Sunday in Octave of Christmas 28.12.08 Identifying with Christ
Today we mark the feast of the Holy Innocents. Recalling also St Stephen from just two days ago, we have a reminder of the blood that has been shed in relation to our salvation.
In the Christmas octave we celebrate the joyful news of Christ’s coming but we are reminded of the great quantity of blood which has been shed to get that good news through to the human race.
It is good that there are people who love God enough to die for Him, but tragic there are people on hand ready to kill them.
It just shows how far we have to go before salvation takes complete hold of the world.
Christ came to live with us and to die for us.
It was necessary that He die to show the extent of His love and also because there were those willing to kill Him.
Good that He came; good that He had enough love to overcome the evil.
Celebrating Christmas for us becomes:
on the one hand we thank Him for coming. A straightforward Alleluia for joy.
On the other hand, and much harder, we need to reach a point where we would be willing to die for Him.
How did you celebrate Christmas means not where did you have dinner, what did you do, but to what extent did you die to self this Christmas? To what extent did you take on the intent of the Christ child who came to die for us?
St Stephen identified fully with Christ, shown by his willingness to die, and in forgiving his killers.
The Holy Innocents were killed for their identification with Christ. They were mistaken for Him. Could anyone mistake you or me for Christ? If not we are not doing our job!
Tragic that so many do not know Him, that He came as Saviour and people do not even want to be saved. The people that lived in darkness are largely still in it!
It just shows how deep-rooted evil is, and how hard to dislodge. But Christ is stronger and will prevail. He needs serious disciples to help.
Part of the victory process is that He works on individuals like you and me and transforms us to be able to understand what He has done.
If we can be grateful for His coming, and then willing to find out what we can do to help, then He has established serious and useful disciples whom He can use in His service.
Gazing at Him in the crib and then at Him on the cross really becomes part of the same process. We are identifying with Him in His willingness to be with us and to die for us.
We find Him in His birth and death, and find Him not just like a picture on the wall that we can look at, but something that moves us to participate.
As to those who reject the message, Salvation becomes a process of shifting the would-be killers to would-be victims. Are we willing to die or willing to kill? There is a big difference between the two.
It is easier to kill the messenger than to heed the message, but it leads to a lot more trouble.
It is necessary for a complete evangelisation that we stress the sacrificial nature of Christ’s coming. He was not just a do-gooder as many seem to maintain. He did not come just to ‘help’ people, or to give nice teachings. He came to lay down His life, and this was to shift the mountain of evil which had become established.
Christmas is joyful but it is joy mixed in with sorrow and hard work. Sorrow for the evil that still remains; hard work to shift that evil. It can be done if we are prepared to die with Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment