Tomorrow is the first of December, so here is the introduction of the little book that I am useing for Christmas this year! I hope you enjoy it.
Introduction
WHAT DOES JESUS WANT
THIS CHRISTMAS?
“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given
me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that
you have given me because you loved me before the
foundation of the world.”—John 17:24
What does Jesus want this Christmas?
We can see the answer in his prayers. What does he ask God
for? His longest prayer is John 17. The climax of his desire is in verse 24.Among
all the undeserving sinners in the world, there are those whom God has “given
to Jesus.” These are those whom God has drawn to the Son (John 6:44, 65). These
are Christians people who have “received” Jesus as the crucified and risen
Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives (John 1:12; 3:17; 6:35; 10:11,
17–18; 20:28). Jesus says he wants them to be with him.
Sometimes we hear people say that God created
man because he was lonely. So they say, “God created us so that we would be with
him.” Does Jesus agree with this? Well, he does say that he really wants us to
be with him! Yes, but why? Consider the rest of the verse. Why does Jesus want us
to be with him? to see my glory that you [Father] have given me because you
loved me before the foundation of the world. That would be a strange way of
expressing his loneliness. “I want them with me so they can see my glory.” In
fact, it doesn’t express his loneliness. It expresses his concern for the
satisfaction of our longing, not his loneliness. Jesus is not lonely. He and
the Father and the Spirit are profoundly satisfied in the fellowship of the Trinity.
We, not he, are starving for something. And what Jesus wants for Christmas is
for us to experience what we were really made for—seeing and savoring his
glory. Oh, that God would make this sink in to our souls!
Jesus made us (John 1:3) to see his glory. Just before he
goes to the cross he pleads his deepest desires with the Father: “Father, I desire
[I desire!] that they ... may be with me where I am, to see my glory.” But that is only half of what Jesus wants in
these final, climactic verses of his prayer. I just said we were really made
for seeing and savoring his glory. Is that what he wants—that we not only see
his glory but savor it, relish it, delight in it, treasure it, love it?
Consider verse 26, the very last verse: I made known to them
your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you
have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
That is the end of the prayer. What is Jesus’s final goal
for us? Not that we simply see his glory, but that we love him with the same
love that the Father has for him: “that the love with which you [Father] have
loved me may be in them.” Jesus’s longing and goal is that we see his glory and
then that we be able to love what we see with the same love that the Father has
for the Son. And he doesn’t mean that we merely imitate the love of the Father
for the Son. He means the Father’s very love becomes our love for the Son—that we
love the Son with the love of the Father for the Son. This is what the Spirit
becomes and bestows in our lives:
Love for the Son by the Father through the Spirit. What
Jesus wants most for Christmas is that his elect be gathered in and then get
what they want most—to
see his glory and then savor it with the very savoring of
the Father for the Son.
What I want most for Christmas this year is to join you (and
many others) in seeing Christ in all his fullness and that we together be able
to love what we see with a love far beyond our own half-hearted human
capacities. This is our goal in these Advent devotionals. We want together to see
and savor this Jesus whose first “advent” (coming) we celebrate, and whose
second advent we anticipate. This is what Jesus prays for us this Christmas:
“Father, show them my glory and give them the very delight in me that you have
in me.” Oh, may we see Christ with the eyes of God and savor Christ with the
heart of God. That is the essence of heaven. That is the gift
Christ came to purchase for sinners at the cost of his death in our place.
