Cradle and Cross

As we begin December, many of us are either thinking of what gifts we will buy, what we have already bought, or panic because we haven’t figured anything out yet. While that is okay, I want us to truly think on this one question - “What is the true purpose of Christmas?”

What is the true purpose of Christmas?

Is it a businesses profit margin?

Is it a marketing managers heyday?

Is it a retailers chance to make a profit for the year?

Is it shopping with family and friends?

Is it about the cards we give and receive?

Is it about searching for the X-mas or as we have noticed lately C-mas “stuff” out there?

Is it all the bills that come in and stress everyone out?

Is it about decorating the house?

Is it about the gifts you will give or receive?

Is this what we have reduced one of the most celebrated seasons to?

While we may all joke about these things, these questions may not be as absurd to non-believers.

At the pastor’s Christmas dinner Friday evening, Dr. Brian Autry the executive director at SBCV said he had met a non-Christian lady and during their conversation she wanted to know where he was going and he told her he was going to church to celebrate Christmas and she looked at him perplexed and said “What does Christmas have to do with Jesus”? Church, this comment was made by someone in Virginia… Not a foreign country with a hidden tribe, in Virginia. This should be worrying to us! This should concern us! This should cause us to be troubled.

But does it? How many of us truly take the time to think about what the cradle and the cross means to us - as Christians.

I do believe we need to look more and what Christmas means to us - as Christians.

And maybe, then, as Christians we can have a better understanding of who Jesus truly was and what He did for our lives.

The Cradle

Micah 5:2 ESV

2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

Micah, a book in the “Minor Prophets” (Due to their size, not their importance), predicts the judgment coming onto Jerusalem and Samaria for their abandonment of the faith. Now, Micah changes his focus to one of hope as he prophecies of a coming king!

There is a great promise that is given to the nation of Israel, outlining that at the end of time, Jesus will come and set up a perfect dwelling place with Jerusalem being front and foremost in Christ’s eternal kingdom.

But before that can take place, Jesus had to come as Redeemer, and show us the hope and peace He brings even in a lost and sinful world.

Focusing on the upcoming destruction and scattering of Israel, Micah tells them of their need for a Savior; someone who could deliver them from bondage, and save them from their enemies. But, as we know the Babylonians would soon come in, and the Israelites would be taken captive.

Micah saw a huge number of Babylonian troops camped around Judah’s capital to besiege it. Micah urged the people inside Jerusalem’s walls to gather into troops and to defend the city because it was under an attack of the worst kind. In fact, Micah saw so many troops gathered to attack the city that he called Jerusalem the city of troops. The capital was surrounded by a massive army of hostile invaders, conquerors determined to destroy the city. Jerusalem’s citizens and rulers—men, women, and children, rich and poor, young and old alike—were all in immediate danger.

Destruction was coming, the prophet was warning them, but no one was listening. They had become cold to the truth, were comfortable living in complete opposition to God’s Will and desire for their lives. The Jews had become distant and unresponsive to God. It would be 150 years before this prophecy would come true, and no doubt the acts just got worse.

I find this humbling. We have the Bible, God’s Word to us, with all of this information in it telling of what is to come. It is a warning to us, the same as the warnings given to Israel in the Old Testament. But we, too, have become comfortable opposing God. We have become comfortable contradicting and being in conflict with God’s Word. We have become distant and unresponsive to God as a nation also. How long will it be before the second coming happens? None of us know, but I can confidently say we will grow even more complacent and our actions will just get worse too.

But a Savior was coming. This Savior would be born in the city of Bethlehem (referred to as Ephrathah and Ephrath). He would be Israel’s Messiah, and His name would be Jesus. Bethlehem was a small and humble town, it’s only significant history had been the place where Ruth married Boaz, and the birth place of King David. Now imagine this - the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Messiah - the promised Deliverer and Savior - would be born here.

But here is where it takes an interesting turn, if we truly think about it. This Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has also always been - even during the creation of this world - the one who had all the power, authority, and might as His Father - would humble Himself to the point of coming to this earth, being born as a baby, and living His life in this sinful world. He would leave heaven, and come to earth.

Now, I don’t know about you all, but when I think back to the birth of our children, they were not born independent. They relied on us, their parents, to feed them, burp them, change their dirty diapers, all the things that come along with parenthood.

Now think of this closely. The Son of God, the Co-Creator of the World, left His heavenly home to be born and start His life as a human child. The one who spoke and the land formed now relied on His parents to feed Him. The one who spoke the trees and animals into existence now had to be burped on His mother’s shoulder. The one who formed mankind with His own hands, breathed life into them, had to rely on His parents when He needed a diaper change...

Christians, can you imagine the humbleness that had to come into play when Jesus came to earth. If the God of this universe clothed Himself in humility and descended to us—if He was willing to be despised and rejected by humanity, even dying for us—should we not be more awed at the sacrifices He made for us?

Philippians 2:5–8 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

You see, while His birth was significant - fulfilling prophecy; it would be His death that would provide a way for you and I to be REDEEMED.

The Cross

Isaiah 53:3–12 ESV

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Jesus’ lived a sinless life, trying to point all He came into contact with the truth of Christianity. Yet He was rejected, His message was rejected, SALVATION was rejected.

As a result of the war and the hardship of their exile, the Israelite population was greatly diminished. But when the Israelites were set free from Babylonian captivity and allowed to return to the promised land, they would grow in numbers. They would be fruitful and reproduce their population. Although the immediate occasion for this prophecy was Israel’s restoration to the promised land after their captivity in Babylon, the prophecy will not be totally fulfilled until the Messiah returns to set up God’s kingdom on earth.

They were looking forward to the coming of their Messiah. They recognized and understood the prophecy, they even quoted it when questioned in the New Testament. But they still chose to deny Jesus was the Messiah.

They had become so removed from God and His promises that they could no longer remember their sins, the shame no longer bothered them, they didn’t fear God or others. Even bondage as humiliating as it was, didn’t humble them and the nation of Israel (as a whole) turned their head away from God. Isaiah 53:3 reminds us He (Jesus) was despised and rejected by men. If they had turned that far away from God, then HOW could they recognize His Son.

Isaiah 53:3 ESV

3 He was despised and rejected by men

But the REASON Jesus was here was more important than all the REJECTION He experienced. He continued pointing others towards their Heavenly Father until they placed Him on a cross.

The Creator of the universe, the Son of God, Jesus Christ humbled Himself to be beaten, spat upon, tortured, stripped, a crown of thorns placed upon His head, and then nailed to a cross where He would ultimately die. Yet during it all, He still cried out to the Father to forgive them, because they did not know what they were doing. As He hung on that cross, He saw each and every one of us, He saw our sins, and He took our sins upon Himself so that we could be seen as spotless, white as snow, RIGHTEOUS - SINLESS, in the eyes of the Father.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Closing

I pray we never see the day when we turn this far away from God as a nation, and forget the true reason why Jesus was born, why He had to die for a sinner such as I. I pray we never forget the sacrifice Jesus coming to this world as an infant. I pray we never forget how He was rejected and despised by His own. I hope we never pray that He still loved us enough that He willingly gave His life on the cross. You see, THOSE are the reasons we celebrate Christmas. So we will NEVER forget who Jesus truly is, what He did for us, and how WE can live for Him.