The Word “Christmas” stirs many thoughts, visions and emotions in the hearts of people. The season can be incredibly joyful, and for some incredibly stressful depending on family dynamics, distance and finances as well as our different perspectives of what Christmas is all about. For the Christian, however, the center of our celebration is the story of Christ, our Savior’s birth.
Throughout history, most Christians celebrate Christmas with candlelight church services, Childrens re-enactment of the birth story of Jesus from Luke 2 along with gift exchanges, decorations and family gatherings. But do we every stop and consider why we celebrate the birth of this baby boy that Mary may or may not have known who He really was to become? What is the purpose that God sent His own Son from heaven to earth to be born of a human woman, to grow, learn, live and die in a short lifespan of 33 years?
We will start with an unusual Christmas season passage from John 14:8-11. “Phillip said, “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied”. Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Phillip and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father so why are you asking Me to show Him to you? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I speak are not my own, but My Father who lives in Me does His work through Me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen Me do”.
Jesus came to show us the Father. He came as a living breathing demonstration of the Father’s love for all creation that all mankind shall see Him and know Him. We celebrate the birth of Jesus because we celebrate the life of Christ and the love of God poured out through Him on a people that could not find Him without seeing Him as He really is. Jesus came to fulfill Isaiah 59:15-16 prophecy that there was no man who could intercede for mankind so God Himself intervened on our behalf. The coming of Christ was that intervention for a people that seemed hopelessly helpless to walk uprightly before their God. The cycle of sin, sacrifice and shedding of blood to pay for their sins only to sin again seemed to rule over them without an end in sight. So God said “I will send My own Son to become the sacrifice for all time and through Him, they can become like Me, like I created them in the beginning in the image of God.
This is why He came….as a baby in a manger, to live, teach, to heal, to deliver, to forgive and teach us to forgive, to become a sacrifice on a cross, to be buried in a tomb, to rise from the dead and to ascend into heaven seated at the right hand of the Father to become intercession for all eternity. He came to reconcile us all because the Father loved us so much and longs for us to be with Him. Jesus came, He was born that He would die in our place to make a way for us. He came to show us the Father.
So, when we celebrate the baby in the manger this Christmas, let us not forget that He didn’t stay a baby, nor did He stay on the cross or in a tomb, but lives eternally in heaven making intercession for a people that cannot make our own way to God. The manger, the beginning His return as the Bridegroom, the end.