Presents appear under the Christmas tree because someone loves you. If the presents under the tree appeared because you worked for them, they would not be presents. If we had to work for the presents under the tree, we may not get all we want because our work was not good enough, we were too tired to work, we did not have the skills or training for the work or the one we work for may not treat us fairly, but even if we did work for and received all we wanted, we might not have the time to enjoy what we received, and we would have missed out on other things while we were working to get them.
It varies from family to family who puts the presents under the Christmas tree. Your father may not have been the one to put presents under the Christmas tree because someone else put them there or because he was not around. We might have a father or father figure in our life that we consider a gift from God or one who caused harm or one who was not there by his choice or not there from other circumstances. The truth is we all have a father, otherwise we would not be here. The work a father does for his children shows his love for them, and there is far more to a father’s love than the part he plays in Christmas present placement.
Working for your father’s love is not love. When a child must earn the love of his or her father, what they receive is not love. Yet, relationships often work this way. With our family, friends, classmates and coworkers, we often measure the status of our relationships by how well we have or have not earned their love. We also act this way in our relationship with God. In the verse just before our New Testament reading from Galatians 4, Paul wrote, 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. The words “elemental spiritual forces” reference the general truth that when you do something good, you receive a reward. This is the elemental or basic and natural way the world works. The problem we face is thinking we can do good work to earn God’s love. This is a problem because God requires us to be perfect according to his law, but our sin prevents us from ever achieving perfection. God’s perfect or holy nature and our sinful, rebellious law-breaking nature are chief truths of Scripture, but as Christians we still struggle to turn away from our work and look to God’s work for us. We struggle to look way from what we do for assurance that we will have an inheritance in heaven. God cannot give us his eternal inheritance if we are not perfect. So, when we focus on what we do, it leaves us working for an empty inheritance.
Rather than a boss or employer, God calls himself our Father. Our relationship with God is based on love, not earnings. In Galatians, Paul used the illustration of a slave working for a master to show the relationship between God and humanity based on keeping his law. He further explained this is no longer our relationship with God because of Jesus. Jesus became our brother at Christmas. His birth into our world meant that he became one of us, and so he was put under the same law of God as we are. The same standard to be as perfect as God we are all required to be was also set for Jesus to keep as we read in our New Testament reading from Galatians 4, 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law. With the stage set, the test was set for Jesus to be perfect when all of us had fallen short as we continue to read, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. The redemption price to pay our way out of a system that left us with an empty inheritance was Jesus. Jesus did fulfill the basic principle of doing everything right to receive the reward from God. Then, in love, he traded himself for us so that we would become what he was, a son. And the ramifications of sonship for all of us is explained in the next verses, 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” Since Jesus saved us, God filled us with the Holy Spirit to have faith, hope, belief and trust in God as our Father. This is true for Jews and Gentiles, male and female. We are all children, not working for God’s favor, but recipients of his gracious love. Finally, this means we have an inheritance as we read, 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. God has made you a recipient of eternal life because he loves you and did the work to provide you an inheritance through Jesus’ redemption.
Our Father’s love turns us away from ourselves. Our struggle to keep our eyes on God intensifies when we fall into sin and look to correcting our behavior to get back into God’s favor. It also happens when suffering comes into our lives, and we figure we have done something to lose God’s favor. In both cases, we are left with an empty inheritance by trying to solve sin by what we do. Instead, when we sin or when suffering comes God’s work for us is the solution. Our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 63 guides us back to focusing on what God has done for us, 7 I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord, the deeds for which he is to be praised … 8 He said, “Surely they are my people, children who will be true to me” … 9 In all their distress he too was distressed … In his love and mercy he redeemed them. As our kind, loving and merciful Father, God is distressed when we are caught in sin and suffering, so he redeemed us making the payment and putting his love into action sending Jesus at the set time. We see God working out the details of his praiseworthy deeds in Jesus’ life in our Gospel reading from Matthew 2. Three times in these verses we hear the Lord worked things out as he said would happen. First, in Jesus being taken to Egypt to escape Herod’s murderous threat, 15 … And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Second, in the cries of those Herod murdered, 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Third, Jesus being taken from Egypt back to Nazareth, 23 … So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene. God worked these details out for Jesus to survive in this sinful world of suffering, to live in obedience to the law and to give his law-abiding life as a sacrifice on the cross for our sins. We have been freed from the elemental law-based reward system doomed to fail us because of sin through Jesus. Our future eternal life inheritance is ours because our Father loves us as his children and heirs.
Presents appear under the Christmas tree because someone loves you. If the presents under the tree appeared because you worked for them, they would not be presents. Rather than a boss or employer, God calls himself our Father who presented his Son as a gift to us at Christmas. When we wonder or worry if we have worked enough and lived a good enough life to earn God’s favor, God sends his Holy Spirit to turn us away from ourselves to Jesus because through him God worked to give you an inheritance. Amen.
Gunnar Ledermann, Pastor Divine Peace Church
Gunnar Ledermann
I’m passionate about Rockwall’s vibrant community and actively engage with local non-profits and community organizations, including the Rockwall Chamber of Commerce, the City of Rockwall, and the Downtown Rockwall Association. My background includes a bachelor’s degree in Classical Languages and a master’s degree in divinity. Currently serving as a pastor at Divine Peace Church in Rockwall, I also enjoy spending time with my wife, Marinda, and our five children.
