The Miracle of Christmas

A couple Sundays ago, Tom Macy, one the pastors at my church preached a sermon about the miracle of Jesus’ birth. However, he came at it from a direction I haven’t often heard a preacher go with a Christmas sermon. The main text was from Revelation chapter 1 where Jesus is described as an awesome warrior-type person who is triumphal in all things. This huge, all-powerful being, that instantly strikes fear in the heart of John, enough to make him fall down and cower. The miracle that Tom spoke about wasn’t that the tiny baby in the manger became this all powerful God. No the miracle is that this all powerful God, became that tiny baby!

So what does that mean to you and me? Often when we think of Jesus’ love for us, we think of the cross and all the pain and suffering that is associated with that cross. The lashes, the beard being pulled out, the crown of thorns, the nails in his hands and his feet, and the absolute torture it must have been for him to draw each breath. We don’t think about this all-powerful being, this God of the Universe, the Alpha and Omega, humbling himself to become the little baby in a manger. Not only would it have been a humbling experience for Christ to just become human in general, even as a great king or exalted prince, but He chose to become a dependent child!

I’ve held Kaylee in my arms when she was seconds old. There is nothing in this world that is so dependent on life, at least in my opinion, than a new born human child. Think about it. It takes us a year or two just to learn to walk. We can’t feed ourselves for longer than that even. Absolutely everything we need to survive and succeed we depend on others to give us. Now, think about how humble and how much you’d have to love someone, to become that dependent again. Now, think about it from Jesus’ perspective. He was the provider of EVERYTHING to everyone. He made the world and the people and now He was willing to depend on the very thing that He made and depended on Him. He became the small baby crying for his mother’s milk or soiling his clothes and needing them changed. The great loving huge God of the universe, he became the small completely vulnerable child for you and for me. Now that, my friends, is the true Christmas miracle.

Philippians 2:5-11

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.