“IT’S A
WONDERFUL LIFE”: HOPE IN IT
“It’s
a Wonderful Life” has been a holiday staple for as long as I can remember. It
is consistently ranked in the top 100 movies of all time and is one of the most
popular Christmas movies, even though it is not even about Christmas.
If by chance you have never seen
this movie I will give you a brief synopsis before playing you a clip:
George Bailey, played by Jimmy
Stewart, is a good man who through various circumstances is called upon to put
the needs of others before his own needs. Bailey dreams of traveling the world
and building things but when his father dies he reluctantly remains in Bedford
Falls to run the family business, a building and loan company. Through a
mishap, George’s Uncle Billy loses $8000 of company money just before the bank
examiner arrives to audit the books. The competition, Henry Potter, is a
wealthy and ruthless banker who takes advantage of this situation to have
George thrown in jail and charged with fraud so he can close down the little
business.
George feels at this point that he
has let everyone down and he decides that he is worth more to his family dead
than alive and decides to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge. But all over
town people are praying for George and God sends an angel to intervene.
The theology concerning angels is
not great but the story is a good one.
<Play Clip: George at the
Bridge>
After
George utters those fateful words about never being born, the angel Clarence
grants his wish. He goes on to show George how different his world would have
been without him in it. George’s wife Mary would have become a lonely spinster;
Bedford Falls becomes Pottersville; Mr. Gowler, the druggist accidently poisons
a child because George wasn’t there to stop him, and so on. You get the idea.
It’s a romantic and unrealistic
feel-good movie with a bit of truth in it. Overall it begs the question, what
would the world be like if a certain individual had never been born?
What if Jesus Christ had never been
born?
The
prophet Isaiah spoke of the birth of Christ in rather humble details. He wrote,
“A shoot will come up from the stump
of Jesse…” (11:1). What we ought to see in our mind’s eye is a once
majestic tree with its mighty trunk soaring into the sky, its branches
spreading like a canopy over the earth, and its leaves so plentiful and
fruitful. Picture then that this tree caught a disease that rendered it sickly
so that it withered and died. It had to be cut down to the root, to a mere
stump.
This was the royal tree of Israel
from which kings emerged. But because of sin, spiritual adultery and idolatry,
the kings of Israel were cut off and not allowed to rule anymore.
Isaiah, however, held out hope and
preached that One would come from humble circumstances, from the remains of the
tree, from the stump. This One would rule with authority and with justice and
with power. This One would be the perfect king.
In 1926, Dr. James Allan
Francis wrote a piece of prose called One
Solitary Life. In it he describes poignantly the impact of Jesus on our
world.
One Solitary Life
Nearly two thousand years
ago in an obscure village, a child was born of a peasant woman. He grew up in
another village where He worked as a carpenter until He was thirty. Then for
three years He became an itinerant preacher.
This man never went to college
or seminary. He never wrote a book. He never held a public office. He
never had a family nor owned a home. He never put His foot inside a big
city nor traveled even 200 miles from His birthplace. And though He never did
any of the things that usually accompany greatness, throngs of people followed
Him. He had no credentials but Himself.
While He was still young,
the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His followers ran
away. He was turned over to His enemies and sentenced to death on a cross
between two thieves. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only
piece of property He had on earth – the simple coat He had worn. His body
was laid in a borrowed grave provided by a compassionate friend.
But three days later this
Man arose from the dead – living proof that He was, as He had claimed, the
Savior whom God had sent, the Incarnate Son of God.
Nineteen centuries have
come and gone and today the risen Lord Jesus Christ is the central figure of
the human race. On our calendars His birth divides history into two
eras. One day of every week is set aside in remembrance of Him. And
our two most important holidays celebrate His birth and resurrection. On church
steeples around the world, His cross has become the symbol of victory over sin
and death.
This one Man’s life has
furnished the theme for more songs, books, poems and paintings than any other
person or event in history. Thousands of colleges, hospitals, orphanages and
other institutions have been founded in honor of this One who gave His life for
us.
All the armies that ever
marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the governments that ever sat,
all the kings that ever reigned have not changed the course of history as much
as this One Solitary Life.
Consider the
impact of this one life on our world in its various aspects:
TIME
– What year is it? 2013. Or as it was once officially titled, A.D. 2013. A.D.
is short for the Latin, Anno Domini, or “the year of our Lord.” History is
divided into two portions, B.C. or “Before Christ,” and A.D. Today’s historians
have tried to de-spiritualize these designations, calling them B.C.E. (Before
the Common Era) and C.E. (the Common Era). But what is the dividing point? The
birth of Christ! His life is still pivotal even if historians and scientists
don’t want to admit it.
LIFE
- The way we view life itself
has changed dramatically because of Christ. From ancient times virtues like
courage and wisdom were honored as worthy of our pursuit, but not humility. If
you were on top you boasted about it and were proud to be a leader. Domination
was the goal. Plutarch wrote a self-help book that might appeal to some today:
How to Praise Yourself Inoffensively.
Jesus turned all of this on its head
and presented us with his foot-washing servanthood. He taught that kings will
lord it over others, but not the followers of Christ – they are to be servants
of all. One historian wrote that it was unlikely that any of us would aspire to
humility were it not for the historical impact of the crucifixion.
From this humility and servanthood
came a desire to care for this sick. Because of Christ we have hospitals with
Christian names: Grace, St. Boniface and so on.
PEOPLE
– Jesus changed the way we view people. Children in the ancient world were
routinely left to die of exposure if they were the wrong gender. There were 100
women to 140 men in the ancient world. Jesus loved children and called them to
himself. A Norwegian scholar named Bakke wrote a study of this impact, simply
titled: When Children Became People: The Birth of Childhood in Early
Christianity.
Jesus also saw women as people, not
as objects to be worshiped or property to be owned. He restored dignity to
women by raising them up to a place of personhood. The longest personal
conversation we have on record of Jesus having is with a woman – the woman at
the well (John 4).
Now
if Jesus had never been born, TIME, LIFE, and PEOPLE would never have been
impacted so positively. We don’t have time to explore the countless ways that a
child born to a peasant woman in a backwater town changed the world. But he
did! He was born of a virgin one special night and brought light to the world.
George Bailey is a fictitious
character whose story was glamorized with a Hollywood ending. Jesus is the Son
of God and of course he is going to leave an impact on the world. But what
about you? Would the world be any different if you had never been born? Do you
impact anyone in a significant way that your absence would be missed?
Many people wonder about this at
Christmas time for some reason. Maybe that’s why George Bailey’s story is so
attractive to us. But we know that our life is not a Hollywood story that ends
up all well and good.
What if you had never been born? I
want to assure you this morning that you have no idea the impact you have in
the life of others or in the chain of history. You are worth far more to others
and to God than you know. Your life might not be “Hollywood” but it matters to
God. He knows you and appointed you to be who you are, where you are, for
reasons known only to God’s special purposes for his own glory.
Consider the story of a young woman
born to the “wrong” family and of the “wrong” race. She marries a man who dies
tragically young. Being a conscientious woman she cares for her mother-in-law
even though she doesn’t have any obligation to do so. She meets another man of
the “right” family, pledges her love to him, and marries him. This woman never
knew in her lifetime that she was to be the great-grandmother of King David.
She never knew in her lifetime that one day her progeny, her descendent would
be the Savior of the world. Ruth played a huge part in a drama and didn’t even
know what impact her life and faithfulness would play.
You have no idea what impact you
will have on the present or the future. But in Christ it will be glorious, because
in Christ we have hope that our lives are part of something much bigger than
ourselves.
No one remembers the name of the
Sunday School teacher who led Dwight L. Moody to the Lord. Moody’s evangelism
led Billy Sunday to the Lord; Sunday’s preaching led to Billy Graham’s
conversion; Graham touched countless people including myself. What a legacy for
that unknown teacher.
The Apostle Paul quoted Isaiah 11:10
in his letter to the Romans, but it sounds a little different (must have been a
newer translation). He wrote, “And again,
Isaiah says, ‘The root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over
the nations; the Gentiles will hope in Him.’ May the God of hope fill
you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit,” (Rom 15:12-13).
We have hope because Christ was
born, hope that our lives are not some meaningless waste of time and space in
the spectrum of history. Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for
what they already have? But we hope for what we do not yet have and we wait for
it patiently. In this hope we were saved through Christ.
AMEN
