Christmas hope

When man landed on the moon, that was big news. The whole world stopped to watch Neil Armstrong’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. And as big as that event was, it still doesn’t compare to the news that God landed on the earth. At Christmas, we’re celebrating the birth of Jesus, and it was at His birth that God came to Earth.

Jesus didn’t start in the stable. That’s where He made His arrival on earth, but He existed even before Creation. The Apostle John wrote one of our Gospels and he said: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1, NIV)

So Jesus, who was and is God, has existed from the beginning. And He chose to leave heaven and come to live among us for a while. But why would God do things this way? Someone answered that question this way: If God had wanted to communicate with dogs, He would have become a dog. If He wanted to communicate with birds, He would have become a bird. But God wanted to communicate with people, so He became a person.

Jesus came in the middle of the night in a stable in Bethlehem. He grew like us. He wore diapers. He spit up on Joseph. He got “owies.”

I don’t know if middle-eastern people deal with acne much, but if they do, Jesus probably had pimples. And get this, the scriptures tell us that He was tempted like us.

Jesus experienced the same pressures that you and I do, the same temptations and desires, but He never gave into them. All of this is important because it means Jesus can relate to you and me when we struggle with temptations. Jesus felt pain and disappointment. He became tired and lonely. He grieved, He cried, He was human. Jesus became what we are, so we can know Him and know God.

As we’re approaching Christmas and the celebration of Jesus’ birth, we can’t forget that Jesus didn’t stay in the manger. He went to a cross and voluntarily laid down His life for me and for you.

And He did it for two reasons. First, to demonstrate God’s love. It’s one thing for someone to say they love you, but it’s an entirely different thing for them to demonstrate it. The second reason was to pay for our sins.

Sin separates us from God and there’s no way we can cross that divide by ourselves. So our sins have to be paid for. Since we can’t do it, because we’re not perfect, Jesus went to the cross to pay our debt of sin for us. And because He did, we can be completely forgiven for everything we’ve ever done wrong. That’s the reason for Christmas.

Jesus came to be the savior of the world. If we didn’t need a savior, God wouldn’t have wasted all the effort to send one. The very fact that Jesus Christ did come to Earth, gave up all the glory of heaven, became a human being, was born as a little baby, grew up to be a man with pressures and temptations like our own, and then died on a cross and was raised from the dead means you and I definitely need what God has to offer. Otherwise, He wouldn’t have wasted all that energy.

So baby Jesus in the manger isn’t the whole story, and the cross of Jesus isn’t the end of the story because three days after He died, He rose again. He came on a mission to bring you and me home to God the Father. That’s the reason for Christmas.

We have hope because of a risen Jesus. But Jesus doesn’t rise from the dead if He doesn’t die. And Jesus doesn’t die if He doesn’t live. And Jesus doesn’t live unless He’s born. And the birth of Jesus is what we celebrate at Christmas.

Without Christmas there is no Easter and without Easter there is no hope — which means that Christmas was more than the birth of Jesus as a baby, Christmas is the birth of hope for all mankind.

Wishing you and yours the most wonderful Christmas!