Remembering
the Fulfillment
Pastor Mathew Magera – 12/17/17 – Sermon 259
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
In the first week of Advent
we talked about remembering our need, acknowledging our condition before God as
sinners and why we need Jesus. Last Sunday, we talked about remembering God's
promise to come to our rescue and save us from our sins. This Sunday, we are
talking about the fulfillment of that promise in Jesus himself and in no other.
Hebrews 1 says this,
"In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times
and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,
whom he appointed heir of all things."
This is a wonderful message,
a powerful beginning to a powerful book. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise
God made to rescue us from our sin. Jesus is the appointed heir of all things.
Nevertheless, while our eyes may read it on the page, our hearts do not always
capture both natures of Christ as human and as God. With all of the false
prophets in the world, it is a struggle, at times, conclude that Jesus is the
rightful fulfillment of God’s promise.
When it comes to Christmas,
there are typically two individuals that dominate the scene. I'm talking about Jesus
and Santa Claus. It's challenging to go through the Advent and Christmas
seasons without hearing or talking about Santa Claus. Santa often worries
Christians too. They wonder, what do we do with him? How does he fit into the
true meaning of Christmas? Does he fit at all? While we don't typically focus on Santa in the
church, it might surprise you that Santa actually plays a very important role in
our understanding of Christmas, particularly as Lutherans. As Lutherans, we
often talk about interpreting the Bible in terms of the Law and the Gospel. The
Law’s job is to create order out of chaos and to show us our imperfections.
Essentially, the Law points us to the Gospel, the fulfillment of God’s promise,
the person of Jesus Christ. So my main message today is that Jesus is the one
true fulfillment of God’s promise. Jesus is the Gospel. Yet, Santa is one that
leads us to that promise. Santa is the Law. With that said, I came up with a
quick list of ten differences between Jesus and Santa. Some of them will be
fairly obvious, others might make you think.
1). Santa brings presents. Jesus brings salvation.
2). Santa flies in on reindeer. Jesus is born in a
manger.
3). Santa comes down your chimney. Jesus comes into
your heart.
4). Santa won't come until you're fast asleep. Jesus
wants you to be awake when he comes
5). Santa brings coal if you've been naughty. Jesus
brings grace and mercy.
6). Santa is offered milk and cookies. Jesus offers
us his body and blood in bread and wine
7). Santa has a team of elves that make toys. Jesus
has a team of followers that make disciples.
8). Santa calls on the outcast when he is in need
(think of the story of Rudolph). Jesus calls on the outcast when they are in
need.
9). Santa’s home is at the top of the world. Jesus’
home is above the world.
10). Santa leaves saying, "Merry Christmas to
all, and to all a good night." Jesus leaves saying, "Behold I am with
you always, even to the end of the age."
All
of these differences illustrate how Santa represents the Law and how Jesus represents
the Gospel. You probably know the song, “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.” In
that song, we are told to shape up because Santa is coming. We’re told to be
good. We’re told that Santa is always watching, even when we’re sleeping. We’re
told that he’s putting kids’ names on the nice list or the naughty list. The
only thing the song doesn’t really cover are the consequences of being naughty.
Still, even without these lyrics, the consequences are fairly well known. If
you're on the naughty list, you won't get any presents. Instead of presents,
you'll get lumps of coal. It seems quite cut and dry, but there seems to be
exceptions to this rule. Just how bad do you have to be to be moved from the
nice list to the naughty list? Where's the line? Does one bad deed get you off
the list? Can you get back on?
As I child, I put this to
the test on a number of occasions. Yet, it seemed that no matter my level of
naughtiness, I still got presents at Christmas, or at the very worst, a few
days later if I wasn't behaving. I always got presents from Santa. So, one
year, I decided to take matters into my own hands.
I remember when I was young,
but getting close to that certain age, if you know what I mean. I was feeling a
bit cocky on Christmas morning. I'm fairly certain I had had an argument with
my parents the night before and I tended to over-do the arguments and make them
a bit more dramatic than necessary. It was now early on Christmas morning and I
was still feeling a bit bitter, so I went downstairs and noticed there were
still presents left for me under the tree. I proceeded to take everything out
of my stocking that had been placed in it and I exchanged it with a lump of
coal that I had gotten at a railroad museum earlier that year. When it came
time that everyone was up and we were ready to start opening presents, I took
my stocking, reached inside, pulled out the lump of coal and announced, "I
guess I wasn't a good boy this year." I was concerned that Santa wasn't
doing his job and I wanted to know what my parents would have thought if I
turned my stocking upside down at out came a lump of coal. I mean, what would
they have done? Would they have called the North Pole? Would they have written
Santa a letter?
Martin Luther describes the
Law this way, “The Law commands and requires us to do certain things. The law
is thus directly solely to our behavior and consists in making requirements.
For God speaks through the law, saying, ‘do this, avoid that, this is what I
expect of you.”[1] Thinking
about the model Santa, if he lived up to the hype that goes around our
communities, if being naughty took you off the nice list, then Santa makes a
fairly clear point about our human condition and makes Christmas important for
us by pointing us to Jesus. If you are good, then you will receive a reward. If
you are bad, then you will receive punishment or no reward. Santa, then,
becomes good to all those who obey the command to be nice and becomes the idol
on which focus is placed during this winter season because of his ability to
reward the good. Unfortunately, none of us are perfect but Santa doesn’t want
us to know this so he bends his own rules just to make people happy, to cover
up that imperfection. Rarely do we see evidence of that model Santa in our
world.
As a result, when we go
through this time of year, we often see Santa as the fulfillment of our desire
to be on the nice list when rules are bent. We get rewarded for being good
enough and, to us, Santa seems like the answer we are looking for. Yet,
Scripture teaches us that there is only one heir above everything and that is
Jesus. One name to whom we call on. One person who grants us that which can
save us and rescue us from our sin. Jesus doesn't have to bend the rules to
accomplish his mission of salvation because he fulfills every last one. Jesus
is the fulfillment of all that is required and he passes on that fulfillment to
us as a gift. Jesus is God making all things new as He promised to do. So, as
Luther talks about the Gospel, he says it “sets up no requirements but reverses
the approach of the law, does the very opposite, and says, ‘this is what God
has done for you; he has let his Son be made flesh for you, has let him be put
to death for your sake.”[2]
Christmas is a time many
look to Santa to fulfill our wants and needs. We look for affirmation that we
aren’t that bad of a person. We look for presents under the tree, stockings stuffed
with treats. For the most part, it appears that these wants and needs are met.
We may not be perfect, but we are good enough to be on the nice list. The
reason Santa bends rules is because if he didn't there would not be a lot of
presents given at Christmastime. Who wants to celebrate Christmas if the
feeling of the day is that you aren’t a good person? Nobody. So, Santa says we’re
good enough. This is the only place where Santa doesn’t quite represent the Law
because when Santa bends his rules, it is as if he is trying to be the Gospel
instead of the Law. He’s trying to be the fulfillment we need. Yet, no matter
how hard he may try, it can’t change the fact that we are imperfect and that we
can’t do anything about it.
Santa then becomes important
for Christmas because the ideal Santa points out that we are not perfect and
that we can't change that. Year after year of coal in our stockings won't
change the fact that we aren't perfect. It won’t make us better. As a result,
Santa becomes less of a savior and more of a witness to the Savior. The fact
that he needs to bend his own rules so we can get presents emphasizes this
point even more. In the end, Santa points us to the fulfillment of the promised
redemption from our imperfection in Jesus Christ. And aside from Jesus himself,
there is nothing more important than to have someone that points us to the very
Gospel itself, the very fulfillment.
Only when we have the Law do
we recognize our need. Only in our need do we get to hear the promise. Only
when we hear the promise can we find fulfillment in no one other than Jesus
himself. Others will come along and claim to be the one. Others will make
themselves appear to have the answers for you, to have the promise of happiness
and hope and joy but none of them are able to deliver in the same way that
Jesus can and does for you. The world reminds us that we are seekers of glory,
in that we look for anything to cover up our faults and imperfections so that
what we do to reach God can be shown as praiseworthy. But Jesus encourages us
to be seekers of the cross, where through imperfection and suffering Jesus
comes to us not because anything we have done but by everything that he has
done for us. That is what makes him the fulfillment of the promise. This is
what makes Santa important at Christmastime as a reminder of our imperfections.
Santa can’t save us. But, Jesus can and he does. Hebrews 1 says, "In the
past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in
various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he
appointed heir of all things." Therefore, when it comes to the value of
salvation, it just might mean allowing this jolly bearded man the opportunity
to put on his red coat and white gloves, extend his hand and point us to Jesus
as the fulfillment of the promise, the great giver of salvation and the
rightful heir of God whose perfection makes us perfect through the cross. And
this is yet another reminder to us of God’s word when he says, “Behold, I am
making all things new.” To God be the glory, now and always. Amen.