God Most Nigh
“God Most Nigh” Matthew 1:23
by Clancy Nixon
December 24, 2009
Church of the Holy Spirit (Anglican)
Ashburn, Virginia
Thank you God for this day. Be Emmanuel now, I pray, for these ones. Amen.
Christmas Eve – that magic night when God Most High - became God Most Nigh. Tonight we celebrate the night when the omnipotent, all-powerful God –“immortal, invisible, God only wise” – became a powerless babe in the arms of a teenage girl. Tonight we consider the mystery of the omnipresent God - the God who you can’t hide from, because He is everywhere – contracted to a span – maybe six pounds of soft, pink finitude. The second person of the Trinity was omniscient – knowing everything – but he became ignorant, having to learn to how to ask for food. The One whom Father Abraham called God Most High – is now become God Most Nigh. That’s Mark Batterson’s phrase, and I use some of his ideas in this message. Nigh means near - God Most Near. The God who is there, is now the God who is near. He is Emmanuel - God with us, as Matthew 1:23 says, here and now. He, the only begotten son of God, came to us - that all of us might come to Him as sons and daughters of God.
Christmas is a time of gifts, and we think especially of the children, who long to open those shiny packages under the tree. Here’s a question for you: What do you think is the Christmas present that every child wants from this parents? Think about that for a minute….
When I was a child, I remember as a child counting the growth in number of gifts, seeing them in my mind’s eye as a series of time-elapsed photographs, billowing out from under the tree as a wave. After the delight of discovery too early Christmas morning, I remember by afternoon an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach: the gifts never seemed to satisfy. It’s not that I was ungrateful for what I received; it’s that what I really longed for was a closer walk with my mom and dad and sisters. I wanted us all to play with my toys! I wanted to while the hours away in joy with my loved ones. Our gifts to each other were meant to symbolize the closeness and love we shared. But they could not replace it. I think that the Christmas present that every child wants from his parents - is their loving presence.
Years later, I remember one time my mother came to see me play on the varsity squash team for my college. She drove 12 hours each way from Pittsburgh to Boston to be there for me. I lost my match that day, but she made me a winner by her presence. I knew that she wanted to be there with me.
Listen to this passage from Philippians 2: “[Jesus], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philip. 2:6-11)
Why did he do that? … God emptied himself in one moment, so that you and I might be filled up with love for eternity. Think about that: your Father in Heaven actually wants to be with you and me for eternity. Eternity is hard to get a grip on, much less an eternity with someone else. Most married Americans find it too difficult to stay married for one single lifetime. Eternity? I can get tired of being around my own self after a couple of hours! But our Heavenly Father never gets tired of you or me. He desires to be with us forever. All we need to do to be with him forever is to receive his gift by faith. To say, “Jesus, I believe in you; I believe that you want to be with me forever. It’s mutual. I want to be with you forever, too. Be my Lord, and save me from my sins.”
Matthew 1:21 says that Jesus came to save his people from their sins. The Incarnation isn’t the message itself; it is the vehicle for the message, the inauguration of Jesus’ mission. What is Jesus mission? Jesus mission is to save us from our sins. He took our sins, all the things you and I do wrong, and he put those sins on his own back, and carried them to the cross with him. Jesus bore our sin and the shame with his back when he received the lashes of the whip and the nails of the cross. He took our punishment, and paid our penalty. Then he opened the gates of heaven for us to come be with him forever. Now that Jesus has completed his mission on earth, the message of the incarnation -that God is present with us, and he wants to be with us forever – that is the reason for the mission.
As preacher Dick Foth put it, “He came to our place. He took our place. And he invites us back to his place.” This is the gospel in a nutshell. Another way to say that is, “Merry Christmas; Good Friday; and Happy Easter.” He came to our place. He took our place. And he invites us back to his place.
God Most High became God Most Nigh. Merry Christmas!
