Revolution! That is an exhilarating word.
Here’s how Merriam Webster defines it:
a: a sudden, radical, or complete change
b: a fundamental change in political organization
especially : the overthrow or renunciation of one government or ruler and the substitution of another by the governed
d: a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something : a change of paradigm
Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington, Nelson Mandela, and Mahatma Gandhi, right or wrong, all stood against the established system to and dared to pursue a counter narrative. They were revolutionaries. We all have a little revolutionary within us. It comes out when our values will not allow us to maintain the established system. These convictions spark movements like the Peasants Revolt, the Protestant Reformation, the Great Awakening, the Industrial Revolution. An intolerance for an oppressive monarchy launched the French Revolution. A preference for the risk of revolt over the suffering of slavery launched the Haitian Revolution. Revolution was imprinted on the American story when the 13 colonies were dissatisfied with taxation without representation. They dumped tea into the harbor, forced the Revolutionary War and declared independence. Patrick Henry gave voice to the revolutionary spirit when he said, “Give me liberty or give me death.” It’s that spirit that caused Martin Luther King Jr. to take the stage in our nations capitol and say, “I have a dream”. You can feel it when you read of Martin Luther before the Diet of Worms concluding, “Here I stand I can do no other”. Revolution gets us all riled up!
The Christmas story is charged with the revolutionary spirit.
“And the Word became flesh.” John 1:14
That is revolutionary! Remember a revolution is the overthrow one government in favor of another. It is a fundamental change in the way of thinking. The nativity is a scene of selflessness calculated to revolutionize the established system of selfishness. Every decorative nativity scene is an illustration of counter cultural, revolutionary love. The selfless king stepped into the kingdom of selfishness. All was calm. All was bright. While baby Jesus quietly and humbling attacked the governing system of our sinful world. A selfless revolution in a selfish world.
Revolutions have their ups and downs. Let’s follow this one up and down and up again.
Jesus was up, in the highest position!
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He came down!
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
He is up again in the highest place!
Revelation 5:13 To the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!
Up! The Word was God (John 1:1)
The story of Jesus doesn’t start in a stable. Before the Word became flesh (John 1:14) He existed forever as the eternal God (v1-2). He created all things (v3). Baby Jesus doesn’t seem revolutionary until we grasp the position Jesus left in order to come down to us. John the Baptist saw the revolutionary love of the most high coming down. He said things like, “He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.” (vv 15 & 30). And, “the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”(v 27)
The baby born in the mangers rightfully occupied the highest position as Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).
The revolutions starts up, in eternal glory. Unfortunately, there is another kind of high position. In contrast to the Creator’s selfless sovereignty we see the creatures selfish ascendancy. The creator, who rightfully occupies the highest positions, willingly came down. The creature desperately climbs up. We ascend in pride. He descends in love. Revolutionary!
I took a leadership class from Stanley Patterson who passionately advocates the Biblical model of leadership. The one that descends rather than ascends and serves rather than dominates. I took careful notes when he said, “I comfort myself that some of my students will teach people that ascendant behavior is disgusting to God.” I’d like to give my professor some comfort! Let’s confront the sickness of selfishness. Let’s join the revolution of selfless love.
5 Facts of Selfishness
- Selfishness is sneaky
It’s disguised in civilized terms like, “upward mobility”, “success”, “advancement”, or “promotion”. We should pursue success. But let’s not define success as arriving at some self exalted high place where God never intended us to be. Dr. Patterson teaches that the ladder we climb to get to the top is not made of aluminum or wood. No, in order to get higher we have to step on people. This is the system baby Jesus denounces. But it sneaks it’s way in wherever it is allow. - Selfishness took Lucifer Down
Isaiah 14 tells us that the king of Babylon(descriptive of Lucifer) fell from heaven(v12), he was “brought down to the realm of the dead” (v15). He went down, ironically, because he was trying to go up.
This is what he told himself, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:13-15).
When we grapple for power we are being led by the spirit of Lucifer. - Selfishness Never Ends Well
When God brought Lucifer down He brought him “to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.” (Isaiah 14:15). God explains further, “Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.” (Ezekiel 28:17)
Don’t miss this. It was pride that got him. Pride end in hell. God graciously intended Lucifers fall to be a spectacle to kings so that those in power would be warned that selfishness never ends well.
I like bluegrass music. The band Nickle Creek recorded a song called Reasons Why. After enjoying the skilled guitar solo I was struck by the lyrics, “Knowing how hard it hurts when we fall. We lean another ladder against the wrong wall.” Stop climbing! The ladder doesn’t go to a good place. Selfishness is going to end in disappointed expectations and a painful fall.
- Selfishness Loses
Hang in there fellow revolutionaries! God promised the revolution would be a success!
John 1:4-5 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The light of selfless love will expel the darkness of self love! The power of love will defeat the love of power!
- Selfishness is our Universal Narrative
The manger is revolutionary because, without Christ, selfishness is the only narrative we have. The ladder is the only option fallen human nature knows. I listened to the sermon, The Fatal Blow by Ty Gibson. I recommend it as further study on revolutionary love (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJtd3yyqMSg). His sermon introduced me to Joseph Campbell’s book, A Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell compared the worlds mythological narratives and found that they are all the same story “with varieties of costumes.” Ty summarized this one great story with these three point.
-Power over orientation
-Hero uses force to fight evil
-Myth of redemptive violence
It is all self-ascendancy. When a “good guy” comes along he uses the same dominating tactics the bad guy used. It is king of the hill. Baby Jesus introduces a counter narrative!
I was listening to another song, this one from the Sound of Music soundtrack. It is called “No way to stop it.” And it has a terrible message. It refers to self as, “That all absorbing character. That fascinating creature. That super special feature.”
The song has a depression conclusion.
So every star on every whirling planet,
And every constellation in the sky,
Revolves around the center of the universe,
That lovely thing called, I.
And there’s no way to stop it.
No, there’s no way to stop it,
And I know, though I cannot tell you why.
Just as long as I’m living,
Just as long as I’m living,
There’ll be nothing else as wonderful as I.
Know this, revolutionaries! There is a way to stop it. That is what revolutionary love is. The manger stops it. The gospel stops it. The message of Christmas is a revolt against the message of that song. In this story the hero doesn’t fit the narrative. This revolution is not about rising up in power but coming down in love!
Down! The Word became flesh (John 1:14)
5 Facts of Selflessness
- Selflessness is Counter Cultural
My sister lives in a foreign country without much Christian influence. However, you can find a few public Christmas displays in December. There is enough Christmas awareness to spark a conversation between my sister and a local woman about the Biblical Christian story. My sister realized that this woman had never heard of baby Jesus. Her response to the awesome reality of the incarnation was to ask the confused question, “So, your god is a baby?”
It is a ridiculously foreign concept that the one in the highest position would willingly take the lowest position. The outspoken atheist Frederich Niche was right in calling the incarnation an “audacious inversion”. It is so counter cultural that we struggle to grasp it.
John 1:9-10 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
- Selflessness Makes Friends
John 15:15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. - Selflessness Serves Others
Self-ascendancy was often on the mind Jesus’ disciples. They argued about who was the greatest (Luke 22:24-27). Once James and John came to Jesus with the request to sit at His right and left hand in glory (Mark 10:37). What was Jesus going to say. This is the very impulse His revolution sought to overthrow. Jesus told them they didn’t know what they were talking about. Then He invited them to join the revolution.
Mark 10:41-45 “When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus demonstrated this service when He knelt down to washed His followers feet. He didn’t serve because He was powerless but because He “knew that the Father had put all things under his power.”(John 13:3) Afer demonstrating revolutionary love He said, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:15-17)
- Selflessness Denies Self
Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
When John the Baptist saw the Messiah, self faded. When given the chance to claim the high position of the Messiah, John denied it (v.20). When pressed to speak for himself (v.22) he didn’t elevate self but positioned himself under Christ as one called to “make straight the way for the Lord.” (v. 23). He must increase, we must decrease (John 3:30).
- Selflessness Gives life
John 15:12-13 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Up! Glory forever and ever (Revelation 5:13)
Jesus came down but His revolution does stay there. Boy, that would be depressing! Because He came down, “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.” (Philippians 2:9) Jesus is still selfless but He is not still in a low position.
He doesn’t want us to stay down either! The call to die to self is not to limit us but to liberate us! It calls us down in order to reach the heights of selfless love.
John 10:10 I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Isaiah 58:15 Then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth.
Habakkuk 3:19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.
Psalm 16:11 In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
So which is it? Are we supposed to rise up or come down?
Before Lucifer sought to ascend he had a high position. And it was a good thing because God ordained it.
Ezekiel 28:14 “You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you.”
God wants us up. But is matters who lifts us there.
1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.
When God exalts us, it’s love!
When we exalt self, it’s sin!
Join the Revolution!
Selflessness is just as revolutionary today as it was in Bethlehem’s stable!
Zacchaeous pursued the system of selfishness until Jesus called him to join the revolution. He didn’t call him to rise up. He said, “Zacchaeus, you come down.” Once he came down, Jesus went to His house. We are all spiritually perched in that tree. Jesus calls our names and says, “you come down”. Join the revolution!
Ellen White, Education 154
Unselfishness, the principle of God’s kingdom, is the principle that Satan hates; its very existence he denies. From the beginning of the great controversy he has endeavored to prove God’s principles of action to be selfish, and he deals in the same way with all who serve God. To disprove Satan’s claim is the work of Christ and of all who bear His name.
It was to give in His own life an illustration of unselfishness that Jesus came in the form of humanity. And all who accept this principle are to be workers together with Him in demonstrating it in practical life. To choose the right because it is right; to stand for truth at the cost of suffering and sacrifice.
Our culture is charged with revolutionary zeal. There a countless lesser revolutions for us to sign up for. There are some worthy causes behind some of the worlds riots, demonstrations, and protests. The worlds revolutionaries are frustrated with the symptoms of selfishness. Baby Jesus’ revolution renounced the system of selfishness. Inequality and injustice are wrong but they are rooted in selfishness. The real revolution is selfless love.
What would selflessness look like in our homes? In our church? In our community? What if we choose to come down?
The revolution is big! So where do we start? Love is a miracle. We only have it if God puts it in our hearts. Moment by moment pray that God would put self to death and bring revolutionary love to life!
This holiday season every time you see a nativity, or hear Away in a Manger, or look at a star on a tree, or give or receive a gift… let it be an invitation to you to join the revolution. When you hear someone say, “Marry Christmas”, also hear Jesus say, “you come down”.