Friends and neighbours, can you imagine anything more vulnerable and tender than a baby lying sleeping in a crib? Their little eyes closed to the world. Their chest barely perceptible, rising and falling. When you put your hand out to theirs and nudge it just a little bit, it reflexively wraps around your pinky. The room is warm and quiet and that new baby smell is in the air. With your thumb, your gently rub each little finger. You could stare into that face for hours and hours just tracing that little nose and those tiny ears.
But even that little baby was more vulnerable than that at one point. From day one, even inside its mothers womb, that little baby, just a few cells big was growing. Starting off as just a couple cells, it grew and grew; the sound of its mother’s heart, the rhythm that calmed and soothed it. On day 22, its own heart started beating. By week 7, the mouth, nostrils, and ears are all there and a little baby’s face can be seen.
At Christmas, this is what we are celebrating. We are celebrating Jesus, God Himself, becoming human. And that story didn’t start with Jesus asleep in a manger. It started nine months earlier. Listen to this from the Gospel of Luke.
the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
Luke 1:26-36
The Christmas story doesn’t begin with a baby asleep in a manger. Before the baby asleep in the manger, there was a birth. Before the silent night, holy night, there was a woman in labour, which I’m sure was anything but silent. And, before the labour, there was a pregnancy. Before the pregnancy, there was a conception. And before the conception, there was a promise.
What was the promise? The angel Gabriel said to Mary that this the son to be conceived in her womb would be a King. For too long, the world had tried to live as if we could be King, but now the Good King was coming to set everything right once and for all.
But look around you. It doesn’t look like Jesus set everything right does it? We’re all feeling the sting of soaring grocery prices, people are dying in wars all over the world, our loved ones are sick, our marriages are hurting. There is pain and suffering everywhere we look. What good did Jesus’ coming into the world at Christmas do?
Everything I just listed sound like really big problems (and they are!), but none of them compare to our biggest problem. Yours and my biggest problem is not the evil out there all around us. Yours and my biggest problem is what’s inside. More important than what separates people from one another is what separates us from our Creator.
Inside, you and me know we’re not right with God, the King of the Universe. We all know that we haven’t honoured Him or given thanks to Him for the very breath in our lungs. We all know we have lied more times than we can count. That we’ve had impure thoughts we’d never want shown to the world. We’ve all been vengeful, hateful, greedy, and selfish. We’ve put ourselves on the throne of our lives instead of our rightful King.
Why is there sin and suffering in the world? Because of you and me. We’re the problem. But Jesus is the solution. John 3:16 says…
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 3:16-18
Jesus chose to become weak and vulnerable in His mother’s womb as a human fetus for our sake. Then, He became weak and vulnerable to die on a cross for our sake. Jesus lived the perfect life we were supposed to live for God and then He died the death we deserved. The debt we owed, He took as the perfect sacrifice. Then He rose again having accomplished the reason He came to earth.
Why is there pain and suffering in this world? “The light came into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light.” (John 3:19)
The King has come to make everything new and to heal the world, but as long as you keep trying to live your life apart from Him, your life will continue to fall apart and it will end in tragedy: separation from the King of Kings.
This Christmas, this moment, could be when that all changes. Today, God calls you to repent from your sin and put your trust in the King. Before you sleep tonight, apologize to Him for all the ways you’ve lived your life apart from Him. Turn towards Him as the only One who can save you from your sins. Trust that the life He lived and the death He died was for you, so that you can be raised to new life with Him too.
If Jesus never became a little zygote in His mother’s womb, if He never hung on that cross… There would be no hope for the world. There would be no hope for you. But He did! There is hope! There is an escape for you and the world from sin and from separation from God. This is why Jesus came!
Joy to the world! The Lord is come. Let earth receiver her king!