Christmas Message
There are many players in the Christmas message. We’ll begin with the story in Luke where we find Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth. They were up in years now and had long given up hope of ever having a child. Then we find gives them a child, who is John the Baptist the forerunner and cousin of the Lord Jesus. Our next player is Mary. She is visited by the angel Gabriel and told that God is going to use her to give birth to the savior of the world. I doubt she fully understood everything that meant yet she willingly said to the angel: “If it is from God, let it be done.” Next we find the shepherds (the first evangelists) and told the story of how God gave them the news of the birth of the savior and their trip to find the baby. Then last we are told about Simeon and Anna blessing God because of the child Jesus. I am only giving you a brief summary of the story and you can read it for yourself from chapters one and two of Luke.
Now I waited to mention Joseph until now because, he plays a unique role in his marriage to Mary. Though he is not the actual father of Jesus, it is through his lineage from the line of David that gives Jesus the right to be King of the Jews. Mary could not do that because her ancestry was from David’s son Nathan. The next players are the Wise Men who came from the East following a star to find the young child king. In today’s world they might be thought of as astrologers. Somehow God revealed to them that Israel’s king and promised savior was about to be born and they followed the light that God gave them. Instead of going directly to Bethlehem it stops them at Jerusalem. Now we are introduced to King Herod, who was not even a Jew, but placed there by the Romans. It was the spiritual leaders (though not really that spiritual themselves) who are called in to help determine where to tell the Wise Men where the new king was to be born.
Now I waited to mention Joseph until now because, he plays a unique role in his marriage to Mary. Though he is not the actual father of Jesus, it is through his lineage from the line of David that gives Jesus the right to be King of the Jews. Mary could not do that because her ancestry was from David’s son Nathan. The next players are the Wise Men who came from the East following a star to find the young child king. In today’s world they might be thought of as astrologers. Somehow God revealed to them that Israel’s king and promised savior was about to be born and they followed the light that God gave them. Instead of going directly to Bethlehem it stops them at Jerusalem. Now we are introduced to King Herod, who was not even a Jew, but placed there by the Romans. It was the spiritual leaders (though not really that spiritual themselves) who are called in to help determine where to tell the Wise Men where the new king was to be born.
I love this story. It is about a miracle birth, really a lot of miracles actually. It is about the story of how Christ stepped out of heaven and was given a body so that he could come to earth and be our savior and bring us to heaven.
