Look What He's Done For You!

Mass at Midnight

Christmas Eve

One of the best things about the Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve is that there are no more commercials on the air urging us to buy something. The stores are all closed. It’s too late. If you haven’t bought it by now, too bad. All that’s left is the Christmas music on the radio. When you leave here tonight you will drive home through a world at peace. Most folks are at home in bed, there’s very little traffic and things are quiet. It’s a good time to reflect and be at peace.

For weeks we’ve been bombarded with conflicting messages. Retailers are telling us to buy, buy, buy. The secular world is trying to completely remove all religiosity from Christmas. It’s all Santa and no Jesus. Or it’s Kwanza or Festivus or the Winter Equinox or whatever. There’s the war against Christmas and the battle for Christmas. We have been struggling to keep Christ in Christmas. And we try to keep things in perspective, not letting the kids, and ourselves, get too greedy or selfish. We try to keep the focus on others and remember that it’s the season for giving, not receiving. It’s the season for greed and the season for benevolence. Give to the poor while we give to ourselves.

But tonight, it’s ok to be selfish. It’s okay to think it’s all about us. Because it is. We think Christmas is all about Jesus. But Christmas is all about us.

Do you think God became man for his own sake? Do you think he needed to come down here in the dirt with us? The Word did not become flesh for his own benefit. God didn’t need to become man. What good would it do him? What kind of a life did he give himself? Was he a prince? A rich man, powerful and majestic? No. God became the lowest kind of man. He wasn’t born in a palace. He was born in a filthy stable surrounded by dirty animals and dirty people. He grew up in a nothing backwater town in a nothing backwater province in a small, insignificant country that was basically enslaved to one of the cruelest regimes in all of history. He surrounded himself with lowlifes and losers, crooks and prostitutes. He never owned a home. He had few possessions. What good did it do him? What did we ever give him in return for his generosity? What could we ever give him to pay him back?

Jesus didn’t do it for himself. No, God became man only for us. Just like a poor father who takes on a second job cleaning toilets so that he can afford to buy his kids some decent Christmas presents, God emptied himself and took on the form of a slave so that we could be with him. He became one of us so that we could become like him. He didn’t have to, he wanted to.

One thing in all the stupid, materialistic Christmas commercials is true, however. And that’s how the emphasis is on getting that special someone that special gift and then waiting in anticipation for their reaction when they open it. Make sure you get just the right gift or they won’t like it, and then how would you feel. I think we who give have just as great an anticipation as those who receive. It’s not just the children who are anxious to open their gifts. We parents are anxious for them to open them, because we want to see the look on their faces when they do so. I think God is the same way with his children. It’s like he’s saying, “Look what I’m giving to you! Look what I’ve done for you! Do you like him?” And he’s hoping to see that look of joy on our faces when we see the gift.

And who were the angels singing for? They didn’t sit around the stable singing to the baby Jesus. They weren’t happy for him. They knew this wasn’t exactly a wonderful experience he was going through, wrapped up against the cold in the straw. They knew it was a great day for humanity. They saw the supreme value in the gift that was being given us. They knew the necessity of the gift. And they were just so excited they had to tell someone, anyone. So they went to the first people they could find, the shepherds, and they just had to blurt it out. “Look what he’s done for you. For you. Isn’t it awesome?” Sort of like when one of your kids comes home and breathlessly tells you, “Did you see that the neighbors got a new car?”

And they knew how it would end. Those same angels who were rejoicing in Bethlehem would be weeping at Calvary. They knew this child would be rejected, scorned, tortured and killed. But tonight it does not matter. Because the gift is still the gift. The gift is wonderful and meaningful and perfect whether you like it or not. Whether you wrap your arms around it and make it your favorite, the one you just can’t put down, or if it’s the one you drop to the side while you open the other presents. It doesn’t matter. And God is the ultimate re-gifter. He will take the same gift of himself, and keep on giving it to you over and over again, until you accept it and love it. He won’t even change the wrapping, he won’t spruce it up or change it so that it’s more attractive to you. He’ll just keep giving it to you. And hopefully someday you’ll receive it and love it as it is and keep it with you always. Because he wants to receive you and love you and keep you with him always. And then he wants you to re-gift it to someone else.

For a child is born to us, a son is given us;
upon his shoulder dominion rests.
They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero,
Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.
His dominion is vast
and forever peaceful,
from David’s throne, and over his kingdom,
which he confirms and sustains
by judgment and justice,
both now and forever.