Sermon Snippet – Home Alone: the Prelude Still Continues
INTRODUCTION – Prompted by our studies of the Old Testament prophet Elijah, who suffered from profound loneliness (I Kings 19:14-18), we have spent the last two weeks considering this subject. Loneliness at Christmas is a sad part of the Gospel message, as we have seen from the lives of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, Simeon, and Anna. Let us further explore this theme.
1. THE WISEMEN WERE LONELY AT CHRISTMAS
Based on the brief prophecy of Numbers 24:17 (“There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel”), these scholars of the sky left their homeland of Persia, traveled hundreds of miles,, and came to an unfriendly Jerusalem (Matthew 2:1-12). They acknowledged the fulfillment of prophecy in their worship of Jesus. They then returned to their native land, where they would no longer fit in (as T.S. Eliot pointed out in his poem “Journey of the Magi”). Still, their eternal salvation was worth it all; and they would never really be home alone, for God was with them personally (verse 12).
2. HEROD WAS LONELY AT CHRISTMAS
Herod (Matthew 2:3) was as lonely as anyone could be. He was a vicious, murderous man, killing even members of his own family. He trusted no one, and no one trusted him. He tried to kill Jesus (Matthew 2:13-18). When he died (verse 19), no one grieved (and Herod knew that not one person would miss him; he had given orders that upon his death many would be slain so that the city would be filled with lamentation, but his cruel commands went unheeded). God gave Herod chance after chance to see the truth, to grasp the truth. He could have traveled the five miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem (downhill!) to visit Jesus. Instead, he remained isolated in his palace and soon died a lonely death. His entire life is a cautionary tale.
3. JESUS WAS LONELY AT CHRISTMAS
Imagine showing up at your family’s Christmas party, knocking on the door, and being ignored. Finally, you open the door, stick your head in, and shout, “Merry Christmas!” – only to be told emphatically to leave. I hope that nothing like that happens to anyone, but something worse happened to Jesus: “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11). The large-scale national rejection of Jesus is real history, but it is not the end of His story, for He was building an eternal family that includes people from everywhere in the world. Rather than permit the loneliness of rejection to end His mission, Jesus continued to reach out to all, and He continues to reach out to all today.
CONCLUSION – The ultimate answer to loneliness is an eternal friend, God the Son, Jesus Christ. “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power [the right] to become the sons [children] of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12). Through faith in Jesus, we are never absolutely alone. We are not exempt from feelings of loneliness, but we are never truly alone.