Communion Meditation

December 1, 1991

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Something rather startling to realize because we don’t usually think of it is how close

together in a way Christmas and Good Friday are..... the Incarnation and the Atonement,

the manger and the cross, the birth of Jesus and the death of Jesus, the BEGINNING of the Christian drama at Bethlehem, and its culmination on Calvary, outside Jerusalem.

We don’t typically reflect on that juxtaposition, but they’re not far apart, in more ways than one. They are not separated, isolated, unrelated events..... On the contrary, they’re really very close together.

Even geographically, they are close together.... some of you have been there. It surprised me to learn that Bethlehem and Jerusalem are only 5 miles from each other. They are physically closer together than Winter Park and Altamonte Springs. A person can stand in the Soldier’s Field just outside Bethlehem today and see clearly the tower atop the Mount of Olives, in the shadow of which Jesus was betrayed the night before His death.

The birthplace of Jesus and the death place of Jesus are in close proximity, and maybe there is important symbolism in that geographical phenomenon.

BOTH HIS COMING INTO THE WORLD AND HIS LEAVING IT SHOW THE MARKS OF DIVINE IDENTIFICATION WITH THE HUMAN SITUATION.

At Bethlehem we see God’s love poured out in humble condescension. That....manger, the lowly stall, the simple setting..... rustic, crude, unpolished, unpretentious.... none of the amenities we would have planned if we had been in charge of staging it. BUT GOD DIDN’T BOTHER WITH THE “NORMAL” AMENITIES WHEN HE EMPTIED HIMSELF TO TAKE THE FORM OF A SERVANT. That’s precisely what makes it both startling and majestic.

“If any among you would be great”, he said, “let him serve.....” SERVE! Can you imagine?

“I am among you as one of the least among you...” That’s Bethlehem.

At Jerusalem we see God’s love poured out again, this time literally poured out, dripping painfully on the ground, drop by agonizing drop, in sacrificial self-denial.... That’s what those nails mean, and the rough, coarse wood of the death instrument, and that sharp, cold sword blade in His side.

God was paying the price, putting Himself in the hands of sinful men, letting them run as far as they had the gall to run, laying His divinity on the line, to put an end once for all to that sin business.

Two separate events, to be sure--- Bethlehem.............Jerusalem, manger.................cross,

birth.................death, Incarnation.......Atonement, beginning.....completion.... two separate events, BUT EACH TIED INEXTRICABLY TO THE OTHER.

On the one hand, we would not even celebrate Christmas if there had not been a Cross. There’d be no reason to. There is no redemption in Incarnation alone. The true glory of the Incarnation is as prelude to the Atonement. The birth of Jesus is father to the death of Jesus. IT’S GOOD FRIDAY WHICH GIVES CHRISTMAS ITS SIGNIFICANCE.

It’s the Good Friday story that makes the Christmas story live, because the point of the scene in the manger is that it is the blood of that particular, helpless Baby which one day 33 years later would be spilled for the healing of the nations. Without Good Friday, Christmas would be just a revelation, an example, a kind of cosmic, beautiful, but essentially powerless “show and tell”.

ON THE OTHER HAND, it’s Christmas that gives Good Friday its content. It’s Christmas that makes Good Friday transcend mere history. It’s Christmas that makes that central cross on Calvary different from the other 2 that flanked it that dark afternoon. WITHOUT CHRISTMAS, THE CRUCIFIXION WOULD HAVE BEEN JUST ANOTHER TRAGIC MARTYRDOM, just another senseless killing, just another good man’s death.... How many times before and since that’s happened?

BUT IT WAS MORE THAN THAT, which is precisely the heart, the nucleus of our proclamation.

IT WAS GOD’S ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON WHO DIED THAT DAY..... the “sweet little Jesus boy”, grown to mature manhood, the Incarnate Son of the Father. That’s the only reason we can call it “good” Friday. It certainly wasn’t good in its gory details---IT WAS ONLY GOOD IN ITS CONSEQUENCES.... The EVENT wasn’t good---WHAT CAME OUT OF IT WAS GOOD.

And if we don’t understand it all, which we don’t, we know somehow He did what He did

intentionally.... out of love for you and me.

Make no mistake. It’s a very, very big thing we celebrate when we receive these deceptively simple elements.

How appropriate, then, to take Communion on the 1st Sunday of Advent, the 1st Sunday of the new church year. It reminds us as we get ready once more for Christmas of the unity, the indivisible unity of the Christian drama of redemption.

The person of Christ and the work of Christ are a seamless robe.... Who He was and what He did all cleave together Christmas and Good Friday are two parts of one great story.... There behind the manger already looms the shadow of a Cross.

The Child whom it is so easy to adore does not remain a child for long. He grows up Cross-bound, and issues His summons to us to go with Him.

IN that sobering realization, we take these elements, in gratitude, of course, deep gratitude, but also in commitment..... THE BETHLEHEM BABE...THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST... they are one and the same---God’s Son who came and comes and comes again to give Himself for us and for our salvation.