By Pastor Stephen Hess –
For Christians, Christmas is a time when we celebrate the birth of Christ. It is also traditionally a time when we engage in the practice of giving gifts to one another. When you stop to think about it, there’s something a bit strange about this. Christmas is the one time when we receive gifts on someone else’s birthday! There’s nothing wrong with showing love to others by giving them gifts. But what if at Christmas, instead of just focusing on purchasing gifts for our friends and family, we also asked: “What can I give to Jesus this year?”
We have to be careful here because when it comes to gift giving, there are right reasons and wrong reasons to give gifts. Some people buy gifts in order to win the favor of others. A Biblical example of this is found in the story of Jacob and Esau. When Jacob is returning home to his estranged brother, he sends his servants ahead of him with gifts in the hope that it might win his favor: “For Jacob thought, ‘I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me’” (Gen. 32:20). Still today, many people give presents in order to try to win the favor of others rather than giving out of a spirit of generosity.
Other people buy gifts in order to impress others. We find an example of this in the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon. The Queen had heard of Solomon’s fame and she decided to visit him to witness it firsthand. The Bible tells us that when she arrived, she came with extravagant gifts: “Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon” (1 Kgs. 10:10). Later on, we learn that Solomon also gave her extravagant gifts, and one gets the sense that these two royals are trying to impress one another with their vast amounts of wealth. Still today, people can fall into the trap of giving gifts to impress rather than appreciate others.
Many people today even do things for God in an effort to impress him or win his favor. They mistakenly think that if they do enough for God he will bless them or owe them something. But we mustn’t forget that God doesn’t owe us anything. The Apostle Paul asks in Romans 11:35: “Who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” The answer: No one. Everything we have already belongs to God, and therefore he can never be indebted to us. Furthermore, his favor is not something we can earn by our works—it can only be received by grace alone through faith alone.
So how should we think about giving gifts to God? A better Biblical example would be the wise men. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that when they encountered Jesus, they worshiped him and then immediately gave him gifts out of their treasures—gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matt. 2:11). The wise men didn’t give gifts to try to impress Jesus or win his favor. They recognized that they were in the presence of someone far greater than themselves who could never be impressed by them. They gave sacrificially for the simple reason that Jesus was worthy of their honor and adoration.
So what gift can you give to Jesus this year? Perhaps it is setting aside more of your time to spend with him in prayer and in Scripture. Perhaps it is using more of your talents to serve him in the body of Christ. Or perhaps it is spending less money on Christmas presents this year and more money on the ministry of his Kingdom and helping those who are in need. Ultimately. we are called to give our whole selves to Jesus as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1). We do this not to win his favor but because we have already received his favor, and therefore we want to respond with gratitude to the one who is worthy of our all.