When I received my driver’s license, the world suddenly changed – not because of reckless driving! My world and the world of my parents suddenly opened up. I would be sent out to drive siblings to events, to run errands. I was a son on a mission!
In a much greater way, God sent his Son on a mission. In John’s Gospel, Jesus often refers to himself as being sent by the Father (Jn 3:17-18; 5:23; 10:36). The incarnation is the greatest display of God’s missionary heart. Charles Wesley would call this “God [being] contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man.”*
It is almost beyond our understanding that God could be confined to human flesh. The infinite became finite. The author became part of the play. God moved heaven and earth to rescue us from the powers of sin and death and to have our heart.
This is the missionary heart of God. He loved the world dearly in this way – he sent his only begotten Son so that the one who would believe in him would never experience the pain of sin and death that separates us from God but instead know life forever in his presence.
Christmas is about missions. God sending his Son. Good news was proclaimed by angel messengers. A weary world heard that there is rest for the soul.
And now, as the Father sent his Son, he sends you and me (Jn. 20:21). He sends us out to be his messengers, proclaiming good news to the ends of the world.
As you celebrate Christmas this year, however different it looks in 2020, God sent his Son for you. Rejoice in the missionary heart of God. And be his sent one this season to bless someone not only with good deeds but with good news!
-Pastor Andrew
*Charles Wesley, Let Earth & Heaven Combine.
