2 Christmas January 4, 2009

THE COST OF LOVE

The Rev David Kidd

We all know and love the story of the three Wise

Men. Their honor and worship of the infant Jesus

gives us a warm feeling of satisfaction, a sense that

somehow “God is in his heaven, and all is right with

the world.”

The Wise Men knew it wasn’t so. Matthew tells us,

“And having been warned in a dream not to return to

Herod, they left for their own country by another

road.” (Mt 2:12) Joseph also knew it wasn’t so. Again

Matthew tells us, “Now after they had left, an angel of

the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get

up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt,

and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to

search for the child to destroy him.’ ” (Mt 2:13)

So Jesus begins his earthly life as a political

refugee, and Herod seeks to secure his throne and his

dynasty by murdering all the male children in the

vicinity of Bethlehem who are age two or under, based

on the date on which the Wise Men had first seen the

star that led them to Jesus.

The grace of God St Paul praises so enthusiastically

in our passage from Ephesians this morning is free, but

it certainly isn’t cheap. It cost those innocent,

unsuspecting families in Bethlehem the lives of their

children. It would cost Jesus three years of his life in

a wandering itinerant ministry which would lead him to

say to a potential follower, “Foxes have holes, and

birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to

lie down and rest.” (Mt 8:20) Ultimately it would cost

Jesus his life at the hands of Roman executioners after

being turned over by the leaders of his own people.

Jesus is unique. He is the only human being who

consciously chose to be conceived and born. The

eternal Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Word

through whom all things, visible and invisible, came

into being, chose himself to become one with us, his

creatures. St Paul speaks of the enormity of that

decision in an ancient hymn to Christ which he quotes

in Philippians, chapter 2:

“... look out for one another’s interests, not just for

your own. The attitude you should have is the one that

Christ Jesus had:

He always had the nature of God, yet he did not

regard equality with God as something to be exploited.

Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he

had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like

man and appeared in human likeness. He was humble

and walked the path of obedience all the way to death

- his death on the cross. For this reason God raised

him to the highest place above and gave him the name

that is greater than any other name. And so, in honor

of the name of Jesus all beings in heaven, on earth,

and in the world below will fall on their knees, and all

will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the

glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:4-11)

Why would Jesus do such a thing? Why would he

choose to leave his heavenly glory and become one of

us and one with us? Love is the reason, the only

reason! St Paul tells us this morning, “Because of his

love, God had already decided that through Jesus

Christ he would make us his children - this was his

pleasure and purpose.” (Eph 1:4-5)

As children of our loving God and Father, Jesus

commands us, “As I have loved you, so you must love

one another.” (Jn 13:24) It’s because of that kind of

love in the Ephesian church that Paul is rejoicing and

praising God. What would Paul’s letter to us look like

today?