This past week we celebrated Christmas. I imagine that most, if not all, have some concept of what is the true meaning of Christmas. But have we really stopped to consider the truth of the matter? Every year it seems our senses to its wonder dull just a little bit more. The decorations, the sales, the TV specials grow all too familiar packing an already full life. We enjoy the houses all lit up and when we see a manger scene here and there, we mentally assent to its place in the celebration. Perhaps, the aura of Christmas as we recall it and would like it to be has been diminished because we have forgotten the wonder of the very first Christmas.
Just for a moment consider this brief scriptural testimony to a small but significant aspect of that historical event some 2,000 years ago. “But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21).
Have you considered that Mary was with child though she was a virgin? She was pregnant though she knew not a man. To our understanding this is stupefying. We cannot explain it from our limited human comprehension. Yes, there are such things as in vitro fertilization in today’s medical world, but in Bethlehem there was no such thing. She became pregnant without any human intervention – a miracle if ever there was one!
Have you considered that her child was the eternal God incarnated, i.e. made in human flesh? Her baby was no ordinary child for the Scripture said “that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” Isaiah had foretold hundreds of years earlier “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Isaiah 7:14). Let that resonate in your mind and heart – God with us. God, the Creator, took on human flesh and was born of a virgin.
This leads me to the greatest question, i.e. have you considered why He did this? The passage above reminds us that Joseph would call “his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” This God humbled Himself to take on human flesh that He might be as one of us. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). Jesus came to die in our place for our sins that He, as Matthew records, might “save his people from their sins.”
“But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4). Consider this…
From the Chaplain 