One of the common commands throughout Scripture is to remember the Lord. The natural man in his sinful nature is not only to forget about the Lord but also to defy him. How easy is it for us to only think about God when we are in trouble and need help? Israel repeatedly had that issue and one just needs to examine Katie Erickson’s recent 18-month series on the book of Judges where the constantly repeated theme was: fall into sin, occupation by an enemy, cry for help, season of prosperity, then back into sin again… rinse and repeat each time. It is easy for us to look at them and say, “Don’t you get it?” Yet, how often are we guilty of doing the same thing?
We need to remember the Lord, keeping him in the front of our mind. Christmas is one of those seasons we set aside to remember the birth of Jesus Christ. Many arguments are laid out about whether he was born on such and such day, but that is really not the issue. It is the day we have chosen to remember his birth. Yet many chose not to remember Christ during this season, but instead just have a party over no real reason. What is Christmas without Christ? Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny have become secular replacements for Christ to throw a party, but no one really knows why that day is celebrated anymore (except for the Christians who purpose to remember it).
The birth of Jesus was world-altering. God himself humbled himself to become a living human being. A friend of mine once described it as the universe began to turn on a new pivot point. That pivot point changed again approximately 33 years later when Jesus died and rose again on what we celebrate as Resurrection Sunday. This was no small event, despite the fact that Jesus’ birth went on record with no mention in non-Biblical literature.
Why would it? Jesus was born to a young girl (many speculate she was in her early teens) who claims to have never known a man, raised by a carpenter of no reputation, born in a stable surrounded by animals, which was witnessed to by lowly shepherds. The only people worthy of notice to recognize his birth were the Magi, wise men from a foreign land (likely Babylon). No one made records of this event and all we know about it comes from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Jesus purposefully chose to enter this world as a servant, as a man of no reputation. Isaiah even tells us he did not have a comely appearance. Jesus didn’t even look good, unlike the bulk of the images we see in pictures and movies of him. Why should we remember him?
Jesus did not stay a baby. He grew up. As an adult he began saying strange things and performing strange acts. He demonstrated a love and tenderness the people had not seen before, but he also drew a hard line about what following him would actually mean. In John 6, he fed 5000 men, plus their families, and the next day, Jesus did not give them a bite to eat except of himself as spiritual food and drink. Many of those who ate that miraculous meal left him and quit following him because he drew a line stating that to go with him, you would need to forsake all of your former life.
It got weirder. This uncomely man whose popularity grew as he performed public miracle after miracle to prove he was who he claimed to be now challenged the religious leaders of the day. He never challenged the political leaders, just the religious leaders who were supposed to know the truth and yet taught a set of rules that they themselves would not follow. And when the people sought to make him the king, of which he was the rightful heir to the throne, Jesus would not take it. Had the throne been occupied for the near 600 years between Zedekiah’s last days in 586 BC and Jesus’ arrival, Jesus would have been the next king, as Joseph would have been.
So when Jesus rejected the political uprising to overthrow Rome, and then performed his greatest miracle to that time in the raising of Lazarus, the religious leaders had enough and set it up to kill him. He was executed on numerous false charges and the only actual charge they could pin on him was his claim to be the Messiah, his claim to be God. He was executed by Roman crucifixion which was vividly portrayed in Psalm 22, written not only 1000 years before it happened, but also over 900 years since crucifixion was invented. It did not end there.
Three days later, after his body was secured in a tomb lest anyone steal the body and proclaim a resurrection as he claimed, Jesus rose again, no longer in a servant’s body, but in his glorified body. When John saw him in his vision recorded in Revelation, he fell down on his face as though he were dead, because his face was so bright in righteousness. He now sits at the right hand of the Father, ever interceding in our behalf and preparing a place for his Bride. Sin and death have been defeated all those who put their trust in Jesus, leaving their old life behind, will find victory and abundant life.
For those of you who claim to be Christians, this should be common knowledge, however as someone raised in a Christian home and on the mission field, I can testify how easy it is to skim over “common knowledge.” The Gospel is something so much deeper than “getting saved” and sadly, too many Christians stop at that point. The Gospel is ever growing and ever deepening news about dying to self and being conformed into the image of Christ. We are not to remember the coming of Christ to this world just at Christmas but at all times the whole year. And we are not to just remember him as a baby now, but as the rightful King of Glory.
For those of you readers who do not claim the name of Jesus, I do not speak to you in terms of myths and legends but from a very real person who performed very real miracles, recorded by eye-witnesses in the presence of other eye-witnesses who could verify the accounts, or deny them. The faith spoken here is not a feel-good story either, but a truly life-transforming reality that sadly very few who claim the name of Christ understand in reality. And one thing I do know: if you want to find the truth on this issue, seek it out with all honestly and thorough investigation as you can, and do not quit until you have exhausted everything that can be found. God never has nor ever will turn down an honest seeker, and despite the many claims to try to prove it otherwise, no one has ever refuted the Bible’s claims. This Jesus I write of is no myth, but God himself who became a man. He publicly proved he was who he claimed to be even before his enemies and no one could stop him. And no one will. Find your hope in him because he never will fail to come through on what he promises.
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