Growing up I associated Christmas with Christ's birth--which is, of course, fitting and proper, because that's what the celebration is about. However, this year more than ever I've been thinking more about what Christ's birth has to do with the rest of his life and with our lives. Yes, it is incredible that God chose to become a person, that he chose to come to Earth as a baby into a humble family and that the angels announced his arrival to shepherds and not kings. However, if Jesus just came to be a person to show solidarity with us, or to be a perfect person, then overall it requires nothing from us and it's just a warm fuzzy story. Fortunately, this is not the case.
This Christmas I have been thinking about the implications of Christ's coming. The Bible makes it clear why Jesus came:
Isaiah 53 (ESV)
1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Jesus didn't come to be a cute baby or a role model (although he was those things and we are thankful). He came to bear the wrath of God that stood against us. He was sent to die for our sin, to be our covering, to pour out grace on us, to live out and show in his death the heights and depths and widths and lengths of God's love for us. It was God's will to crush him. Jesus was born to die so that we could be reconciled to God and spend eternity with him, and if we don't associate his death with his birth, we miss the whole point of the Christmas story.
I've also been thinking about the future implications of Christ's coming, particularly the fact that he is coming again. Even in the celebration of Christmas we find ourselves broken in so many ways. We hurt the people we should love the most. We are wrapped up in selfishness. We mourn the loss of the people we love and wish that they were here with us. The wonderful truth of the Christmas story and Christ's death and resurrection, though, is that he has promised to come again and to take away all sin and sorrow, taking his rightful place as Lord of all and demanding submission from the enemies that pull us apart from him. And that will be beautiful. I look forward to it.
This year it has been incredible for me to think about the big picture of Christ's advent, of his coming near. I am so thankful to be loved by God and to be covered by his grace, and his arrival deserves a response of worship and submission. I adore him and I want to live my life in awe of who he is and what he has done.
May God prompt the same sense of wonder in your hearts. Merry Christmas, everyone :)
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