OUR GLORIOUS SAVIOR ARRIVES

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

Luke 2:6-7

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Suppose you were given the task of writing a script for the coming of a baby who was prophesied in the scriptures as being the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace, the baby who would be named Immanuel which means God with us, the baby that the angel Gabriel had foretold was to be named Jesus who would come to save people from their sins and indeed when Christ was born, a glorious Savior arrived for all mankind.

So given all this, what would your script look like?

Wouldn’t a child such as this deserve to be born in the finest chambers of royalty with the finest care in the holiest city known, the city of Jerusalem?

Wouldn’t he be presided over by the best Old Testament pediatric specialists and prayed over by the priests who would hail and praise the coming of the predicted Messiah?  

Wouldn’t he have been watched over to ensure he would be protected from anyone who might want to do him harm? After all, assassinations of kings and other leaders were common place and this baby was destined to be the ruler over Israel. The prophets said so themselves and so there would have been people who would have liked to eliminate that leader before he had a chance to grow into the man God sent Him to be. We know one such man was named Herod, the appointed Roman king over the Jews who reigned in Jerusalem and did not take kindly to the news from the wise men who said they were searching for a young child who was recently born to become the King of the Jews.

Yes, if we were writing the story of Jesus, I doubt any of us would have written it so that Joseph and Mary would have to travel nearly seventy miles in the late stages of her pregnancy in order to register in the town of Bethlehem, Joseph’s town as the scriptures tell us he was of the house of David.

And we wouldn’t have composed an act that would have found Mary ready to deliver once they arrived in Bethlehem with no place to stay. We would have never penned a scenario where there were no guest rooms available for this Son of God to enter into the world scene. And no one would have intentionally had this child, who was Immanuel (or God with us), being born in a setting meant to house animals, his sleeping place being a manger feeding trough.

Was this any way for the King of kings and Lord of lords, for our glorious Savior to come?

As one of my favorite, classic contemporary Christian groups, 4Him, have sang, it certainly was a “strange way to save the world” but it was perfect because it was God’s plan which is always perfect. Coming in humble circumstances within that Bethlehem stable, Jesus would be defined by His humility although He carried with Him infinite power. He was God’s Son but He never carried Himself as if He was too good to help mere humans. Rather, He never hesitated to place Himself second for the good will and care of others. His unwavering selflessness was the thread that would run through His entire life and ministry, all the way to Calvary’s cross where He would make the ultimate sacrifice, the last atoning sacrifice ever needed to reconcile the sins of mankind with God, their father. Three days after He bore the sins of the world, Jesus was resurrected in power in total victory over sin and death, making the way clear for others to follow His lead and step onto the pathway that leads to God. All one had to do, all one has to do today, is to fully follow the One who is the way and the truth and the life, the only One who can lead us to the God the Father (John 14:6).

Friends, it’s Christmas and Jesus Christ is born! The world has never been the same since that day more than 2,000 years ago, a day when eternal hope came on the scene through His birth, a day when our glorious Savior arrived in a way none of us would ever have scripted but in a way that was perfect because it was God’s way.

Amen.

Let us pray.

In Christ,

Mark

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