What would you like to get for Christmas?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful, this year in particular, to have a few moments alone with Jesus Himself, with Him speaking to you, reassuring, explaining, and teaching?
The night before Jesus died, His disciples experienced exactly that—an extended evening of earnest interaction with their Lord. From John’s record of what Jesus said (chs 14-16), it’s evident Jesus had several goals for their time together. He saw their distress and wanted to comfort them. He needed to teach them about the coming of the Holy Spirit. He wanted to remind them of the mysterious oneness between Himself and the Father and invite them to enter into this mystical, divine fellowship themselves. It was His final farewell to His precious little band of followers, and He used it to capture their imaginations with the gifts He was about to give them through His death, burial, and resurrection.
Gifts like what? LIFE: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (14:6). PEACE: “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (14:27). JOY: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (15:11). LOVE: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (15:13).
Life. Peace. Joy. Love. Could you get any better gifts than these this Christmas?
In our Advent series this year, we will linger over these precious sayings from our Lord. For each of these four Sundays between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we will imagine Him speaking one of these promises directly to us, over us, for us. We will let His words stabilize our shaken hearts and clarify our clouded minds. And we will receive by faith these much-needed Christmas gifts from Jesus.