Day 24 (24 Dec): What are You Longing For?

 ²⁷ And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, ²⁸ he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,

²⁹ “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,    according to your word;³⁰ for my eyes have seen your salvation³¹     that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles,    and for glory to your people Israel.”

(Luke 2:27-32)

Ginger Gorman, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reporter, covered a story in 2010 of two men who became surrogate parents. She snapped several pictures of the adopted boy holding a baby chick up under his chin. He stood in-between his two fathers. All three of them were smiling. 

Gorman wrote: “At the time I thought this photo was so sweet; it featured on the front page of my gender project's web page on the ABC.”

Gorman later discovered that Peter Truong and his partner Mark Newton bought the child for around $8,000 from Russia in 2005. His birth papers were falsified to list Newton as his biological father, paving the way for him to be adopted and brought to Queensland, Australia. 

Police say the pair trafficked his adopted son to an international paedophile network. They allowed at least eight men in several different countries - including Australia, the US, Germany and France - to molest the boy when he was between two and six years old. 

Live long enough and we should long to see justice done, wrongs punished and victims righted. Why? We live in a world where we have become masters of covering up depravity with decency. The toll and trauma are incalculable. 

We forget that God did not make us human in His image only to dehumanise one another beyond recognition. We perpetrate such deforming behaviours incessantly in all our relationships because of our sinfulness expressed in our selfishness.   

One of the main characters chosen by God to witness the birth of Jesus was Simeon. He was part of the faithful remnant. He was “righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him”.

Simeon had one undying wish. He longed to see the fulfilment of God’s promise to send a Saviour to end the sins of his nation, Israel, and of the world. 

He never gave up on God and his promise. And when he carried the baby Jesus in his arms, he was rewarded with the assurance that he was holding none other than God’s Saviour, not just of Israel, but of the world! 

Simeon declares, “my eyes have seen your salvation ³¹ that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, ³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

What a turnaround! What peace we experience when God intervenes. What hope we truly have when God bursts into our hopeless lives. 

Which tells us that we get so used to living without peace, it no longer bothers us.

When a parent selfishly traumatises a child, when a teenager selfishly berates a parent, when a spouse selfishly gives their hearts to someone else, when a boss selfishly denies workers their rights, when friends selfishly harass us on FB – all our human hearts are harmed and dehumanised beyond repair. 

Earlier in Luke 2:8, we read: ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’ ¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ¹⁴ ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favour rests.’

The most repeated pronouncement about the birth of Jesus – from the angel sent to announce His birth, to the heavenly group and finally to the shepherds - is that Jesus is the fullest and final revelation of God’s glory. 

The coming of Jesus into the world is to accomplish the greatest mission. He comes to end our wrongful self-glory and to inaugurate God’s glory through His birth, death and resurrection. 

Sin is war with God. Sin is us snatching glory from God. We say in our hearts: “My life, my views, my way, my suffering, my happiness, my name is the be-all and end-all!” 

The most missing thing in your life? It is surely not another gadget, phone, computer,  possession, person, or position. It is God and His glory! The only ones who recognize God’s glory in this whole nativity scene are the angels. They belong to the world of spiritual reality. They recognise and give due glory to God. We humans, like all the characters in the Gospels, are physically sighted but spiritually blind.  

So in the Gospels, we will read of Jesus threatening the religious glory of Pharisees and priests. Jesus is going to threaten the political glory of Rome – from Herod to Pilate. Jesus is going to threaten the national glory of His own people. Jesus is going to threaten the self-glory of the disciples – from Peter to the sons of Zebedee who were vying for the seats of honor.  

That is what Jesus is saving us from. He is redeeming us from self-glory to God’s glory. The most glorious thing about being human is to glorify God. The most inglorious thing about being human is to glorify self! 

If God did not send us Jesus, we would be enslaved to Satan, addicted to sin, and defeated by death. We will proudly and dangerously reject God’s offer as we drown in self-glory forever. 

My friend was telling of his new music director in Australia. She was a Godly and capable woman. She ran three businesses. One year, she gave Christmas gifts to all her about 100-plus employees. She gave them Bibles as part of the Christmas gift package. All the employees opened their gifts but many did not open their Bibles. 

But for the few who did open their Bibles, they discovered that inside the Bible were their bonuses! The word quickly got around. Everyone then opened their Bibles. 

Lesson? So often we miss God’s good gifts as we never seem to figure what is really important in life. It will be a pity not to unwrap our Bibles and receive God’s greatest gift of Jesus. Let us, instead, humbly unwrap Jesus and be blessed with God’s greatest gift! Amen. 

Adam Road Presbyterian Church  

Rev Dr Christopher Chia