It’s amazingly easy to make people feel guilty and afraid. Say to a child, "Dad wants to talk to you about something!" and immediately a worried look will come across the child’s face as he begins to comb through his memory for something he may have done wrong. The same thing happens when a student is told, "You have to go to the principal’s office." When an adult hears, "The boss wants you in his office right now!" rarely do we anticipate a bonus or a pat on the back. Instead, the first thought that crosses our minds usually is a question: "What did I do this time?"

People tend naturally to feel guilty. Whether we have actually done anything to be guilty of or not doesn’t matter all that much. Our predisposition to guilt is the result of our imperfection, our sin. We know that we aren’t perfect, we aren’t all that we should be even when we are doing our best. So it’s easy to feel guilty and afraid.

Even more frightening than having to talk to Dad, the principal or the boss, is having to stand before God. God is perfect and he has said to us, "You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). We know we can’t be perfect; we can’t be what God wants us to be and, because of it, the thought of speaking to him or seeing him is frightening. Even some people who say they are Christian are still frightened enough about God that they will say they aren’t sure that he will "let them into heaven" when they die. It’s easy to be afraid of God.

The children of Israel were scared out of their wits when God spoke to them at Mount Sinai. God came to the mountain with power and glory. Lightning flashed; thunder rolled; smoke poured off the mountain. God was there. The people saw it and quivered in fear. "You talk to God for us," they said to Moses, "only don’t let him talk to us or else we will surely die" (Exodus 20:19).

Not only God, but anything perfect, anything coming from God, frightens people. Angels came from God to bring messages to people. Each time they came, the first words they had to speak were always, "Do not be afraid." Zacharias, the father of John the Baptizer, was afraid when he saw the angel; so were Joseph, Mary, and the shepherds. None expected to hear good news. Apparently, they all thought they were in trouble. Confronted with the perfect holiness of God, they were overwhelmed by their imperfection and sin - and they were afraid.

But the angels did not bring any of them bad news! They brought good news. "Good news of a great joy which will come to all people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11). The angels brought good news about the birth of One who came to take our guilt away; One who came to remove our fear and give us joy and confidence in its place; One named Jesus who came to be perfect for us, in our place, that we might be perfect in him.

As frightened as people were by angels and as afraid as they were of God, there may not have been anyone who was ever afraid of Jesus except for the single exception of the moneychangers whom he cast out of the Temple. Children came running up to him for blessing. They knew they wouldn’t be turned away. Tax collectors, prostitutes, a crucified thief, all kinds of people with lots of reasons to feel guilty and afraid, came to Jesus. "I don’t condemn you ..." he said to the woman taken in adultery. A preacher might well have made such people feel very ashamed; but Jesus made them feel wonderful. They knew that he accepted them, loved them, and forgave them.

Jesus did all that even though he, too, was perfect - or, perhaps more accurately, because he was perfect. Everything about us that is lacking and empty before God, was abundantly full in Christ Jesus. Where we are imperfect, he was perfect. Where we sin, he never sinned. "From his fulness," John tells us, "we receive grace upon grace." Jesus was perfect for us, in our place. Because of him God counts us perfect also.

Saint John tells us that no one would ever have known God except for the fact that Jesus made him known. The way that Jesus was to the people - accepting, forgiving, kind, and loving - is how God really is. "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love," scripture tells us (Psalm 103). He forgives all our iniquities. Precisely because God is this way, he sent Jesus to be our Savior. He sent Jesus to be God with us, accepting, forgiving, and life-giving. He sent Jesus to be perfect and to make us perfect so that we might be one with him, our perfect God. Not only caii we now be unafraid of him, but we can now be close to him as well.

Because of Jesus, all of God’s children can exchange a message of guilt and fear for this message instead: "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). "Through him [Jesus] we have confidence in God ..." (1 Peter 1:21). We know that God is not only God but he is our Father and Christ our Savior.

We know this because even though we cannot, in and of ourselves, do all that we have to do, Jesus has done it all for us. He does not tell us all that we have to do, but rather shares with us all that he has done for us. He lived, died, and rose again, and that is enough. It is perfect. When we ask in fear and guilt, "What do I have to do to be saved? How can I make God like me so I don’t have to be afraid of him?" Jesus answers, "You don’t have to do anything. Just believe in me and live in me; I have done it all for you."

God wants to see you one of these days. We know that one of these days we will have to stand before God and listen to him. That could make us afraid, but it really doesn’t have to. We stand before him every moment of our life and are judged against his holiness and perfection. There is no reason for us to be afraid now or later because we know that what God says to us is only what he said to his perfect Son. Because of Jesus, he says to you and to me also, "This is my beloved child, my son, my daughter, with whom I am well pleased."

That promise strengthens us, in Jesus’ name. Amen