Why did Jesus come?

[AI translation] This Word already tells us why Jesus did not come. He did not come because we usually like to celebrate the day of His birth. He didn't come so that we could have a day each year when we could wrap our weary souls in the romance of Christmas in a nice, intimate family gathering, - He didn't come so that we could have a sparkling Christmas tree, a few hours of rapture, - not even that, to gather here in church for a festive service, to hear a Christmas sermon, to sing some lovely old Christmas carols, - so not to shine some special gentle light on these few days at the end of December. There is nothing of that in the Word. So why did you come? What does he want? In this mechanised world, in this pulsating, feverishly paced life, in this present state of sophistication of machines and instruments, in this thousand changes of metropolitan life, can he give us anything more than a few hours of romantic atmosphere? Is it still needed in modern life, or has it fallen out of fashion and is tolerated by mankind only out of tender piety, as a beautiful toy of a bygone childhood? So what do you want? Why did Jesus come? In the Word we read, He Himself answers this very question: 'I came that they (men) might have life and be filled.'At first glance, this statement sounds a little philosophical, abstract, or priestly: Jesus came so that we might have life? But it is a very practical thing. There are many ways of living. How? Instead of a theoretical explanation, allow me to illustrate with excerpts from two letters I received recently from two young people of quite similar age and fate: one of them says, among other things, 'After much searching, I had to come to the conclusion that life for me has no meaning, not even a purpose. I am now at the point where I am alive because I was born, but no matter what happens to me. I expect nothing from life, nothing from people. I'll get what I can for myself. That, of course, is the ultimate selfishness. I am infinitely selfish, I have no love, not even for my family members. I've given up the desire to be loved, but I don't love anyone, only those I want to love. I don't believe in anything. I want to be happy, but I can't believe in that either." It is a human life, and not just one, but the life of many people: a tired, disillusioned, and infinitely sad life, even when young.
We are all familiar with the ancient legend of the man whose punishment in the underworld was to roll a very heavy stone up the mountain, and when he was almost there, the stone rolled down again, and the poor man had to start all over again. Sisyphus was the name of this wretch. There is nothing more tiresome and bitter than to do such work. And many people live as if they were condemned to it. They live without seeing any meaning in their lives. They work to eat and eat to keep working. But what all this is for, why they are in the world, what their purpose is in it, they don't know. In the end, this meaningless life becomes a burden, a wearisome burden, and they are crushed under it. Do we not often see our own lives as such Sisyphean futility? Can we really live? Do we know what to do with our lives, with life's opportunities, obstacles, burdens and joys?
Someone once asked me: 'Is the flame of life that burns within us any different from the flame of a log burning in a stove, doomed to burn out and burn to ashes after a longer or shorter period of flame? Is our life any different from the blown-up soap bubble, with its surface floating in gauzy colours, but nothing inside and, if it bursts, only a drop of water falling to the ground?" Well, yes: we want it to be different. We can't accept that life is only what it seems. We want more. We yearn with unquenchable longing for a higher life, a real life. Do you know why there are more of us here in church today than on ordinary Sundays, why people who don't normally come here? Because in our subconsciousness our souls may be thirsting for something more than we can offer, something more substantial to fill this aching emptiness here within us.
Well, if that is really why we have come here to church today, then there can be no more welcome news for us now than what Jesus says: "I have come that they may have life and be filled." Let us understand it well: Jesus did not come to establish a new religious rite or ceremony, he did not come to start a new ecclesiastical policy, he did not come to proclaim a new ideology, he did not come to impose a bunch of religious rules and laws on us, he did not come to give us a new rule of life, but to give us life itself. Jesus is precisely the mysterious Someone in whom the distant God, the indefinable, improbable concept of God, is personified, comes before us and penetrates the boundaries of human existence. Jesus is the visible entry of the invisible God from the world beyond space and time into earthly space and time. Jesus is therefore God himself, God in person, in the way God is approachable to man at all and in the way God has approached man. Jesus means for us that God is not the unknown someone enthroned on a distant height that we often think of him as, but a living person, a power in action, present here and now. For us, the person of Jesus is God's reaching into the world, God's saving action here on earth, the love and grace of the heavenly God spreading out on earth, the helping hand of the heavenly Father reaching down to earth to grasp what we can grasp, the earthly representation of the whole kingdom of heaven, the source of divine life force suspended on earth. In that this Jesus has lived among us a whole human life, sharing with us every form of our earthly destiny, from birth to suffering to death: in that very fact he has filled every conceivable turn, stage, condition of human destiny, from our birth to our death, with the presence of God, with the power of a life higher than human life.
Jesus is the link between our mortal human life and the immortal life of God. He came not only to bring human souls into heaven, but to bring heaven first into the souls of those struggling on earth. Through a faith relationship with Jesus, a higher life is grafted into the trunk of a lower life. The trunk remains, with its roots deeply embedded in the soil of natural life, but it will bud, blossom and bear fruit with new possibilities. Jesus Christ is the surplus of life by which we find in any given situation the specific task, the vocation, that gives meaning and purpose to our lives. Through him we can rise above the average human level in goodness, accomplishments, love, joy, radiant life. The expansion Jesus speaks of is the greater amount of strength that keeps our fragile lives from being shattered when everything around them is falling apart - it keeps us hopeful in the midst of hopelessness, balanced in the midst of dismay, morally whole in the midst of immorality.
It is by drawing on the resource found in Christ that one can live in such a way that one does not take away but adds to the pleasure, joy, faith, trust of others, and therefore the best: one does not take away but adds to his day; one does not multiply the number of weary, disappointed people by his conduct, but increases the strength of his fellow man and his people! Our miserable, beggarly life, when all we want is always to receive, can become a royal life, with something to give, always and everywhere! Immeasurable growth opportunities are brought into our lives when we are in touch with the immeasurable source of power, Jesus, who came to give us life and to expand us! And so far, every person who has come into real contact with Christ has testified that he is now beginning to live truly, that life is now beginning for him - and real life that remains life even after death! So eternal life itself! So how can that life, which is more powerful than death, not be used already here on earth to overcome sins, to comfort others, to serve in blessing, to lavish love?!
Let me also read a passage from another letter, which I received at the same time as the first, whose writer lives in very similar circumstances to the first. He says: "I cannot keep silent for joy, why I am happy: I am happy because of the power and grace of Christ. Everything in this world speaks of the greatness, grace and love of God. It is so good that Christ does not let me perish, but wants me to live. Now everything is in order, I don't have the feeling of not caring about anything. I don't have such a dullness in me now. Joy and happiness have returned to me. It is good to live! But only with Christ, with His power and His victory. For in everything He gives strength and He gives victory. For this grace we can only give thanks on our knees. I know now that I will have a truly spiritual Christmas! I can sing with all my heart and soul, "Though poor in lodging, yet ever thankful, so blessed is Christ". But I am also happy!" It is also a human life, rich though poor, refreshing under great burdens, rejoicing in painful resignation, a happy life. It is also a human life, just like the life of the man before, of similar fate and age, just as much flesh and blood - only he has some secret, some qualitative surplus over the man before, which he did not develop in himself, but which he received as a gift. It is this qualitative surplus, this gift that Jesus brought into our human life. This is God's eternal great Christmas gift to humanity: life through Jesus Christ!
I said before that our souls unconsciously long for this life. This is true. But in truth, we only want it when the flame of life within us is already dying out. Well, on this Christmas Day, God speaks of life precisely so that you don't wait until some sickness and dying relief, medicine clouds your understanding, numbs you - now receive that life in Christ while your body is whole and your spirit is clear and bright, not half dead. God wants to redeem not only your soul, but your life. Jesus did not come that we should burn our lives in a purposeless, meaningless way in the service of all kinds of vanities, and then on our deathbed offer the last smoke of the flame that bursts forth to Him, asking Him to take this sad remnant with Him to heaven. And many do this on their deathbed! I do not doubt that it is possible to be converted in the last moments before death, but 99% of people die as they lived. If you are not living in Christ today, there is a 99% chance that you will not die in Him either. If you don't hear today that Jesus came to give you life, you are not likely to find eternal life in the darkness of death that is coming upon you. If you feel today that you have ruined your life, start again, but this time truly with Christ, in Christ! You can! Free! When you hear the call of God to life, do not suppress it, do not turn it off like the alarm clock bell! Jesus came today for you to have life and to grow.
He cannot be sent away saying come another time, now is not the time. Heaven must be in you before you are in heaven. That life, that expanding life, is something that God puts before you here and now! God's forgiving grace has made available to all His rich, happy, pure, holy, holy through Christ life! Is that really why we are here now?
This is what Jesus truly came for, for us, you and me to have life and to grow! So let us open the door to him, invite him in, and ask him:
O my loving Jesus, my sweet redeeming Christ!
Come, make me a quiet bed, A house in my heart for thee.
O dear guest, stay with me, Be not afraid of my sin,
Come in to me, thy servant, Thy poor convert sheep.
Canto 316 verses 12-13
Amen
Date: 25 December 1954 Christmas.