By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
It’s been more than 2,000 years since God took on flesh and blood and entered our messed-up world, in a most unusual way, in a most unusual place.
Jesus. Emmanuel. God with us. Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God. Everlasting Father. Prince of Peace. The One who reconciles a messed-up human race with a holy God.
Born to an unwed teenage mother. Not even at the local Motel 6, but in a barn, with stinky, smelly animals, he was laid in a feeding trough. Among the first visitors to greet the Holy Child were shepherds from the country - the lowest of the low in the social hierarchy of that day - who had an encounter with angels, and astrologers from thousands of miles away who were led to Bethlehem - not by their Rand McNally atlas or their GPS monitors, but by a single star.
Jesus entered a world not too much different from the one we live in today. It was a violent, chaotic place. A power-hungry leader who felt there was not enough room in Israel for two kings. Who put a contract out on Jesus’ head, and was willing to kill every baby boy within the region in hopes of eradicating God’s only begotten Son from existence. (Don’t know that part of the story? Read Matthew 2:13-18.)
As God made flesh, Jesus could have chosen to enter this world any way he wanted to. He could have ridden in on a stallion, brandishing a sword to summon His heavenly armies to overthrow King Herod and the oppressive Roman regime. He could have walked right into Herod’s throne room and announced in a Morgan Freeman-type voice that there was a new sheriff in town, that he was now in charge of Israel. Isn’t that what the Jews had been waiting for all those many, many years from their promised Messiah?
Instead, God surprises us by showing up in the form of a vulnerable, helpless baby, dependent on his mother for survival. He comes in humility. He does not seek human power. But rather, he comes for each one of us – regardless of our skin color or race, whether we are rich or poor, whether we were born in this country or in a Third World nation, whether we are male or female.
As he demonstrated throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus recognizes and welcomes those that polite society of that time would rather ignore: Women. Tax collectors. Those with physical disabilities or illnesses. Prostitutes.
Foreigners. Children. Those possessed by evil spirits.
And he calls out the hypocrisy of the powerful – those who are self-righteous, who are more concerned with how good they look to the outside world than the condition of their hearts, who love their titles and being recognized in public more than serving those they see as beneath them.
Jesus tells us that loving God and loving people who are created in His image go hand-in-hand. (Matthew 22:36-40) That you can’t claim to love God and hate someone who is different from you. (1 John 4:19-21) When he’s asked to what extent it means to love your neighbor as yourself – he tells the story of a Samaritan, who is supposed to be an enemy of the Jewish people, seeing someone who had been beaten and left for dead, and giving real care for that person while the so-called “holy people” ignore him.
Jesus demonstrates real love – through hearing people’s stories, through healing, through bending down on one knee to wash the feet of his disciples, and then ultimately, by sacrificing his life through the worst form of execution ever created by mankind. We can’t have Christmas without thinking of the Crucifixion, what Jesus did for us. His blood shed on Calvary’s cross covers our sin, our rebellion, our wanting to do things our own way rather than God’s way.
And finally, Jesus gets the last word over death by walking out of that tomb on the first Easter Sunday. The first people to report his resurrection were women, who were initially not believed by His disciples. Jesus shows up multiple times, including one where he cooks breakfast for his disciples, before he ascends to be with His Heavenly Father, and sends us our Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to guide and direct us.
As we observe the coming of Christ this day, we are reminded of that day when He will return again. To make right what has gone so badly wrong in our world. To bring about a new heaven and a new earth. That he will wipe away every tear we have ever shed.
Jesus loves you. Right here, right now. He wants to have a relationship with you.
Merry Christmas, friends. May God bless you and your families this day.
Zeeland Record
It’s been more than 2,000 years since God took on flesh and blood and entered our messed-up world, in a most unusual way, in a most unusual place.
Jesus. Emmanuel. God with us. Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God. Everlasting Father. Prince of Peace. The One who reconciles a messed-up human race with a holy God.
Born to an unwed teenage mother. Not even at the local Motel 6, but in a barn, with stinky, smelly animals, he was laid in a feeding trough. Among the first visitors to greet the Holy Child were shepherds from the country - the lowest of the low in the social hierarchy of that day - who had an encounter with angels, and astrologers from thousands of miles away who were led to Bethlehem - not by their Rand McNally atlas or their GPS monitors, but by a single star.
Jesus entered a world not too much different from the one we live in today. It was a violent, chaotic place. A power-hungry leader who felt there was not enough room in Israel for two kings. Who put a contract out on Jesus’ head, and was willing to kill every baby boy within the region in hopes of eradicating God’s only begotten Son from existence. (Don’t know that part of the story? Read Matthew 2:13-18.)
As God made flesh, Jesus could have chosen to enter this world any way he wanted to. He could have ridden in on a stallion, brandishing a sword to summon His heavenly armies to overthrow King Herod and the oppressive Roman regime. He could have walked right into Herod’s throne room and announced in a Morgan Freeman-type voice that there was a new sheriff in town, that he was now in charge of Israel. Isn’t that what the Jews had been waiting for all those many, many years from their promised Messiah?
Instead, God surprises us by showing up in the form of a vulnerable, helpless baby, dependent on his mother for survival. He comes in humility. He does not seek human power. But rather, he comes for each one of us – regardless of our skin color or race, whether we are rich or poor, whether we were born in this country or in a Third World nation, whether we are male or female.
As he demonstrated throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus recognizes and welcomes those that polite society of that time would rather ignore: Women. Tax collectors. Those with physical disabilities or illnesses. Prostitutes.
Foreigners. Children. Those possessed by evil spirits.
And he calls out the hypocrisy of the powerful – those who are self-righteous, who are more concerned with how good they look to the outside world than the condition of their hearts, who love their titles and being recognized in public more than serving those they see as beneath them.
Jesus tells us that loving God and loving people who are created in His image go hand-in-hand. (Matthew 22:36-40) That you can’t claim to love God and hate someone who is different from you. (1 John 4:19-21) When he’s asked to what extent it means to love your neighbor as yourself – he tells the story of a Samaritan, who is supposed to be an enemy of the Jewish people, seeing someone who had been beaten and left for dead, and giving real care for that person while the so-called “holy people” ignore him.
Jesus demonstrates real love – through hearing people’s stories, through healing, through bending down on one knee to wash the feet of his disciples, and then ultimately, by sacrificing his life through the worst form of execution ever created by mankind. We can’t have Christmas without thinking of the Crucifixion, what Jesus did for us. His blood shed on Calvary’s cross covers our sin, our rebellion, our wanting to do things our own way rather than God’s way.
And finally, Jesus gets the last word over death by walking out of that tomb on the first Easter Sunday. The first people to report his resurrection were women, who were initially not believed by His disciples. Jesus shows up multiple times, including one where he cooks breakfast for his disciples, before he ascends to be with His Heavenly Father, and sends us our Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to guide and direct us.
As we observe the coming of Christ this day, we are reminded of that day when He will return again. To make right what has gone so badly wrong in our world. To bring about a new heaven and a new earth. That he will wipe away every tear we have ever shed.
Jesus loves you. Right here, right now. He wants to have a relationship with you.
Merry Christmas, friends. May God bless you and your families this day.
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