowest order. And Jesus took this towel and girded Himself with it. The disciples did not understand what He was doing. Why would He gird Himself with this towel? That's what a slave did.” The IVP New Testament Commentaries gives more enlightenment: “Jesus tied a linen cloth around his waist with which to dry their feet, obviously not what one would expect a master to do. A Jewish text says this is something a Gentile slave could be required to do, but not a Jewish slave.” (Mekilta on Ex 21:2, citing Lev 25:39, 46) "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." Mark 10:45 Jesus exhibited the attitude of a servant rather than a chief: “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men: Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:5-8
The gift was nothing short of magnificent but strangely it was announced to a field of shepherds who were ranked as least of the least. Did God get the address wrong when he dispatched the glorious choir of angels? According to Randy Alcorn from Eternal Perspective Ministries “In Christ’s day, shepherds stood on the bottom rung of the Palestinian social ladder. They shared the same unenviable status as tax collectors and dung sweepers. Only Luke mentions them.” It is written in Luke 2:8-9 with this description: “And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.” In contrast, it should not seem peculiar that Jesus called himself the “good shepherd: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” John 10:11 Jesus could relate to the meek and the lowly of mankind. It is interesting that the description of a shepherd from The New Compact Bible Dictionary is in these terms: “one employed in the tending, feeding and guarding the sheep.” It sure fits the description of Jesus as our Good Shepherd!
Christ’s acts of love and goodwill could fill endless volumes of books. Consider this quote from John 21:25: “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose the whole world would not have room for the books that could be written.” One of my favorite quotes on God understanding man’s greatest need for sacrificial love is as follows:
“If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator.
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer.
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.”
Unfinished Business, Charles Sell, Multnomah, 1989,pp.121ff
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:17
Merry Christmas
