Unpacking Christmas (Titus 2:11-14)

Over the Christmas season, people from all around the world will share in the joy of giving and receiving gifts. I’m sure that everyone is looking forward to gathering around the Christmas tree over the next few days to give the presents they have bought or made for family and friends, and to receive the gifts that others have for them.

Could you ever imagine receiving a gift and not unwrapping it to see what’s inside? Or, if we did unwrap it, would you ever leave the gift in the box or the packaging that it came in? I guess there might be times when we might see from the packaging that it is a gift we don’t want, or possibly something we will never use, so we might leave it in its box or packaging so we can return it for a refund or re-gift it to someone else. Most of the time, however, after we’ve unwrapped the gifts that have been given to us, we will open the box, take it out of the packaging, and see what’s inside to really make use of and enjoy the gift that has been given to us.

While it normally doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to leave Christmas presents unwrapped or still in their original packaging, we can sometimes do that with the greatest gift given to all people, the gift of God’s own Son Jesus. For some of us, the familiar story of the angels, shepherds, wise men and baby in the manger is about as far as we go with looking at what God’s gift of his Son to us is all about. To listen to the story and think that’s all there is to it is kind of like receiving a Christmas gift and only admiring the wrapping paper or the skill with which the giver has wrapped the gift. Some might look a little bit further by taking off the wrapping paper to find in Jesus the gift of God’s Son who was born to save us. However, there are still a lot of benefits and blessings in this gift that we can receive when we go further by opening up the gift of Jesus and unpacking all the good things God gives to us through the birth of his Son.

The Apostle Paul helps us to begin unpacking the good gifts God gives to us in the birth of Jesus when he writes to Titus, saying that in Jesus, ‘The grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people’ (Titus 2:11 NLT). He continues by writing, ‘He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds’ (v14 NLT). Paul is telling us that in Jesus, God gives us the gifts of grace: complete and total favour, approval and acceptance. Paul also says that in Jesus, God has given us salvation. More than just going to heaven when we die, the biblical idea of salvation incudes being rescued from everything that would harm us in our bodies, minds or spirits, healed of those things that have hurt or broken us, and restored to the new condition that God always intended for us. The birth of Jesus sets us free from sin and the damage that all sorts of wrongs can do to us and to our relationships. Jesus makes us clean and pure from everything we’ve done and everything that’s been done to us which can make us unclean, impure or dirty. Jesus’ birth gives us new identities as God’s children whom he loves and with whom he is pleased because Christ lives in us through faith. The gift of Jesus to us also gives us new purpose in life to set us free from shallow, empty or meaningless lives. Instead, God invites us to work with him in making the world and everything in it new again by pursuing peace, goodness, justice and mercy in our relationships and in the world.

Like any gift, these things aren’t expectations or demands on us. Jesus wasn’t born to burden us with rules, commands or laws that tell us what to do. Instead, as Paul writes to Titus, God’s grace has been made known to us in Jesus, so all these good things are gifts from God which he gives to us through Jesus. In the same way that we receive a Christmas gift by faith when we trust that the giver of the gift is giving it to us, we receive God’s good gifts to us in Jesus by faith when we trust that everything Jesus did, he did for us. Jesus was born and took on our human nature for us. He lived a sinless life, doing good and loving others perfectly for us. He loved us completely by sacrificing everything and giving his life for us on the cross. Jesus broke the chains of death and began God’s work of making all things new by rising from the grave for us. God gives us every good thing we need for a full and abundant life in this world and the next through Jesus. They become ours and we receive the benefits of what he did for us by trusting that he did it all for us.

Jesus is a gift that we don’t just unwrap and then put away. Once we unwrap God’s gift to us of Jesus and open the box of the good news to look at what’s inside, we can spend the rest of our lives unpacking all the good gifts God gives to us in him. From our birth to the end of our lives in this world, through all the twists and turns, changing circumstances and shifting situations, we can continue to unpack the gift of Jesus in our lives and find the gifts of God’s goodness and grace to us in him. Whether we face joys or sadness, easy times or difficulties, happiness or suffering, we can continually go back to the gift of Jesus and the grace God gives us in him to find new aspects of his gift, new expressions of his love, and new dimensions of his goodness to us to sustain us in our hearts, minds and bodies with hope, peace, joy and love. Like a gift that has no end or limits but is full of the infinite goodness of God, when we continue to unpack God’s gift of his Son to us, we can find everything we need so his love can fill us to overflowing, pouring out into the lives of the people around us.

Some people open their gifts on Christmas Eve. Others will open them early on Christmas morning, while others will receive the good things our loved ones have given us in the coming days. As we receive, unwrap and open the gifts the people in our lives have given us, I hope and pray that we will also receive God’s gift of his Son to us, we will unwrap his gift to encounter Jesus through faith in him, and then continue to unpack this gift into the future, so we can find all the good gifts God gives to us for our bodies, minds and spirits in Jesus.

More to think about or discuss:

• How do you know when a Christmas gift is for you? How is unwrapping a gift an act of faith?
• How is the birth of Jesus a gift from God to you? What are some of the good things Titus 2:11 says God gives to you through Jesus? What other gifts might God be giving you through Jesus?
• How might you be able to unpack more of God’s gifts to you through Jesus in the coming year? How can we help you unpack God’s gifts to you in Jesus as a church community?