Christmas..brought to you by the letter "J"

Christmas season is upon us (it has been here longer for some than for others) and I thought I would share some random thoughts that have come to mind. I can not claim them as my own but gladly acknowledge Bruxy Cavey’s contribution to my life.

Last year one of my MSN names was “Christmas – The Ultimate Love Story.” One of my friends pointed out that maybe Easter was the ultimate love story since that is when Jesus (God) died for us. At first I thought maybe she was right and now I think she is right to a point but I also think Christmas is extremely important.

When we look at what happened some 2000 years ago in a little town in Judea we find some fascinating things. I’m sure we all know the stories of Christmas, the virgin birth, the shepherds, the three kings, etc. so I won’t go into them but I will look at what exactly happened when Jesus was born and what that meant for God, for the people in Israel and for us today.

First, what did the birth of Jesus mean…for God. Well, when the Angel came to Mary and said she would be with child and she is to name him ‘Emmanuel, God with us’ something happens that no other religion or faith system on earth claims: God has become one of us. He has come down from heaven to earth and took on a human form. And let me point out, it wasn’t the form of a king or a mighty warrior, it was the form of a baby and before that a fetus. God became the most vulnerable of all humans. (On a side note, one thing Bruxy has pointed out in one of his sermons is about the virgin birth. Most people, including me until I heard this, have always assumed that when the Angel appeared to Mary and said she would be with child that God supplied the sperm and Mary provided the egg – making Jesus both Divine and human. But is it not possible that God provided not only the sperm but also the egg? Adam wasn’t born from another human but he was fully human so is it possible that God could have put a fertilized egg in Mary? I think it is…but I digress…back to Christmas).

Now to really understand what the birth of Jesus meant for God look at the possibilities God could have chosen. We needed someone to die for our since once and for all. God could have commanded a prophet or a righteous man of God to die for us, and maybe that could have worked. But that’s not God showing us His love, it’s Him showing His power. He can command someone to die. What makes Jesus so special is that God says someone needs to die for our sins…and then He says “Let me die.” So Easter is special for this reason, among others. But the biggest difference between Easter and Christmas is that before He was born, Jesus knew exactly what He was doing (I believe He also knew before Easter too but before He was born, He was in heaven and knew everything). The point is Jesus voluntarily came to earth known completely that He would die and that for even the shortest instant He would be separated from God, something He desperately did not want. And even knowing this, He still came and died. To quote from Relient K, Jesus “the first time that you opened your eyes did you realize that you would be my Saviour? And the first breath that left your lips, did you know that it would change this world forever?”

I think I have gone on long enough and I don’t want to bore anyone so I will try to write again about what the birth of Jesus meant for Israel and what it means for us today. Actually, maybe I’ll let you think about what it means for us today and you can listen to Bruxy Cavey from The Meeting House and his series called “The Jesus Scandals” to find out what it meant for Israel.

Jesus was born to die, that was His purpose in life. What’s yours?