Matt Candler

Last week when my wife Dana and I were returning home from some errands, she made a remarkable statement, as illustrated in the picture above. It was a statement that was humorously terrifying. She said, “Jesus is going to push the camel through the eye of the needle, and we (Americans) are the camel.” The imagery was so graphic and so personal to me because it is. Truth be known, we do not see our covetousness-driven consumerism as all that dangerous. We do not not see how deep the mire seeps into the recesses of our hearts that Jesus wants reserved for Him alone. Truthfully, we do not see our state of soul-danger as serious as Jesus does. We do not see how the allure of silver bells at the holidays drowns us in many foolish and harmful lusts (1 Tim. 6:9-10). Equally so, we too often view Jesus’ own statement on riches as too extreme, that they are deceitful and choke His word from taking root and bearing fruit in our hearts (Matt 13:22; Mk 4:19).  Jesus is going to help us in these times and cause us to feed upon that which truly satisfies, Him alone (Ps. 34:8).

I suspect that the general populous in our nation will begin to awake to reality in the Spring of 2009 (March or April) as to the real economic crisis our nation finds itself, far worse in many ways, than the Great Depression. What is currently clear to the policitcal, economic, and business leaders worldwide, will finally begin to trickle down to the masses. This will result in an oversimplistic distrust and acusation towards ‘leadership,’ some of which is legitimate.  Additionally, there will be a very unsettledness verging on  chaotic fear of the future as the IV of of greed begins to be removed from our lives. May our eyes be opened to our real sickness that has been masked by the medication of our lusts that we would fall upon the Rock and find our treasure, portion, delight, and joy in Him alone (James 5:3; Col. 2:3; John 15:11).

If you have not heard Misty sing this ‘Arms Wide Open’, do so now. It is the gospel.

I love the Hymns of Revelation. I love the songs of the saints sung before the One who sits upon the throne and the Lamb. I love the majesty, the bigness, the Mount Everestness of the music before the throne. I love to read, sing, and imagine the epic day in our future when these songs will leave our lips among the numberless multitude just prior to the Second Coming of Christ. Why do we love these songs? Why do we love what we feel in the presence of His majesty, His laud, His exultation?

Jesus is our indescribable treasure, to be feared above and enjoyed beyond all things. Oh to be behold Him seated at the right hand of the Father upon His throne. Unfortunately we see His throne more like an imaginary-land, a distant ethereal realm, a far away Narnia of sorts. Oh how we need the reality of what is happening around the throne right now to bear down upon us in truth, that the weight of His glory and worth would infiltrate our lives. Jesus is worth the same holy-restless attentiveness of our eyes as that which captures and consumes the seraphim.  Jesus, adjust our focus from us to You, transplant our center of gravity to Your heavenly abode.

Deliver us from gazing upon You as the domesticated God-of-the-American-dream, or a life-coach committed to making much of man.  Enlighten our eyes to worship Jesus, the Bridegroom King, awesome in majesty, glorious in splendor, the Lamb slain, whom angels cry ‘Holy’ and elders plunge prostrate, that we would joy in our smallness before Your majesty.

John Piper gives us some brilliant insight into why humans joy in feeling small, or rather, love majestic heights towering round about them. “Nobody goes to the Grand Canyon to increase their self-esteem…” See video:

I want to now focus on my earlier stated premise in Pt. 1 that the degree of disparity that we experience between Christmas and the End Times exposes our detachment from the glory of Christmas as well as our hope of Christ’s Coming. The disparity between these two time frames exists for many reasons, but I want to highlight only a few. First, the disparity exists simply because we have forgotten or never realized the continuity between the 1st and 2nd coming of Jesus. Christmas is the celebration of His first coming whereas the End Times celebrates His second and final coming with His kingdom to the earth forever. The dilemma has been that the End Time events, apocalypse, etc. has come to be largely devoid of the Person of Jesus in our thinking. Both of His comings are part of a larger story, thread, or stream that has been flowing since the fall in the Garden of Eden. In the remaining portion of this post, I am going to highlight and summarize the focal point of both comings as mediation. Below is a graphic representation of the unified work of Jesus at both of His Comings.

This diagram briefly summarizes that the work of Jesus in both of His comings is a mediatorial work, namely due to the fact that He is the Theanthropos, God-Man, the Mediator between God and man. Most born again believers have at least an introductory understanding of this reality in Jesus’ first Coming culminating at the cross. Jesus, as both High Priest and sacrifice, mediated (reunited,  unified, conjoined)  through His Person and work the relationship torn asunder in the Garden resulting in regeneration through the indwelling Spirit, a new creation. This is the focus of Christmas, the rejoicing of the Mediator, Immanuel come in a manger.

This by no means was the end of Jesus’ mediatorial work. It was the beginning unto fullness. He not only came to redeem us through His blood (Eph. 1:7-8; Col. 1:21-23), but is returning to gather all things together in Himself in the fullness of the dispensation of the times (End Times), both which are in heaven and on the earth (Eph. 1:9-12; Col. 1:19-20). In the process of Jesus’ literal return  to the earth and following, He will gather OUT OF HIS KINGDOM all that offends (Matt. 13:41). If the sin He came to remove at His first coming remains in people at His second, they themselves will be removed in the harvest of the wicked (Rev. 14:18-20, 20:15). Through the End Time judgments released and remitted through the Church, the earth will be progressively cleansed of unrighteousness, creation’s groan gradually liberated when the sons of God are revealed at the resurrection (Rom 8: 18-25) culminating in God dwelling with man on the glory-filled earth, yes this very earth. Much more to say, but back to Christmas : ) .

All this to say, Christmas points to the cosmic fullness of His mediation. We greatly rejoice at Christmas for our relational mediation to our great God through Christ. Let not Christmas set us back in egocentric covetousness, idleness, nor the passing pleasures of this pilgrimage. Let us press on to perfection, blamelessness, and maturity in holy conduct and godliness, hastening His final mediation, a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:11-13). Take the scroll Jesus.

What do the End Times and Christmas have to do with one another? Sound like an oxymoron? Is our Christmas sentiment harmonious with Christian apocalypse? Is our imagery of Christmas congruent or incongruent with our imagery of the end times? Take a moment…pause…dial down and think. What pictures comes to your mind when you think about the end times? What sentiments, emotions, feelings, do you have when you think of the end of all things? How do those feelings, sentiments, and expectations of the end times compare to what you feel, think , and imagine about Christmas? My guess is that a significant yawning disparity exists.  I mean, c’mon, what does global destruction have to do with the glad tidings of Christmas? As we will see, much in every respect. My premise is that the degree of disparity that we experience between these two time frames (Christmas and the End Times) exposes our actual detachment from the unadulterated glory of Christmas and the hope of Christ’s Coming.  Have we been so influenced by the frey of western media, jingle bells, and Starbucks Christmas cups to have forgotten the continuity between Christmas and the end times is the coming of God in the flesh to the earth? More to come…