After all the presents are unwrapped, the ham is nothing but bone ready for soup and the needles are falling off the tree, have you ever asked your self: Why!" It may take you a bit longer to ask that question; perhaps the question comes next month when the MasterCard bill arrives or when the first toy breaks. Asking "Why Christmas?" may seem a bit odd, though, when we consider what is at stake. How could any Christian ask such a question, why would we ever question Christmas? The answer seems rather self evident, doesn’t it? But the question is one which must be asked, for to miss the "why" of Christmas is to make the greatest mistake imaginable. It is a mistake made by people each and every day of the year.

It is a question that is not asked by people within the Church and people outside the Church. I was reminded of our need to know the answer to the "why" of Christmas by two incidents related to me by Chris Flynn.

During her duties as a lactation consultant at Waukesha Memorial Hospital, she came into a room filled with family and friends to congratulate a new mom. Surrounding this new mother were a variety of cousins, sisters and aunts. Chris engaged the proud grandmother in a conversation about babies, especially twins, a topic with which she is familiar. The grandmother related an incident years ago when a friend of hers gave birth to twins (a boy and a girl) on Christmas day, so she named them Mary and Joseph. Then a quizzical inquiry came from one young lady in the room, "Why would she do that? Why those names?" This person had never made a connection between Mary, Joseph and Christmas.

Another incident occurred a few years ago with Chris’s sister, Sandy who went to Kohl’s Department Store to purchase a cross for her son Michael. The lady at the counter had a number from which to chose and put them out on the glass top. Some were plain and others had this little guy on them.

In Lutheran-Catholic Wisconsin, in an area dotted with churches, the names of Mary and Joseph, the image of Christ on the cross are foreign. Is it any wonder then that the "why" of Christmas too would be lost?

During the weeks leading up to Christmas here at Cornerstone we looked at the "how" of Christmas, that is, how is it that God came to us. The "how" is important. Christmas tells us how God came to us, how He saves us – it is by incarnation. But that is not enough; we need the "why." Why does God do this? As we wrap up this time considering God’s grace in Christ’s birth, we need to know why Jesus came.

Two questions about the claim of Christmas: the how and why, how did He do it; why did He come?

Colossians 1:19-22 answers this.

19. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,

20. and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

21. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.

22. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation--

Verse 19 gives us the how of Christmas - God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him. That is the Incarnation. That is what we examined during Advent when we saw the lineage from which Jesus came. But in verses 20 and following, Paul gives us the why of Christmas.

Without specifying a need, the meaning of Christmas is lost; the Christian faith is emptied of value. To know why Christ came, we have to first look at the need. But to grapple with the need means we must be brutally honest with ourselves. The very existence of Christmas should alarm us, disquiet us. Its presence reminds us of our problem. That problem is in verse 21 – Christmas came because we were alienated from God.

Paul uses this same term in Ephesians 2:12 in describing one’s status apart from Christ, "excluded from the citizenship of Israel" and in 4:18 "separated from the life of God." There is a sense of estrangement. There is no connection, no relationship. This was a word used of people who, due to some crime, would lose their citizenship, their status. If a person broke the law of the land, rather than being executed, sometimes a worse punishment would be exile. Their breaking the law placed them outside of the law, hence the term used in the old west: they were out-laws. Such status meant uncertainty, loneliness.

Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who helped to get prayer eradicated from public school in 1963, viewed Christianity as the greatest threat and enemy to a life of happiness. But in 1995, she vanished without a trace along with her son and $629,500. She has never been heard from since. No one is sure if she absconded with the cash or met some sort of foul play. On January 23, 1999, the IRS had seized what remained of her possessions to pay back taxes and to satisfy creditors. The world's most famous atheist's possessions were at auction. The total raised, after a lifetime of fame and infamy? A mere $25,000. Of greatest interest are her private diaries, which were a part of the auction. By 1977 her diaries bespeak of emptiness in her life. "I think atheism is done for this time," she wrote. "I have failed in marriage, motherhood, and as a politician." Most interesting were a half a dozen entries which she penned, even pleaded, "Somebody, somewhere, love me!"

What happens when a person is alienated, estranged?

Where there is alienation, there is often anger, frustration, hatred. In the recently released video tapes of Columbine killers Harris and Klebold, the common thread of alienation predominates. One who is alienated often strikes out against others. Animosity fills the void where the relationship does not exist. In much the same way, the need of Christmas is our malice, our anger toward God. To be alienated is to be adversarial. This conflict though is not waged first and foremost with guns and fists, but within our minds. Our thinking betrays our alienation, our anger, simply by trying to exclude God from our worldview.

The one who is alienated has little use for God; He is considered unimportant. Plans can be made, lives lived while never a thought is given to what God has to say. Or if we did think of Him, we regarded Him as merely a remote Being on the horizon of life, but we never expected anything from Him. Because we cut Him out of our thinking - -even though He was sustaining our very life - we ended up, as Paul describes, "enemies in our minds," hostile toward God. We did not want anything to do with Him. We thought He would interfere with our plans; that He was a cosmic killjoy out to make us live uneventful and unhappy lives. We were not open to Him in any degree whatsoever. We were enemies of God, and as a result we expressed that enmity in evil behavior.

Unfortunately, the NIV makes the next line a causal clause, making it sound as though our evil before is what makes us hostile in our minds. That sounds as though evil behavior is the cause of inner alienation and hostility toward God. But it is quite the other way around. It is inner alienation, estrangement from God and hostility toward Him, that causes evil behavior. At the core of evil actions is a life alienated from God; animosity within the mind flows through actions.

In learning the "why" of Christmas, we first saw the need, but now we have to look at what was done. I mentioned at the beginning that the "how" of Christmas is "incarnation." The work of Christmas must begin with incarnation, but that is not the complete picture. God taking on human flesh is for a reason, a work.

Speculation abounds as to the reason for God’s pleasure to have all His fullness dwell in Christ. Suggestions range from God trying to get our attention, to communicating His love. For some the work of Christmas is God waking us from our slumber so that we would take Him more seriously: Christ came to work on our problems, to make us better people, to let us know that we are special. But the reason for Christmas is explained in harsh words here in Colossians. Christ came to make peace..."through His blood shed on the Cross," He reconciled us "by Christ’s physical body through death."

The words used here are harsh. If we don’t wrestle with the need for Christmas, if we reject the idea that we are alienated from God because of our sin, if we ignore the fact that in our minds we are enemies with God, then the reason for Christmas would never be anything as harsh as death.

The work of Christmas begins with incarnation, God taking on human flesh, but it does not stop there. God’s work does not stop on Christmas morning; it is only the beginning. Not only is the birth not enough, His life is not enough. If all God did was to send His Son to live that perfect life, I would be condemned because in the shadow of His perfection, my deformity shines all the more clearly. Knowing I never reach the high ideal God set before me in Christ’s perfect keeping of the Law, I am laid low.

But while the life of Christ by itself only serves to convince me all the more that I am unworthy of God’s love, that I can never live up to His standard, the Incarnation is more than His birth and His life.

The work of Christmas must always include His death. To leave this out, to by-pass the horror of His death is to never know the why of Christmas.

The language Paul uses here takes us back to the Old Testament. The reason for Christmas is pictured before Christ’s birth as these words look back to the picture given to us in the sacrificial system. Those harsh words of blood, death as well as results are seen in the words: "holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation" all of these are reminiscent of the sacrifices. God comes to us in flesh and blood and it is in that state He is able to do what we could never do, satisfy God’s wrath for our sin. In getting to know the "why" of Christmas we have to understand the work of Christmas. That work deals with sacrifice.

The complexity of those sacrifices confuse us.

First, in order to sacrifice, it was necessary to come before God clean. That meant one’s clothes had to be free from stain and filth. Their bodies had to be physically whole, no disfigurement, no disease. What they ate had to follow exacting regulations. These laws focused their attention on the necessity of their being fit before they come before God. But in so doing they only saw their need more clearly.

Not only that, what was sacrificed had to be clean, perfect. The reason was the sacrifice had to serve as a substitute. The sins of the worshipper were to be transferred to the animal who was considered blameless. The sacrifice was not a means to convince God they were worthy, that they were willing to give up something in hope God would smile on them. Rather, the sacrifice was a blatant admission of their alienation.

So in order to deal with that need for being blameless, free from accusation, God provided sacrifices.

Perhaps that is best seen in the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16 when the High Priest would take two goats; one was killed, its blood drained and sprinkled on the Ark of the Covenant, pointing to God’s demand that sin be punished by death. Aaron took the other goat, laid his hands on it, confessed the sin of God’s people and sent the goat out. In that, the symbol of transference took place.

In Mark 5 we have a story of an exchange that makes this point more clear.

There is a woman who had a flow of blood. Her condition made her unclean. She could not worship God in the temple; she could not enjoy the community relationships like others. She was alienated. But one day she decided to do the unthinkable. As Jesus was passing by, she decided to touch the hem of His cloak. To us that seems superstitious, odd. We attribute her actions to blind faith, that magically His cloak will make her better. But according God’s Law her action would make the other person unclean as well.

She sneaks up, knowing she is not worthy, but what is more, she takes her own life in her hands.

Whenever the holy and the unholy touch, someone dies. When the High Priest laid his hands on the perfect sacrifice, his sins transfered to the sacrifice. In the Old Testament, as the people gather around Sinai, about to receive the Law, God warns them, if they touch the mountain, they will die. When the Ark is brought back to Jerusalem when David is king and the Ark topples off the cart, Uzzah reaches out to save it from falling. He touches the ark and Uzzah dies. When Isaiah is before the throne of God he sees God’s holiness and he knows he will be ripped to shreds.

But this woman, unclean as she is, touches Jesus and is healed. Why? She is a picture of what our passage is all about. She is unholy, but He is holy. She lived because in the infinite wisdom and grace of God, the wonder of the ages – someone dies, but in this case the holy one dies. She makes Him unclean! We vainly imagine that God just neutralizes our filth. No! He takes it on Himself. The holy one is the one who dies. He does not make me dead; I make Him dead. Her flow of blood stops because His flow of blood begins. He died so we can live.

Let’s put this on a more common level, this idea of exchange.

How do you cars look this time of year? As the roads are covered with salt, the filth on our cars cakes on after a while. When you want what is unclean to be made clean – go to a car wash. Remove the filth. What do they do? They take clean water, make you clean, but what is the car wash left with? Unclean water.

Tomorrow what will you do with the unwanted presents you have? Return them; take them back; make an exchange. It seems that exchanges are as much a part of Christmas as the gift giving. An exchange was part of the first Christmas; it is part of the "why" of Christmas. Jesus’s birth, His life, His death, is all a part of an exchange. The holy one takes on our unholiness so that we might be declared perfect before God.

What happens when this exchange takes place? Reconciliation, peace. This is the result of Christmas; this the benefit of the exchange God makes. An adjustment is made.

When you adjust your watch to Greenwich Mean Time you are coming into conformity with the standard. When you balance your checkbook you do so according to the standard given to you by the bank. You are reconciling that which is out of alignment with that which is correct. This is what God does for us – the "why" of Christmas is God reconciling us to His perfect demands. He is bringing us into alignment with His standards by means of Christ’s stepping into our world, taking on our flesh, dying in our place – so that we might become His own children.

When the exchange takes place, when the unholy touches the holy and the unholy lives and the holy dies, reconciliation occurs. In Romans 5:10, Paul reminds us that while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son. The exchange, though, goes two ways. His death means our life, but in the second part of that verse, His life is ours as well: "how much more, having been reconciled shall we be saved through is life."

If in faith you look to Christ for your life, if you, by faith, touch the holy you are now presentable. There is a wonderful poem that I heard recently which drives this home. It is by Lucy Shaw

When does all this take place?