The People Who Missed Christmas
Selected Scriptures
Let's pray together as we begin our study of God's word.
Father, as we hear the rather plaintive echo of the song, "No Room," we certainly are reminded that in our world today it is little different than it was. then. For most people there is still no room. And we pray that You would take these moments before us, these truths from Your word and this servant and put it together in the lives of the people who are gathered here that we may indeed have room for Christ. In all His fullness and all His glory we pray in His blessed name. Amen
I want to share with you this morning some thoughts on the theme, "The People Who Missed Christmas." What got me started about this was I had been watching with anxiety and concern the situation in Iran. As you know the people of Iran have taken captive the Americans in our Embassy, holding them in situations that we really can't understand at this point we don't know all that is going on. And in recent days because Christmas is such a special part of American life culturally, the news media has been focusing on the fact that these people will miss Christmas.
In fact, I heard one particular mayor of a town say that he was so concerned that they would miss Christmas that the town was going to put on a very unique kind of protest and what he did was he had all the signal lights in the city turn to red and every car stopped for ?O seconds and everyone got out and prayed a silent prayer that these people might not miss Christmas.
As I began to think about the fact that these people would miss Christmas I began to think about the fact that they're not the only people who will miss Christmas. In fact, I'm quite afraid that almost everybody in the world is going to miss Christmas. Most people no matter where they are or what their circumstances are miss Christmas. It sounds initially like that would be a rather silly statement because it's pretty hard to miss since we,re all drowning in a sea of advertising, publicity, promotion, public relations about Christmas. I know about a month ago my children started a little game. Everywhere we drive they began to count the Christmas lights and every house or every building that had Christmas lights we began to count. And finally it got to the point where nobody could count that high anymore. And when Melinda stops counting everybody has to quit because the game is not fair any longer. So, no question about the fact that we know there is a Christmas celebration. I'm not just sure we know what it's really about. At least pragmatically it seems as though we are blind, deaf and dumb to the reality of Christmas. In spite of the media, in spite of the public relations, in spite of the advertising and in spite of all of those things that attract our attention it seems to me that most people will miss Christmas, not just the hostages in Iran. But you know, as I thought about it, it's kind of because of the fact that there is so much that's cluttered up Christmas. Now for us who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, Christmas is a time to focus on His birth. The great reality of the incarnation that God became a man. That tremendous incomprehensible miracle of divine energy that brought God into human history. We know that. But even in our own lives because of the complexity of what is happening around us Christmas can be lost to us in a very practical way. I think, for example, that Satan has cluttered almost every good Christian concept with so much needless paraphernalia that it gets lost. Let me give you a little bit of the history of Christmas to show you what I mean.
In the middle of the fourth century the bishop of Jerusalem wrote a letter to the bishop of Rome. And he said I would like for you to ascertain the date of the birth of Christ so that we could establish a date and have a celebration annually. The bishop of Rome sent word back to the bishop of Jerusalem that Christ was born on December 25.
And by the end of the fourth century this had become the accepted custom and since then every December 25 focuses on the birth of Christ.
Now Bible scholars know that there is absolutely no evidence at all that Christ was born on December 25. In fact, there is not only no evidence that He was but there is some evidence that He was not. Well why then did the bishop of Rome do this? Well, the conclusion is that he did it rather arbitrarily. And as we get back into history we find out why he did this. December was the major month of pagan celebration December was the month of festivals and feast things and orgies and all kinds of pageants put on by the pagans in honor of their gods as winter had reached its fullness and they were anticipating the thaw and the spring and the planting and the strength of the sun returning and the clouds rolling back. And so December became a time of high, boisterous, pagan revelry. Such activities, for example, are found in pagan histories in December as feasting, as adorning the homes with evergreens, as hanging trinkets on trees, as lighting candles, as involving mistletoe, as exchanging gifts and general merry making and feastings deteriorating into drunkenness and orgies in these traditional heathen celebrations. Now that is why the bishop chose December. And he focused on the 25th because that seemed to be the high point of these festivities. And his thought was this. The wild winter revelries of the pagans must be sanctified by Christianity therefore, we will impose our celebration of the birth of Christ on the pagan celebrations and sanctify them all. It was a nice thought.
But it was dead wrong. Because what happened was the heathen festivity went on and the church was unable to make them conform to the sanctification of the true Christian celebration. And so what you have now is a strange weird marriage of the pagan and the Christian that we call Christmas.
Let me give you some illustrations. To the Romans the month of December was important because it marked what is known as the Festival of the Saturnalia. Saturn was the god of agriculture and they were then holding this great feast and involved in orgy and prostitution and all kinds of drunkenness and everything in honor of Saturn that he might begin to bring the spring so that crops might be grown. One of the common customs among the Romans at Saturnalia was giving gifts to one another and as far as we can tell that is where the idea of present came from. And by the way, in the festival of Saturnalia the most common gifts were little idols that were made in the image of the multiplicity of Roman deities. They were made out of clay and they were made out of marble and they were made out of silver and they were the gifts that were given. They also were big on evergreens which they would hang all over their houses and that apparently is where the wreath, at least initially, came from. North of the Romans was the barbaric northlands.
The Northland people had a great celebration during December known as Yule. And in the Yule season and the Yule celebration they honored the gods Odin and Thor. If you're from Minnesota you understand that. Those are the people who originated in those lands. And it involved festivals, music, drinking and so forth. To the east and persia at the time of December they worshipped Mithra, the god of light. In England to the west the Druids who were involved in strange priestly worship engulfing demonic and occultic powers were gathering sacred mistletoe for their sacrifices which they made in the month of December. Sacrifices geared toward friendship and peace. And what the Druids would do is this. They would march out in the area of the oak groves where the mistletoe grew and they would be led by their priests in their long white robes and they would be going to their chants and their celebration. The priests would ascend into the trees with golden sickles and they would cut down the mistletoe. And when all of the mistletoe had been gathered and passed around the people then there would be the sacrifice of two white oxen and the mistletoe were then to be taken back into the homes and they were to be hung in the homes and anytime anybody came under the mistletoe he was to immediately embrace anyone else under there, it was an effort to reconcile people whether they liked it or not. And that's where the mistletoe came from. The drama of the crib which we know as the manger scene was popularized by St. Francis in the thirteenth century. Three hundred years later Luther picked up the idea of a Christmas tree and brought a tree into his house and put candles on it to symbolize the sparkling stars and the sky over the forest. The trees and trinkets hanging on them had been part of the festivals of the pagans for centuries.
Holland got into the act by giving us their favorite saint, St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was a white bearded bishop of Asia Minor who was such a popular fellow that when he died it was believed that he came back every December 8. And St. Nicholas would come back every December 8 and he would ride through the streets on a white horse and all the little Dutch kids would put their wooden shoes out on the porch and as he came along he would put goodies in the shoes of the good kids and where there were bad children he would leave a switch for obvious reasons. And the Dutch called St. Nicholas Sinterklaas and we got Santa Claus.
Caroling started in the fourteenth century along with jesters, musicians and mummers who went around with funny masks and even today they still have a mummers parade, I think it's in Philadelphia, isn't it? I was wondering where stockings came from. You know, hanging stockings up? It seemed a little strange. And I read a little bit about that and I found out that Sinterklaas, St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, whatever, was going through his act one year of putting things in the shoes and I guess he got pretty good at that so he started flipping things into the chimneys. And in one home, anyway, some folks had hung their stockings underneath the fireplace to dry them out over night and the stuff he was flipping in was landing in the stockings and that's where we got stockings. Not very theological, is it?
Christmas cards began in 1946, they were printed in London by a very enterprising man named Sir Henry Cole who was the owner of an art shop and saw it as a way to make a lot of money. And all the first Christmas cards printed for him were printings of drinking scenes.
What a mess, frankly, Christmas is. No wonder so many people miss Christmas. With all the paraphernalia and the trappings around it the simplicity of the birth of Christ is literally drowned in a sea of paganism. You say, well I guess it's true that people miss Christmas. And all you have to do is look around and you know it, don't you? Busy, doing all kinds of things but missing Christ. You want to know something? Ii you think it's something that it happened today, I want you to know that we're going to go right back to the Bible that when Christmas happened in Bethlehem most people missed it then too
Turn with me to Luke chapter 2 and verse 7, Luke chapter 2 and verse 7. Now I want you to think with me as we look at this truth. This is the story, of course, in Luke 2 of the birth of Christ and I just want you to look at verse 7 and we're only going to pick out some highlights to illustrate this matter of the people who missed Christmas. Verse 7, speaking of Mary it says; "And she brought forth her first born son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloth (really, they weren't clothes really, they were just long strips of cloth) and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn." Now the first person who missed Christmas was the innkeeper. The innkeeper missed Christmas. It was right in front of him but he missed it. He had to confront a pregnant woman and her husband but he had no room for them. And so he missed it. Look back at verse 7. He not only missed it by not letting them in to stay with him but he missed it by being so indifferent that he doesn't even appear to have called for any help for Mary when she gave birth because verse 7 is markedly concerned with a lonely birth, a lonely birth. We don't even know where Joseph was. If I know anything about fathers at the time of births, especially young fathers like Joseph who could have been as young as 15 or 16 years of age, he would have been little help at all, at this time. And so it writes, she brought forth her first born son.
Who Did? She did. Middle Eastern people are hospitable, Jewish people are kind and caring people. They were not barbaric people. They were o not the kind of people that we might have read about in the Aboriginal tribes that sent their women off into the jungle to have their babies on a great big banana leaf or something. These people are civilized, intelligent, educated people who understand about human life. These are not the kind of people who are going to leave a woman alone or are they?
Mary brought forth her own son. And then it says, she wrapped Him in swaddling cloth. Mary did. Where were the midwives? Where were the people who were supposed to care for things like that? Where was the innkeeper? Didn't he know anybody who could help? Didn't his wife concern herself with this? Or, wasn't there some source of assistance to Mary? Ah, but after all hadn't the prophets said He would be despised and rejected? And wouldn't it be true that this could be the case at His very birth? And it says, she laid Him in a manger. An animal feeding trough. Swaddling cloth, by the way, were long strips of cloth and when an infant was born, immediately the infant was wrapped, its limbs and its body in this swaddling cloth. And then, of course, in an outer blanket. That was the tradition. And certainly there would be a midwife to clean the baby and to do that. But, no, Mary did that. This was a lonely birth.
It wasn't as if somebody missed it, she must have been obviously with child. G. Campbell Morgan writes this, think of the pathos of it. She brought forth, she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, it is very beautiful but oh the pity of it. The tragedy of it. The loneliness of it that in that hour of all hours when womanhood should be surrounded by the tenderest care Mary was alone. The method of the writer is very distinct. She with her own hands wrapped the baby around with those swaddling cloth? and laid Him in a manger. There was no one to do it for her. And again, I say the pity of it and yet the glory of it to the heart of Mary.
Now I don't know anything about the innkeeper because the Bible doesn't say anything about it. He wasn't interested so he's not even included. But it's interesting to think about the scene a little bit.
Some people feel that the child was born in a stable. And we've seen pictures and cards of stables which are just kind of lean‑to's with a little roof and the animals are there. And others think he was born in a cave because there are many caves there and the church of the Nativity where Christ is to believed to have been born in Bethlehem is built over a cave. There are others who believe that Christ was born in an open courtyard, in the inn. There are others who say He was born out in a field. You want to know something? Nobody knows.
Some who look at the word inn here which is kataluma note that it is not the normal word for inn. And that's true. There's a different word for inn which means a hostelry, an inn with food and bedding and all of those things where there is a host. And that's not this word. But the word kataluma is used in Luke 22:11 to speak of the guest room in a house. And so some feel that what really happened was Joseph and Mary were coming along in Bethlehem anticipating that they were going to stay with some friends or relatives or acquaintances and that they would use their guest room. But the hospitality was not available to them for perhaps the reason that the guest room was already occupied. And so maybe it was some friends they were counting on whose guest room was occupied. Maybe it was an inn that had no room. Some commentators go even further and say the word kataluma was used primarily to speak of a lean‑to that was built on the out of doors into which people could simply go for shelter. It was just a wall and a top and you just took your animals in there for shelter in a coldness of the night and nobody cared for you and there was no water there and there was no nothing. But people would put them on their property to assist those who were traveling. We really don't know.
Whether it was an innkeeper, whether it was a friend, whether it was simply a man on whose property was one of these little lean‑to's, whether it was an open field, whether it was a courtyard, it is impossible to know. But whatever hospitality they may have sought or whatever hospitality they may have anticipated it was unavailable to them. The word kataluma translates five different Hebrew words in the Old Testament so it has a very elastic meaning and doesn't really help us at all. Whatever the situation, they were turned away. The innkeeper missed Christmas. And what amazes me is that he missed it even though it might have happened on his own property And I began to think about why he missed Christmas. Simple answer. Preoccupation.
It seems best to me. That seems to be it. Preoccupation. You say ‑ What do you mean? Well, he was so busy. I mean his inn was full or his guest room was full or all of his little lean‑to's were full. Why? Because it vas the census in Bethlehem and the city was literally bulging with everybody who ever had any ancestry there and they were coming; to the city and since it was the city of David those who were in the line of David were there. And that's why Joseph and Mary were there coming from the line of David, one through Solomon and one through Nathan. So, there they were. And the city was bursting with people. And he was busy caring for his guests in his house and whatever situation he was involved with and he wasn't hostile and he wasn't unloving and he wasn't unsympathetic and he wasn't really indifferent he was just busy. Just real busy. I guess there are a lot of people like that. The chambers of their souls are filled with needless things, filled with human interests. They're filled with the stuff that doesn't matter and they miss the Christ of God.
My wife and I were commenting on one of our few shopping excursions some weeks ago how much stuff there is to buy that nobody needs. Have you ever noticed that? Nobody needs it. You can't even use it. It doesn't do anything but sit there, somewhere or hang. But our society is literally filled with the unnecessary, the insignificant, and the meaningless. And we spend a fortune to amass it. So we can die and let our kids fight over it.
Meaningless, needless, useless, human interests squeezes out room for Christ. Our time is demanded by a thousand other things. Our possessions ‑ We're so busy figuring out what we want, how to get it at the cheapest price, buying it, taking care of it, polishing it, storing' it, keeping it up. And then, of course, the games we play. We've got to be playing' this and playing that and that takes a lot of time. And then all of our pleasures and all of our passions and all of our parties and all of our preoccupation and all of our presents and all of everything that doesn't amount to anything. And we miss Him. Crowded out by a tyrant world that dictates to us what we will think and what we will do and what we will buy. And we march around with rings in our noses, pulled to those places that are needless. And I guess I never see this more obvious than at Christmas. So much misappropriation of the meaning of this season.
I have to admit this. It was an ignorant preoccupation on the part of the innkeeper, he didn't know. He didn't know. Ignorant preoccupation. I look at the world and that's what I see, they just don't know. They don't know who Christ is. They don't know who He is, they don't know why He came. They're just ignorant. And ignorantly preoccupied with the mundane and the meaningless. Oh how ridiculous it is to live your entire life in mundane, meaningless activity, wake up sometime in eternity without God and look back over all of the waste.
The innkeeper missed it. He was too busy. Look at your own life. Did you spend more time shopping then you did adoring Christ? Did you spend more money on stuff then you invested in His kingdom? Then maybe you've been in the trap. too. Where the innkeeper was.
I want you to meet another man who missed Christmas. Matthew chapter 2. This man really missed it. And he's very different than the innkeeper. He wasn't ignorant he was very well informed. His name is Herod. And believe me, Herod missed Christmas. Matthew 2:i; "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king behold there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem saying, Where is He that is born" Now watch' this. "King of the Jews for we have seen His star in the east and are come to worship Him?" When Herod the king had heard these things he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him." Verse 7, "Then Herod when he had privately called the wise men and inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared and he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search diligently for the young child and when you have found Him bring me word again that I may come and worship Him also.
Now Herod pretended to want to worship Jesus Christ but he was tremendously fearful because one had been born who was called the King of the Jews. And it says there Herod, verse 3, the king. He was the king and when he knew there was born a king he was afraid. Well, it says he was troubled, it uses the word that means to be agitated, stirred up, shaken up. It is the idea of total panic. He panicked. He had no room for Jesus. Why? Fear, fear he was afraid of Him. He was afraid of another king.
Let me tell you why. Herod was an Idumite, he wasn't even a Jew. What was he doing ruling in the land? Well, he was of the Idumean family an Idumite, he was following along behind his father Antipater who had done some favors to Rome and Herod continued to do that and while Rome was occupying Palestine, Herod did everything he could to get into the favor of Rome. He played the game to the hilt. He sought political goals and political ends and the power play was going on all the time and Rome really trusted Herod and Rome really kind of liked Herod so finally the Senate appointed him, get this, king of Judea. And he was not even a Jew.
Now when he heard there was born one called the king of the Jews, it's no wonder he panicked. Because he was a political madman. Because he sought glory and grandeur and a kingly place he was immediately threatened even though this was a baby and he was an old man. The rumor of another king panicked Herod. And he was a vile man.
While a young governor in Galilee under his father he had swiftly and effectively destroyed all the guerrillas that were trying to fight against him. He was very efficient in collecting Roman taxes and had taxed the people. He had murdered all the Hasmoneans and by the way, they were the sons of the Maccabeans who had led the great revolution against Greek power and he wanted to make sure that they didn't do it again so he slaughtered them. He had ten wives. You can imagine. And twelve children. His most notable wife Mariamne had a brother Aristobulus who was the high priest, he was afraid of Aristobulus so he murdered him.
On a hot day he said he wanted to go swimming with him and he dove in and he had men dive in and drown him. And then he had a funeral and stood there and cried as if it were an accident. He had his wife then killed. He had her mother then murdered. He was afraid of his two son that they would take his throne so he murdered both of them. He hopelessly was suspicious of everybody so that his entire life is one of plotting and execution. And then the coup de grace on his evil life was that when he was about to die he went down to Jericho to pass his final hours and he commanded that all of those that were under him collect the distinguish citizens of Jerusalem, everyone of them that were important. And they were all collected and put in prison and he said the moment I die slaughter them all because this people will not weep when I die and I want them weeping even if it's over somebody else.
He was a wretched man. And when he heard that a child was born that was to be the king of the Jews, verse 16 of chapter 2 says the wise men didn't of course come back and tell him so he saw that he was mocked by the wise men and he was exceedingly angry and he sent forth and he slew all the children who were in Bethlehem and in all its borders from two years old and under and two years old means anything from the first month you enter that second year to the fullness of that second year. And so they were slaughtered, all of these children in order to try and wipe out the child. And as you know, God had already warned Joseph and Mary and they had taken Jesus and fled to Egypt.
Why did Herod miss Christmas? Fear, jealous fear. You say, ‑ Well, surely there aren't any Herods left. Surely there aren't any people who slaughter people. Oh, there are around the world, believe me, there are. And I think we're realizing more and more about it. Man is depraved. There are always Herods in any society. But I think there is a greater lesson for the massive humanity then just to see this as Herod only. Because there are many, many, many people who miss Christmas because of the same basic kind of fear that Herod had. Herod's fear was that somebody else would take his throne. That was his fear. And I would affirm to you that there are a lot of people like that. Herod wasn't about to let this little child interfere with his career, with his position, with his power, wit his ambition, with his plans and with his lifestyle.
He was not about to let somebody else be the king. And I guess I have seen as much of that as I have any other kind of reason for rejecting Christ. Oh, there are people who want Jesus as a resource when they get into trouble. There are people who want Jesus as sort of a nice spiritual friend. There are people who maybe even want Jesus as somebody to keep them out of hell but they're not interested in crowning Him Lord. And that's why the Bible says that when you confess Jesus as Lord you're saved, that's the basis of it. There are people who want to add Jesus to their own lifestyle and their own career, and their own position and their own power and prestige and whatever else they are hanging onto. They're fearfully jealous of losing their own self‑ determination, they're fearful of giving up their own plans. They're fearful of their own priorities, their own values, their own morals. They don't want to come to Christ because it will cramp their style. Because it will lay claim on their life that means they have to alter the way they live and think and talk and act. And they want to run the show. They want to be their own Herod of their own little kingdom. Their own thin, flat little kingdom.
The world is full of Herods who cry out ‑ we will not have this man to reign over us. Today that is true. People have their little kingdom. And they want to run their own life, their own career, their own fame their own sex life, their own dissolute life of drugs and drink. Their own life of ego fulfillment and the media just keeps telling them ‑ do it, grab your own life, do your own thing, master your own fate, chart your own destiny, be your own man, be your own woman. And we have a world of kings who are not about to bow the need of Jesus Christ and so they miss Christmas just like Herod did though they probably wouldn't slaughter babies. Theirs is the same reason, jealous fear.
What about you? Have you said no to Jesus Christ in your life because you are afraid of the claim He will lay on you? Because you want to be the Lord of your life? The master of your fate? The king of your little thin kingdom? That's tragic. His kingdom is so much more glorious.
There's a third group that missed Christmas. Look back at chapter 2 of Matthew verse 4, this is shocking. Herod heard from the wise men that this child was to be born and, boy, he wanted to find out where immediately to put the child to death. And so he gathered, verse 4, the chief priests and the scribes of the people together and demanded of them where the Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea for thus it is written by the prophet and thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah art not the least among the princes of Judah for out of these shall come a governor that shall rule My people Israel.
He said he called all the experts together. The brain trust. The theologians. The chief priests were the high priests, the captain of the temple police and the best of all the priests out of all the orders with the great administrative skills and the great teaching skills and the great leadership skills, they had become the chief pries They were the minds, the brains, they were the theological minds of the day, the Sanhedrin. And they knew all the scriptures and their friends the scribes who were the linguists and the interpreters and the ones who knew the culture and the history that surrounded the biblical data and the combination of all of these men got together and they said ‑ we know where the Messiah is to be born. And they quoted Micah, chapter 5 verse 2, that Old Testament prophet who said Bethlehem. They knew.
You know what shocks me? Just shocks me! They never went there! Did you ever think about that? They never went there. You say ‑ Is that surprising? It is to me. What was the one thing the Jews had been looking for? Since Moses had said there would come one known as that prophet, what is the one person they had looked for all the way through their history? A deliverer and here they were under Roman oppression, always they had looked for a deliverer. They had longed for such a one to come.
It had been the great hope of all their ages. It had been the one that they had looked for, the destiny of Israel was bound up in the coming deliverer, the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed, the greater son then David's son, the one who would come and establish the kingdom the great hope of their hearts, the hunger in their breasts illustrated in the ministry of John the Baptist as they flocked to hear of one who was preparing the way for the Messiah. And here were the brains of theology, here were the ones who knew it all and yet they never even bothered to walk two miles to three miles south to Bethlehem to find out for themselves if this was not the Messiah. Why? Why did the Sanhedrin miss Christmas? I'll tell you why. One word, indifference.
Indifference, they didn't care. The ultimate insult, the ultimate insult At least Herod feared the kingliness of this child. At least the inn‑keeper could claim that he was ignorant. But these men had all the facts, they just didn't care. Having the Messiah was no big deal to them. They didn't need a Messiah. Why? They were already self‑ righteous. They were already perfect. They had already kept the law. They were already all that God could ever ask of them in their own minds, they were sickening proud. You could call it proud indifference.
And by, the way, beloved, indifference is always pride. You're too busy with you to be concerned about him. Engrossed in their own pride, their self‑righteousness, their self‑sufficiency, they carried on their ritual and their legal banter back and forth in the confines of their own little comfortable self‑righteous system and there was no room for the Son of God in that. In fact, when He did show up they hated Him and despised Him and plotted His murder and screamed for His blood. They didn't want Him. They didn't need Him. And I'm reminded of the plaintive cry of Jeremiah in Lamentations 1, 2 as he watched all of Israel going down the path of destruction and he cried out ‑ Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? I mean, can you just be indifferent? The ultimate the ultimate crime against Christ, is to be indifferent. You just don't need Him, you're not interested.
Why were they indifferent? Well, because of pride or if you want to look at it from the other angle because they didn't think they had a need. What did they need with a Savior? What did they need with a Messiah? They were all right just the way they were. And Jesus points this out in the ninth chapter of Matthew with a very stinging sarcastic rebuke, in fact it may be the most sarcastic statement Jesus ever made.
In Matthew 9:10, "It came to pass as Jesus sat eating in the house behold many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples." When Jesus had a meal in the house He invited the people who needed to come. He invited the people who had problems and knew it. And so He invites the riff‑raff, the scum, the outcasts, the tax collectors, the collaborators with Rome, the traitors and the sinners, the vile, evil, street people and He sat down with them. And the Pharisees who were the holier-than-thous said unto His disciples Why eateth your Master with tax collectors and sinners? And then Jesus rebuked them in blistering sarcasm, He said ‑ "They that are well need not a physician but they that are sick." You who are so well, you don't need a physician. Sarcasm, they were the sickest of all but didn't know it. And then He said ‑ Go and learn what it means, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Mercy means you can't make it on your own, your sacrifices are insufficient, your sin is too great and God must be merciful, I offer you mercy, I don't tolerate your sacrifices. And then He says, "For I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."
Jesus is saying ‑ When you make a feast you invite the coldly orthodox. The piously self righteous when I make a feast I invite the ones who need to come and want to come. He says I didn't come to invite the people who are so self satisfied they're convinced of their own goodness and don't need anybody's help I came for the people who know they are broke and sinful and desperately aware of their need for a Savior.
You see, the problem of indifference is the problem of not realizing the state of sinfulness. I think there are many people today who miss Christmas because of that. They ignore Christ because they don't know they are sinful. They don't care about the Savior because they don't understand that they need to be saved. They don't understand that the wages of sin is death, that sin plummets people into an eternal hell. They don't understand that. So consequently they ignore the remedy because they don't even qualify the disease. The innkeeper missed Christmas, because of ignorant preoccupation. Herod missed Christmas because of jealous fear. The Sanhedrin missed Christmas because of indifferent pride.
Fourthly, Jerusalem missed Christmas. Isn't that amazing? Jerusalem right there missed Christmas. Shocking. Back to Luke chapter 2, let me show you something. In Luke chapter 2 verse 8, "There were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night when an angel of the Lord came to them," and you know the rest of the story. The angel told them what to do and the shepherds came and they saw the Christ child. And verse 20 says; "The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them."
Out of the whole of Jerusalem society do you know who God picked to tell this to? Shepherds. Now let me tell you something, folks, shepherds were not the aristocracy. Shepherds were not at the top of the list they were at the bottom of the list. Did you know that the shepherds were really a despised group because they couldn't maintain all of the ceremonial washings and couldn't carry out all of the ceremonial activities and all of the festivals and feasts and all of those things because of their occupation they were busy tending to the sheep all the time? And there is some historical evidence of quite an interesting nature that the sheep that were kept for use in the temple as sacrificial lambs were kept on the hillsides of Bethlehem. It may just well be that th