Don't Make Me Come Down There

By Mike Glenn

"Don't make me come down there."

"Don't make me come back there."

"Don't make me stop this car."

Photo by James Orr on Unsplash

These are the threats of last resort made by every parent at one time or another. The kids are fighting over the remote control of the TV. Someone has taken the other's phone and won't give it back. The kids are fighting in the back seat of the car. The parent, after issuing warning after warning, will physically stomp into the room or lean over the front seat and swing wildly trying to catch one of the misbehaving children with a behavior altering smack. Most of the time, the threat of having an angry parent directly confront them is enough to make the offending child shape up.

But not always.

When this happens, we have a story the child tells for the rest of their lives, about the time dad pulled the car over to the side of the road or mom stormed down the stairs to break up the fighting brothers. Sometimes, things get so bad parents must step in. Words alone don't have the power to change behavior. Only presence can do that. The mother has to be there to make sure her words are backed up by power. The father's threat has to become action, or the words lose all their power.

This, of course, is the dark side of Christmas. While our churches will be filled with families singing familiar Christmas carols celebrating the birth of Baby Jesus, behind all the sentimental songs is the tough truth that our world had become so bad God had to come Himself. Since the beginning of time, God has been telling us what He wanted from us. There are countless verses in the Bible on love, righteousness, holiness and generosity. We are constantly encouraged to live godly lives by the promise of blessings. On the other hand, we are threatened to stop being disobedient and rebellious to the desires of God by judgement and divine punishment. This worked for a while, but it never seemed to stick. We always get sucked back into the swamps of our own desires, wrecking our lives beyond repair until God would have to step in and try to salvage what is left.

Think about the stories. God frees Israel from Egypt’s slavery only to have them become so rebellious they ended up slaves of Babylon.

The Israelites wanted a "real king" even though God promised to be their king, and they ended up with a Roman Caesar.

And us? We wanted to be free and now without any limits or encumbrance and now we're addicted to everything from food to social media -- mentally and spiritually enslaved to people we've never met on a tiny screen.

He kept telling us it would happen. That if we didn't get it together, we would make Him come down here. Although He probably knew that all along, He'd have to come sooner or later. Of course, we knew God would send someone. After all, He had sent the prophets before. What surprised Jerusalem wasn't that God sent someone, but that He came Himself. God in human flesh. The miracle of the incarnation. The shock of the God being here...in our world...in human form. He couldn't send another prophet. He couldn't send an angel. He had to come Himself.

Things were that bad.

Things are that bad.

So, we'll gather around the manger and celebrate that God has come. Our salvation has been born. Immanuel! God with us! Now, things are going to be fixed. No, things are going to be made new. That it will now match what Creator God said should be. He will restore what has been lost, what has been sold away and what has been traded for some porridge of instant gratification. God Himself would come and make us new from the inside out. We would learn to love what is lovable. We would enjoy what is righteous, desire what is merciful and celebrate what is true.

No, it's not that way now. That's why He had to come Himself. He told us He would come if the world was ever out of hope.

And we were.

So, He did.

The world was so bad God had to come Himself.

God in human flesh, the Baby Jesus, is born this Christmas morning.

The bad news is things are so bad, God had to come Himself in the person of Christ.

The good news is things won't stay like this for much longer. Not since Jesus has come.

After all, we all know if you want something done right, you do it yourself.

God wants this done right. So, He came Himself.

We can breathe now. We can reignite our hope. Jesus is here. God Himself has come to us.

Merry Christmas.