The main meaning of Christmas is not about us giving to one another, or us giving to God. The main meaning of Christmas is about God giving us His Son. For God, Christmas is about giving, and for us, the recipients, Christmas is about receiving. That’s what it’s mainly about: God gives, we receive.

John 3:16, For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son. . .

This is not a time to think how we’re kind and generous, or how our friends are kind and generous. This is a time to think about God’s kindness and generosity to us.

(I notice sometimes there are those car commercials, and I wondered if people really did give Lexus/Acura as Christmas presents.)

For some of us, that might be uncomfortable. We’d think, that’s too much. It’s awkward to receive that kind of gift.

You see, Jesus didn’t just give us a scarf, or an iPod. He didn’t give us a new Lexus. He gave us his life.

He didn’t just wash our dishes, clean our toilet, wash our feet. He washed away our mistakes, failures, sin.

If we go through Christmas thinking Jesus is nice and sweet, we’ve missed something. It shows we haven’t received enough. When we realize how much He’s given, how much we’ve received, its uncomfortable.

Jesus then says, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

I don’t know that Peter understood Jesus, but I think Jesus was speaking in symbols. This footwashing was a symbol for the sin-washing he would do for them. He wasn’t just going to wash their feet, he was going to wash their souls, erase their sins.

You see, the other side of this generous gift is that, we needed that footwashing. We needed that sin washing. We have sin and guilt that we can’t make up for.

There is a kind of spider that has no stomach. She punctures her prey and then injects digestive juices so that the fly dissolves in its own body. Then the spider drinks the digested soup.

Giving a meal is nice, sweet. Giving your own body is overwhelming.

We were starving. We needed someone to feed us.

Christmas is about receiving, receiving far more than we can possibly understand.

Our Gospel, the message of Christianity, pushes us beyond charity, beyond human dynamics. The Gospel challenges us: we haven’t received enough, and we haven’t given enough.

Often our giving is “human” giving. We give out of the generosity of our own hearts.

A mother wanted to teach her daughter a moral lesson. She gave the little girl a quarter and a dollar for church "Put whichever one you want in the collection plate and keep the other for yourself," she told the girl. When they were coming out of church, the mother asked her daughter which amount she had given. "Well," said the little girl, "I was going to give the dollar, but just before the collection the man in the pulpit said that we should all be cheerful givers. I knew I'd be a lot more cheerful if I gave the quarter, so I did."

But Jesus calls us to something more.

Notice later in Jn 13:14, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.”

We’re to serve one another as Christ has served us. Christ served us, we serve others.

Notice also Jn 13:34, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

These verses describe the manner/extent.

And these verses describe the source.

In Lk 7, there’s a story of Jesus visiting a religious leader, when in barges a sinful woman, probably a prostitute or something. She anoints Jesus feet with perfume, washes them with her tears and wipes them with her hair. We’ve already said footwashing was a demeaning chore, but this woman lavishly and shamelessly serves Jesus.

We read in the context, this is because she had been forgiven much. She had lived a sinful life. I’m sure everyone in her religious society knew she was an immoral woman, and she knew she was an immoral woman. But when she met Jesus, she didn’t find the usual scorn and rejection. She found forgiveness, acceptance, love—it overwhelmed her. It totally crushed her.

She loved, not so much because she was such a kindhearted woman, but because she had been the recipient of the overwhelming love of Jesus.

We’re not told of what this woman did after the story, to others in her life, but I like to think that the love that overwhelmed her, which she expressed back to Jesus, also then overflowed to others in her life.

That’s the story of the Christian. Though we’ve sinned and made many mistakes, we’ve found love and forgiveness, and now we are freed to love others, serve others.

I notice that in myself. I can try to be kind and loving, but it only takes me so far.

But sometimes I spend time with God, finding comfort and forgiveness and love and kindness, and then I go back to my family or people at church, and I have more love to give. But instead of being the kindness and generosity of my heart, it is the overflow of having enjoyed the kindness and grace of Christ.

This goes back to our first point, Christmas is more about receiving than giving.

If you’re not a Christian, we’re glad you could join us this Christmas Sunday. As the world celebrates Christmas, I want to tell you its good news. God has given us His Son, and when we understand, receive, and experience that, there is an overflow of love to share with those around.