Defining Moments

Rubbing the Christmas Lamp…


Black Friday. It’s an ominous name given to the day that retailers hope will turn things around for the better; the day holiday shoppers are supposed to rescue stores from the sea of red ink into which they’ve been sinking for the last year. If you asked a retailer for his Christmas wish, it would no doubt be “record-breaking sales!” We all want a hearty bottom line for our economy this Christmas season, but aside from the hope for an economic comeback, what wishes do you have?

Ask people on the street what they would wish for if offered three wishes and I assure you that ranking high among them would be peace and prosperity. Things like happiness, good health and success get high marks in the wish category too, but peace and prosperity summarize the majority of the wishers wishes.

The irony reflected in those being in the top three wishes is that few really know what they’re asking for. They sound good, but what are people expecting when they wish for them? Afterall, if you asked ten people what it meant to be prosperous, you might get ten different answers. And peace? What’s that? The mere absence of conflict?

Here in the U.S. and around the world, the masses tend to treat their governments like a colossal genie; the only one truly capable of granting their wishes. If they just rub the lamp in the right way—install the right candidates; pass the right laws; push the right bills, then they have hope of their wishes becoming reality. But, most learn that government lacks the magic they need.
2,000 years ago, in the Roman Empire, the Jews had all-but given up on wishing for peace and prosperity. It became painfully obvious that their government certainly wasn’t going to provide those things for them. There was a form of peace, the Pax Romana or Roman Peace, stricktly—and sometimes brutally—enforced by the Emperor’s military machine.

Financial prosperity was mostly an illusive concept for a Jew who refused to play by the Roman rules, including hailing Ceasar as a god. Only the corrupt; those willing to sell out, were able to line their pockets with filthy lucre. As most could see, their government was not going to provide the peace or prosperity for which they wished.

So, the natural thing to do is to add to the first two wishes, a third wish. Peace and prosperity would not be possible without this third addition to the wishlist. They believed they needed a savior. They wished for a messiah.

Although wishing for such a liberator would be the natural thing to do under their circumstances, what they really needed was anything but natural. Only a supernatural Messiah would actually have the power to grant the peace and prosperity they truly need. A natural rescuer would serve no better purpose than the holiday shoppers who temporarily rescue the sinking merchant.
In the same way, people are looking for natural messiahs today. They have unfulfilled wishes and believe that the human mind; a human relationship; a human politician; a man-made solution of some kind is going to prove to be their redeemer. Wishful thinking.

What kind of peace do we receive from the supernatural Messiah? What does it mean to prosper in God’s economy? We’ll explore these questions and more through God’s Word in our 2009 Christmas sermon series: Three Christmas Wishes, beginning December 13 and concluding on Christmas Eve.

The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming…”
Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” —JOHN 4:25