It is Christmas, one of the holiest days of the Christian year. It is the day we set aside to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in a little town called Bethlehem. It may or may not be His actual birthday, that is not the point. The point is something astounding happened when Jesus was born.
John’s Gospel tells us “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” That means Jesus was the physical incarnation in human form of the Word. John uses the Word to describe God, for it is by the logos or concept that God created the world. God spoke and there was light… and stars… and creation. That spoken Word became a human being and was born in Bethlehem.
Bethlehem exists today. It’s a small town near Jerusalem. It was King David’s home town and sometimes is called “the city of David,” but calling it a city is a bit of a stretch. Bethlehem had a major industry in raising sheep. The Jewish religion required that lambs be sacrificed in the Temple of Jerusalem for the covering of sin. Sacrificing a lamb was not a permanent solution to sin, but it was a way to cover at least temporarily for sin. It was a form of sacrifice to atone for sin.
The faithful Jews from all over Israel would travel to Jerusalem on certain holy days to offer a lamb for sacrifice. While a Jewish family was free to bring a lamb to the temple, most of them brought money instead and purchased a lamb at the temple. Those lambs were raised in nearby Bethlehem.
And so one day there arrived in Bethlehem the man that John the Baptist would call, “The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus was born to be the substitutionary sacrifice. Jesus would die and bleed on the cross so that sin would be forgiven from believers forever. Sin no longer would be covered by the blood of a four-legged lamb, it would be wiped away by the blood of the Lamb of God.
Jesus was born—just like the lambs around Him in Bethlehem—for the sacrifice.
He was born in a barn. His first cradle was a food trough for livestock (the famous manger). Animals surrounded Him as He entered the world. Angels in heaven rejoiced at His arrival but it seems like only certain people witnessed the choirs of heaven… and those people were shepherds. The Lamb of God came to earth and after his parents, He was first greeted by shepherds, just like the other lambs.
Jesus’s death on the cross is sufficient to pay for all the sins of the world. But its power extends only to those who have faith in who Jesus was and is and what He did. In other words, we are saved by the grace of God through faith in God. Without that faith, there is no salvation.
The reason Christmas is such a big deal to Christians is that it is a very big deal when God steps into human history. Some do not believe in God, some believe in a spiritual energy that lacks any real personality, and some think there is a God who simply does not want to get involved… But Christmas is the day when we celebrate that there is a God and He is involved.
He came to the earth.
As Isaiah wrote centuries before Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem for the census, one of the baby’s names would be Emmanuel. That means “God is with us.”
Jesus is the living embodiment of the God who is with us. He isn’t removed or detached or disinterested. He’s deeply, profoundly, inextricably involved in human affairs.
It is why we wait in such anticipation for Christmas to arrive. Some celebrate the four preceding Sundays of advent as we make ready our lives for Emmanuel. Everyone counts down the days to Christmas. Christmas is the day when God arrives. When everything changes.
It proves that God is not some energy force field or vague presence, God is involved. God is involved in politics, science, the arts, everything. As it says in Revelation, He is the Lamb of God.
This is why we write Ricochet Café. Sure, it is about politics and the arts and science and medicine and culture, but God is in all of those things.
As Isaiah urged the faithful before Christ was even born, “Rebuke the oppressors.” Joshua, who took over after Moses, was counseled by God to conquer a new land and be “fearless.” Why fearless? “You are never alone,” Joshua 1:9 continues.
We are counseled by Scripture to look out for the widows and orphans—the weak and vulnerable people who ought to be protected by strong and righteous men, but who are not. We are advised to care for the poor, to comfort the feeble-minded, and to stand up for truth.
Jesus would say in His earthly ministry, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.” And on Christmas, Jesus arrived so that human beings like us can find out way to God.
This is why this is a busy, crazy, indulgent season when we eat too much and give extravagant gifts and feel rested and happy and surrounded by something that is hard to express. It is something good and friendly. It is Emmanuel. God is with us.
Merry Christmas to the readers of Ricochet Café. This is a most wonderful time of the year and a most wonderful time to be alive. It’s no accident we are here together at such a time as this.
Merry Christmas. God reigns.