What will you bring to Christmas? Part II

Yes, we have worshipped Christ, the newborn babe in the cattle stall. But He didn't remain there...

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus grew in stature, and in favor with both God and man. God the Son became a fully grown man! That boggles the mind for most, if not all of us. I often wonder if He had to "take out the trash" or "do his own laundry..."--after all HE was a man, huh?

Some thirty-three years after this wonderful birth in Bethlehem, we see a different gift that requires our response.

Jesus has quite a reputation now. He has:

Turned water into the BEST vintage of wine at a wedding
Healed the sick
Raised the Dead
Told a Samaritan Woman everything she had ever done
Paid His taxes from the mouth of a fish
Feed thousands with five loaves and two fish
Walked on water

Just for headliners. But now, He offers us another gift. He rides into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey. He cries over this city. He overturns the moneychangers in the temple, and instructs His disciples to prepare a meal in an Upper Room. This meal would be the last one the Twelve would have together. Jesus explains exactly why this meal was necessary. He describes the "Cup of His blood"...and insists they all drink from it. This was a common cup--and it represented the communion that Christ wanted to have with them, and that Christ wanted them to have with one another. The Gospels of Luke and John both tell us as much.

After this event, we know that Christ went into Gethsemane's Garden, and prayed "If It be Thy will, let this CUP pass from Me....Not my will, but Yours." In other words Jesus "prayed through."

He prayed through to the place where He (fully God and fully man) could say, "Father, Your will, not Mine." He knew the suffering that He was about to endure. He knew that it would be bitter, but He also was ready to do whatever His Father saw fit to happen.

So, we must ask, now that we are seeing this gift of "His Cup"--what do we need to bring to our Garden of Gethsemane? What do we need to look deeply within ourselves and find--and then bring it to the "Garden"?

Maybe it's that disappointment of someone betraying you. Maybe it's the unreasonable family member whom you just don't know how to reach? Maybe it's a wayward child, or a person that is far too distant, and you were once close. Maybe, just maybe it's a financial situation, and you just can't seem to gain clarity on it?

Are you ready to pray through..."Father, Not my will, but Yours"?

We are partaking of this CUP of His surrender to the Father's will. Every time we partake of the Lord's Supper (Eucharist), we are saying, when we drink the fruit of the vine, "Lord, not my will, but Yours."

This too, is a gift of Christmas.