Advent – Day 14: Not That Into You

Psalm 69.8 8 I have become estranged from my brothers

And an alien to my mother’s sons.

Isaiah 53.3 3 He was despised and forsaken of men,

A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

And like one from whom men hide their face

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. (NASB)

When man fell, what fell with him was his God-wits; man became a witless wonder. And because he lost his God-wits, he lost his moral compass, his “edit button”, and his understanding of who he was and what he was. A man without God-wits stands for nothing, and falls for anything. The disobedience in the garden wasn’t just the eating of what was forbidden – it was out and out rebellion. All creation was thereby affronted and accursed: man rejected God.

And so when God put forth His plan to stop the bleeding and heal the wounded, man rejected Him. When God extended His hand to help man back up out of the dust and doo-doo, man slapped at it. Man’s accursed response was: I’m not that into You!

Messiah came without fanfare. Messiah came without crowds and chorus (at least the chorus that men would listen to…). Messiah didn’t come as a conquering Hero that men would fall over, fainting in feck. Messiah didn’t come kicking butts and taking names. Messiah’s heritage and parenting were lost amid the société du jour.

And He is still mostly rejected to this day. The focus is on the season, the decorations, the music, the presents, the Baby, but not really upon the Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Because now, as then, we’re not that into You. What we’re into is us… and how to beat the system. What we’re into is how to live forever apart from the Source of Life. What we’re into is lip-service to the Almighty.

Messiah was God’s plan to buy men back from the very system they both love and hate. (They love it when it helps them get ahead, and despise it when others do.) Messiah was God’s human embodiment of His words, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Messiah was God’s Shepherd to guide His people in the higher way of faith. But like an untaught, inexperienced child, man spat at God’s offer and said, “I’ll do it myself, thank you.”

To miss the Heart of God’s plan at Christmas is to miss God’s heart altogether: He loves us. We’re so fallen and so feckless that we can’t understand that, and so we go on from day to day on our own way. It must be God’s way or it is no way at all. And God’s way doesn’t mean not having a life: it means having a life and having it to the full!

This is my Christmas prayer: may our eyes be opened enough to see at least that…