Earlier this year Tim and I read Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. You might have read it too or seen the Muppet version. I remember as a child having it on cassette tape. A young boy called Jim ends up with a map that identifies an island where a pirate’s treasure is buried. It’s a great story, and so for those who don’t know it, I won’t say anything more which might spoil it. Treasure Island was one of the first stories written where there is a map with an ‘X’ that marks the spot. Treasure maps always now have an X that marks the spot.
There’s something in our imagination that likes the idea of a map leading to hidden treasure. I wonder how you’d feel if someone this morning gave you a map and said you need to follow this to find your presents? But more than presents, I wonder what is, or who is, the treasure you are searching for? What is it in life that you most want? What promised treasure would make you go to any length to find it?
The Christmas story is a story of treasure being found.
We might think of the Old Testament as like a map, a map with an X that marks the spot. The story of Israel is a map of promises: a child will be born — a prince of peace (Isa 9.6); a new king from the line of king David (Jer 33.15); a new shepherd of God’s people (Ezek 34.23); a new prophet like Moses (Deut 18.18); a ruler who will come from Bethlehem (Micah 5.2); a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven (Dan 7.13); a king riding a donkey (Zec 9.9); a servant who will bring God’s justice (Is 42.1); and a baby born to a virgin, and given the name Immanuel (Isa 7:14). God leaves clues to this treasure. It’s a map that wasn’t a straightforward to follow, but makes more sense after the treasure is found.
The Christmas story includes magi or wise men, who make a long journey from the east following a star — this is their map — they cross deserts and rivers, they travel through cold nights and scorching days, seeking the ‘x’ — the final destination of the star, believing it will lead them to someone to be treasured, to be worshipped. ‘Go and search carefully’ for the treasure they are told by one person they meet on their journey. They wonder where the star will stop. The ‘x’ ends up being in Bethlehem.
The Christmas story also includes shepherds who aren’t looking for anything, just going about their business, watching their sheep, perhaps warming themselves by a fire on a cold hillside. But angels appear and give them a map, a destination, and a sign to know when they’ve found the treasure. ‘You will find’ the angels say talking about the treasure. And off the shepherds hurry with their map.
God brings his greatest treasure, from heaven all the way to tiny Bethlehem. This most wondrous gift, full of grace and glory and truth, wrapped in cloth and laid in a manger. X marks the spot. Angels longed to see, prophets searched to find and after all the waiting, following, and searching God’s treasure is now revealed.
God’s treasure is nothing less than God himself. All this following and searching leads to God in human flesh. This is the great joy for all people including you and me. This is God’s gift of peace to the earth. This is Immanuel. This is the X on the map. Jesus Christ, or in Greek Xristos — the first letter being a ‘X’. Some people like to shorten Christmas to ‘Xmas’ and for other people this gets them really cross, and they say ‘its Christmas not Xmas.’ But in the letter X we are reminded that in what we are celebrating today is the greatest treasure the world has ever and will ever know. This is where it all leads, to this place, to this day, to this moment: a child lying in a manger in Bethlehem. This child who is the ‘Christ’ — the promised Saviour, the glory of God among us. The birth of Jesus marks the spot 'where God determines to be with us for ever, come what may. This is the heart of it all.' This is mystery of it all. This is wonder of it all.
What do you do with this treasure? Finding the X on the map, finding the treasure buried, is not the end, it’s a new beginning. The journey doesn’t end with Christmas, it goes on, in a new way. In his famous poem about the Magi, T. S. Eliot ends with the magi returning home, but no longer at ease, because finding Jesus had changed them. They were different people. This treasure has the ability to change our lives. In finding Jesus, we have been made rich beyond measure; rich not in terms of money, but rich in love, rich in mercy, rich in a different way of living. X marks the spot. The spot where God says here is my greatest treasure, now what?
May you know the riches of Jesus. May you find the treasure of God. And of course let me wish you a very happy Xmas!
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