Gentile Dogs and Christmas

Gentile Dogs and Christmas


Are you starting to get ho-hum about Christmas? Does thinking about all the gifts you have to buy, the decorating you have to do, the horrendous traffic, etc., etc., etc. leave you wishing for January to come quickly? Well unless you are Jewish by birth, it might help you to have joy in Christmas if you remember that without Jesus coming to earth and dying for us, we would have forever remained "gentile dogs.” You are aware that that is how Jesus Himself referred to us before the Cross, correct? If you doubt this, check out Matthew 15:26. The truth is that without Christmas, without Jesus -- a Jew, being willing to die for the world -- which we see later in the Book of Acts having included even us lowly gentiles -- we would have been "without hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12).

Picture this: Peter was born a Jew. Jews were taught -- and yes, according to the Bible, that they were God's chosen people. Granted, they were to be a light to the gentiles, but even so, God chose them, not us gentiles. I know that's not very flattering, but there you are. Now on top of the scriptures, unfortunately, had been added what Jesus referred to as "traditions of men," for example that a "good Jew" didn't go into a gentile's home. It just wasn’t done. Obviously, Jesus didn't adhere to that admonition and was soundly criticized as a result. You will notice that Jesus referred to Peter on more than one occasion as "Simon, son of Jonah." (See John 1:42 and John 21:15-17.) I suspect that He did this on purpose and the comparison of Peter to Jonah was apt.

Of course all people can think about when they think of Jonah is the big fish -- actually, most people think of it as a whale. My, how the devil loves to distort the Bible and how we sometimes fall right into his trap. What he would prefer us NOT to see about Jonah is his extreme prejudice for anyone who wasn't Jewish and how God was striking out against that notion, even though the Jews were in fact His chosen ones. If you read “through the lines” in the Book of Jonah, it is clear that Jonah didn't want those gentile dogs, the people of Nineveh, to be saved from their sins. He actually preferred that they go to Hell. After all, they had in fact committed some horrendous sins, many of which were atrocities against the Jews. The Lord, however, has other plans and ends the Book of Jonah by castigating Jonah for being more concerned about a stupid little vine than for sinners - living, breathing human beings who just didn’t know their right hand from their left (see Jonah 4:11.)

While the part about the big fish is really neat as well, the crux of Jonah's story is prejudice -- and God's concern for sinners -- even when they are gentiles like us. In fact, you could say with some accuracy that the Book of Jonah is a foretaste of things to come. Accordingly, Jesus compares Peter to Jonah because He knew Peter had this same prejudice. In fact, we read in the Book of Acts that the sheet had to come down three separate times -- and Peter had to be really hungry -- before he was willing to even consider going against what he had been taught and had latched onto ever since he was a boy. (See Acts 10).

In essence, it was as if Peter was Jonah all over again -- except that Peter apparently got it in the end and I’m not sure that Jonah ever did. I mean, how was Peter going to explain away the fact that right in the middle of his sermon to those low-life gentiles, the Holy Spirit fell? After all, he was only there because he had been compelled by God! It happened and neither Peter nor his fellow Jews could deny it. Peter says: "...Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons." (Acts 10:34). In our vernacular it might have been: “Oh, I get it now! The gospel is open to them too.” And because of this, because God truly is NO respecter of persons, you and I have a chance -- an opportunity which very few gentiles enjoyed UNTIL the cross. (Ruth and Rahab, of course, were notable exceptions). Now, we have the privilege -- just by believing -- to become a valuable part of the family of God. No small thing.

Now I know what you're thinking. Ho hum, I've heard all of this before. I told you, satan loves to distort Bible truth and make it seem boring. He very cleverly disguises the truth and meaning of Christmas with harmless (or seemingly harmless) things like Santa Claus, lights, tinsel, gift-giving, overeating, and the like. The fact is, if he can just get us to see Christmas as secular -- if he can just keep us from feeling the incredible joy of it all, he has gained a real victory.

On the other hand, if we can focus our minds:

-- not on the secular
-- not on the responsibilities of these modern "traditions of men"

but on what the Lord wants us to see this Christmas, we will agree with the apostle Paul when he said: “Thanks be to God for His INDESCRIBABLE GIFT!” (2 Corinthians 9:15).

So as you prepare your Christmas list, as you anticipate all the hustle and bustle, let the joy of this indescribable gift fill your soul to overflowing, with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Thank God, we've been grafted in!