“Because you’re worth it” the L’Oreal advertisements used to announce. The younger brother in Jesus’ parable believed that he was worth it (Luke 15:11-32). He went to his father to demand his share of the inheritance. In effect, he was telling dad that he was as good as dead to him. To impatient to wait until when his father grew old and died, he was desperate to get his hands on what he considered himself entitled to immediately.
It strikes me that we live in a world that focuses on rights and entitlement. There’s a specific focus on personal autonomy and his leads to ethical decisions such as abortion and euthanasia. My right to self-autonomy trumps all other rights. I come first because I deserve that right to choose and the right to control my life and by body. The consequence of course is that other lives are considered of less value and the risk of others suffering does not matter. Self-autonomy has become the idol for which everything else must be sacrificed.
The son’s desire is to take what is his and get away, to enjoy it all by himself. In the end, the craving for personal autonomy takes us ona lonely journey. We want to believe that each person is an island but we are not. An isolated, self-centred life is not a fulfilled life. It is no life at all.
In the Christmas story we meet people who consider themselves “worth it”. Herod, the Roman appointed king in Jerusalem considered himself to be the one worthy of respect, obedience and service. He is willing to sacrifice the lives of toddlers and babies, quite literally on the altar of his ego. Herod fails in his plot; he cannot dethrone Christ and eventually he has to face a reckoning with God.
Jesus is the obedient son who loves his father and gives up all that he is worthy of to come and live among us. Jesus is the true and better king, the servant king who puts the needs of other before his own glory in contrast to Herod.
Cradled in a manger, meanly,
Laid the Son of Man His head;
Sleeping His first earthly slumber
Where the oxen had been fed.
Happy were those shepherds listening
To the holy angel’s word;
Happy they within that stable
Worshipping their infant Lord.
Happy all who hear the message
Of His coming from above;
Happier still who hail His coming,
And with praises greet His love.
Blessèd Savior, Christ most holy,
In a manger Thou didst rest;
Canst Thou stoop again, yet lower,
And abide within my breast?
Evil things are there before Thee;
In the heart, where they have fed,
Wilt Thou pitifully enter,
Son of Man, and lay Thy head?
Enter, then, O Christ most holy;
Make a Christmas in my heart;
Make a heaven of my manger:
It is heaven where Thou art.
Faithroots 