Will you miss Christmas this year? When you first hear that question, you might think it
to be ridiculous. How could one miss all the advertising, the lights, the trees, and the celebration
always held on the 25th of December? Unless you live in a cave you won’t miss Christmas in that
way, but there are other ways in which you could miss Christmas. Missing Christmas in terms of
the lights, trees, presents, and celebration would be sad, but there are far greater consequences of
missing Christmas in the ways I’ll be laying out.
By “missing Christmas” I don’t mean missing the day. Instead, I’m using “Christmas” to
represent the coming of his Christ and his work on our behalf. My hope is that you won’t miss
Christmas, at least in the ways God has in mind. Let’s now start with the first way to miss
Christmas, which would be familiarity and complacency. In Luke 4 we read:
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he
went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the
prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes
of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this
Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 And all spoke well of him and marveled at
the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph's
son?” 23 And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘“Physician,
heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as
well.’” 24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.
Have you ever walked into a room or house and smelled a particular odor? Did you
notice that a short time, you can’t smell the odor like you use to? We become familiar with it,
and it seems to us as normal. The same holds true with the Christmas story. How many times
have you heard the Christmas story? How many Christmas's have you been through? For many
of us, we’ve read the same passages and stories over and over, year after year. We know what
happens. But like the smell, we come so familiar with it that we lose our awe and worship. As a
result, we look for Christmas messages and sermons that are different, ones that tell us
something we don’t know or make the same old story a bit more interesting. The danger we face
in being so familiar with the story is complacency. In other words, the old Christmas story no
longer moves us to worship.
How sad it was that the residents of Jesus’ hometown missed Christmas because they didn't see
Jesus as anyone special. They had been around him so much he was just another ordinary person
to them. They became complacent, not responding to his message in any significant way. The danger is that we can do the same. We can know (intellectually) all the facts about Jesus, but
miss out on his work. How can familiarity lead to complacency, and even worse? One of the
worst places you can find yourself this Christmas is not to be familiar with the coming of Christ,
or even to be a bit complacent about it, but to end up hard hearted toward Christ and his work.
The process looks like 1 of 2 ways:
1. Familiarity with Christ and his coming
complacencymixed with unbelief leads to
hard-heartedness
Or:
2. Familiarity with Christ and his comingincreased desire to know Christgreater
worship
We see an example in Luke 1 of someone who was very familiar with God and his grace, but
let unbelief and hard-heartedness cause him to miss out on some of God’s blessings. Zechariah is
an example of this.
“And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my
wife is advanced in years.” (v18).
Zechariah’s question differs from Mary’s question, for he is asking for proof before he believes while she is asking in what way her pregnancy will happen (Mary is assuming it will happen). Even as Zechariah has been pleading and asking for years, his unbelief and hard-heartedness in the assurance of God working comes out. Maybe Zechariah did not want his hopes dashed after so many years of prayer. Or possibly the years of familiarity with the work of God had numbed him so that he did not remember God fulfills and remembers his promises. Either way, Zechariah misses out on the blessings of God’s work because of his familiarity, complacency, unbelief, and hard-heartedness.
Is the message of Christ’s coming still special to you, or has it become so familiar that it has
lost its meaning? A hard heart develops from hearing the same message and refusing to
respond. Challenge yourself this year to look at the Christmas story afresh. Look at it through
eyes that long to see the greatness and glory of God, and respond in faith that does not doubt, but
believes God’s promises.