December 24th

Jesus Carries the Cross

Merry Christmas.

I thought about switching mysteries to match the holiday, but I think there is something actually very appropriate about the decades set for today and tomorrow. Jesus was born to someday die for our sins, and Christmas Eve is a good time for reflection on carrying our burdens when many of them feel most heavy and reaching out to help others with theirs when we feel most charitable.

Honestly, it's rare that we, even if we want to, can carry another person's burden for them. We say Jesus did that for us, and He did, but we still feel the weight of the load of our sins. Guilt and consequences and the separation from God. Now we can be forgiven and welcomed home and absolved, but that's about dealing with our crosses. That's usually the best we can do for those we are trying to help - making their burden less heavy or irksome, forgive and restore some part of peace of mind and heart.

I don't think we realize how much we help with all the little ways we try to ease someone's burden. We don't have to do much, really, to make a big difference. Jesus did all the hard work.

But then, that's the easy message this time of year. By bringing peace and joy into others' lives, we touch them more profoundly than we know. And it's true. The work the Holy Spirit has done through me in my life, without much if any conscious compliance from me, is actually staggering. Things I didn't think before they came flying out of my mouth don't always get me into trouble. Ever so rarely, the Spirit speaks through me.

But what's harder is when we can pay the debt for someone else. It's a rarer chance, by which I mean that I believe there are more people who would be willing to do so than are given the chance. To take the burden of loneliness on yourself instead of a more fragile soul or give a win to someone who needs the success more or relieve someone's financial burden at the cost of your own security. Because usually the burden is so much more personal than something that can be borne by anyone. It's family pain or physical injury - nontransferable stuff.

We don't all have the chance to mount the gallows on behalf of another; we don't get to know if we would.

Jesus did both for us. He took the punishment, the final damnation. He took our sins on our back. But He also bore our burden with the warning that we would still have to carry our own. He also lightened our burden, rather than just taking it away. It's as complicated (and to a nonbeliever embarrassing) of a thing to say as Jesus was 100% human and 100% God. He took all of our burden, and He reaches out to help us carry it because it can't be transferred. Because we live in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, but God Almighty walked among us.

He came down tonight, over two thousand years ago, and still His light shines. Most prominently in those who have the chance to lighten the burden of others or take it away completely.

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To finish off this Advent meditation, I want to leave you with my favorite Christmas song (my favorite carol is probably "The First Noel" but this song is only officially nonreligious, especially the last verse captures Christmas at its best). It's from Muppet Christmas Carol and I've been singing along all night with the Kermit the Frog in my head.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (not that I won't see both members of my readership in person before the New Year).

There's magic in the air this evening,

Magic in the air.

The world is at its best, you know,

When people love and care.

The promise of excitement

Is one the night will keep.

After all there's only one more sleep 'til Christmas.

The world has got a smile today;

The world has got a glow.

There's no such thing as strangers when

A stranger says "hello."

And everyone is family;

We're having so much fun.

After all, there's only one more sleep 'til Christmas.

'Tis the season to be jolly and joyous

With a burst of pleasure we feel it arrive!

'Tis the season when the saints can employ us

To spread the news about peace and to keep love alive!

There's something in the wind today

That's good for everyone.

Yes, faith is in our hearts today,

We're shining like the sun,

And everyone can feel it;

The feeling's running deep.

After all there's only one more sleep 'til Christmas.

After all, there's only one more sleep 'til Christmas day.