“The Christmas Gift”

Text: Luke 2:1-20

You might not know this, but there is an ancient legend that says that there were actually four wise men who went to visit Jesus when he was born. But while Mary and Joseph welcomed the first three, who came bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, they turned away the fourth one because he came bearing fruit cake.

In many Nativity scenes and in many Christmas pageants, the wise men are often the stars of the show. After all, when the parts get handed out for the Christmas play, you figure that if you can’t be Mary or Joseph, you certainly want to be one of the wise men, because it’s the wise men who get to wear those fancy robes, and sport shining crowns, and carry exotic presents. And you know that if you don’t get to be Mary or Joseph or one of the wise men, about the only other parts that are left are the shepherds – and who wants to be a shepherd?

But notice something about how the Gospel of Luke tells the Christmas story. There aren’t any wise men – you have to go over to the Gospel of Matthew to find them. And there’s no brilliant star in the sky – you have to go over to Matthew to find that, too. No, in the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus is born, the focus of the story is almost exclusively on the shepherds. The focus of the story is almost exclusively on how God announces Jesus’ birth to the shepherds and how it was they who were then the first to come and see the newborn child.

What’s so significant about that is that at that time, in terms of social standing, shepherds were about as low as you could get. In general, people in that day considered shepherds to be outcast, loser good-for-nothings. But according to the Gospel of Luke, it was for people such as them that Jesus came into the world to show that God’s love is for all people.

Once upon a time there was a little boy who was very poor. He and his brothers and sisters lived with their mother, who was a widow, and who was able to make just barely enough money to keep her family fed. All the boys’ clothes were covered with patches. And he had just one toy to play with – a little toy car. But even that was broken. The roof of the car was dented and two of the wheels were missing. But even so, that little boy loved that car very much, and he played with it all the time.

It was Christmastime. Since the family was poor, the children never expected any gifts under the tree. But even so, the little boy was still excited. He had always wanted to go to the late-night Christmas Eve service at his church. And this was the first year that his mother was letting him stay up that late. He had always heard how special that service was, with the candles and the carols and all the flowers.

And he had heard how on Christmas Eve his church set up a Nativity scene in the sanctuary, complete with Joseph and Mary, shepherds and angels, and of course, the baby Jesus. And it was a tradition in that church for the people to bring in gifts on Christmas Eve, and to leave them at the manger, gifts that would then in turn be given to some of the poor people in the community.

And so that little boy was determined that he too would bring a gift to the manger on Christmas Eve, even though he had never heard of anyone else being poorer than his family. For several weeks before Christmas, the boy got up two hours earlier than usual and worked for a local shopkeeper. And each day after school, he also worked, so that by the time Christmas Eve had arrived, he had saved up enough money to be able to buy something rather nice to take with him to church that night.

But as he sat at the kitchen table, counting out his hard-earned money, his mother came in. And with a look of surprise and relief, she said, “It’s a miracle. We’ll be able to have a Christmas dinner after all.” And at once, she gathered up the money from the table and headed off to the grocery store.

The little boy was heartbroken. But he knew that he couldn’t be angry with his mother. After all, she was just trying to do what was right for the rest of the family. But with just a few hours to go before the Christmas Eve service, the boy was at a loss as to what he was going to do. Because he was determined that he was not going to show up at the church empty-handed.

Finally, his eyes came upon his little broken toy car. And then it came to him. That would be the gift that he would take to the manger. So he put on his coat and boots and headed off to the church, with his toy car stuffed in his pocket.

When he arrived at the church, the pews were already starting to fill up, and the boy felt somewhat lost among all the adults. His mother had wanted to come, but she found that she just wasn’t able to, because of what she needed to do for his younger brothers and sisters. So the little boy made his way up to the manger scene, and stared in awe of the magnificent arrangement that he found there.

As he looked around, he saw that many people had already brought their presents to the manger. Some of them were beautifully wrapped with colorful bows. Some were unwrapped, probably so that others could see how expensive the gift was. Anyhow, when he thought no one was looking, the little boy laid down his toy car right inside the manger itself. He then went over to a pew and sat down.

The organ had already started to play the prelude music, and he knew that the service would begin very soon. But just then, one of the ushers passed by in front of the Nativity scene, stopped dead in his tracks and stared down. With an angry voice he said, “Who would leave a piece of trash like this in the crib of our Lord?” And so he picked up the toy car and flung it across the sanctuary floor in disgust.

The little boy started to cry. He wanted to run out and retrieve his little car. But he saw that he couldn’t. The service was starting, and the choir was coming down the center aisle.

But all of a sudden the choir came to a dead stop and a silence began to fall over the whole sanctuary. At first, the little boy couldn’t tell what was happening. He simply couldn’t see over all the adults in front of him. But as he wiped the tears from his eyes and looked down the aisle, he saw what everyone was staring at: the baby Jesus in the manger had come to life, and was crawling across the cold stone floor. He crawled over to that toy car, tucked it under his arm, and crawled back to the manger.[1]

With the birth of Jesus, God invites us all to come. To come not because of who we are or because of what we have. Instead, we are just invited to come. To come and know that we are loved by God.