Why The Birth of Jesus Matters

We are pretty much insulated from the excitement that the Hebrews felt around the time that Jesus was born.  All of them lived in constant expectation that their generation would be the one that saw the arrival of the Messiah that had been promised of old.  They waited and they watched and they watched and they waited and alas, the Messiah was taking a long time to come.  But still, there was that excitement that they felt in their hearts that it could be any day.  But why did we need a Messiah at all? 

ANCIENT PROMISE

In the Book of Genesis, we see that God was very close to his creatures, going so far as to visit them in the "cool part of the evening."  This is a time when after the work of the day was over friends would get together and would talk to each other, share stories, solve all of the world's problems or as we say it today in our  vernacular they would "hang out."  God is portrayed as a very close friend and He indeed came to visit at the end of the day.  He loved His creation and wanted nothing but the best for them and looked forward to being up close and personal with them. Man, unfortunately, disobeyed God and with that on his soul, he no longer felt close to God.  God was not to be talked to as a friend, but rather, He was to be avoided because sin had entered the world.  Sin and God do not cohabitate.  So Adam and Eve alienated themselves from God and hid from Him.  God, if he were human, would be heartbroken.  But God being God wanted to repair what was broken.  He did not want to move His hand and take away the impediments between them for man had decided to separate from God and God wanted no puppet, He wanted voluntary love from His creatures.  So, He formed a plan and told Adam and Eve about it.  There would come a Savior who would fix everything up and restore what was broken and it would come through the Woman. This is the ancient promise that the Jews were putting their trust in. 

THEY DID NOT UNDERSTAND

Years passed by, many of them.  The people of Israel were not able to fulfill the Covenant that they had made with God.  They would do their best for a while but sooner or later they would go off of the tracks and end up being conquered by one enemy or another. At the time of Jesus' birth, the Romans were the masters of this stiff-necked people.  But the Romans were smart.  They allowed the Jews to worship their God and even minted special money that did not include the emperors head on it for the Jews to use.  The coin of the realm proclaimed the emperor as a god and no Jew would want to touch the coins.  An aside, this makes it all the more remarkable when the Pharisee handed Jesus a coin with the head of Caesar on it.  The Romans also avoided erecting statues of Caesar in Jerusalem.  They wanted to keep these temperamental people calm, cool, and collected so they made certain concessions to them.  In spite of this enlightened approach of the conquerors, the Jews saw them as occupiers and they longed for the day when the yoke of Rome would be cast off and Israel would take her place at the top of the food chain just as she was at the time of David.  The Messiah would see to this, of that they were sure.  They did not understand that God had other plans. 

THE HOLY BIRTH

Mary was found to be with child, about three months along after she returned from a trip that oddly enough lasted three months.  Joseph was going to send her away but after getting "the word" in a dream he took Mary into his home and they were husband and wife.  Meanwhile, the emperor looked at the funds in his treasury and found that it was looking a little thin.  He decreed that everyone should go to the home city of their ancestors to register and pay the tax.  He was no fool, he wanted every penny!  So, Mary and Joseph loaded up their donkey and headed to Bethlehem even though Mary was almost ready to give birth.  This was the town of David was from. As a matter of fact, at that time, everyone was from Bethlehem because it was a small backwater famed for sheep and shepherds.  It was not considered a lush vacation spot.  Since the whole world was on the move, when Joseph and Mary arrived, they could not find a place to stary.  All of the hotels, motels, and boarding houses were filled to the brim with happy taxpayers just itching to give their hard earned money to the emperor.  To top things off, Mary began her contractions.  Joseph went to the door of another guest house and was immediately rebuffed.  He begged the landlord for a place, any place because his wife was going to give birth shortly.  The landlord said he had no room but he was free to use the stable, at least the hay was clean!  Joseph, disappointed and feeling like a failure, thanked the landlord and turning to Mary he smiled and said that they have a place that they could stay, the stable of the guesthouse which was a cave, there was no fire, but the heat from the stabled animals should make it tolerable.  Mary smiled and told him that it sounded wonderful and they made it to the cave just in the nick of time.  The baby was born, in a stable in Bethlehem and he was wrapped in the clothing that Mary had brought along and placed in the manger, literally the animal's food bin.  Bethlehem means place of bread and Jesus rested in the manger, a place where animals took their food.  The birth gives a hint at the end of the story, but that is for later. 

WHY

God could have said to Adam and Eve, "Okay, just don't do it again."  But that would have not cured the problem.  God was not holding a grudge.  He still loved his creation but knew that if He was going to get them to love Him back that He would need to do something more to both prove His love to them and to wipe out the debt that mankind owed for the sin of Adam and Eve.  This is why Jesus was born.  God would come down from heaven above and lead the life of a man and experience everything that a man could experience in life.  He would feel joy and sorrow, weariness and pain, and loneliness and temptation.  He would show man what to do and how to do it.  His watchwords would be, "Love one another as I have loved you."  And to prove His love, he would take it the bitter end, He would die as a criminal, filled with pain and suffering. He would die and then He would destroy death and open the gates of heaven to us again. The penalty earned by Adam and Eve would be paid for by God Himself in an act of love like no other.  So this is why Jesus was born, why He lived, why he taught, and why he died and rose from the grave. 

ACT ONE

We can consider the events of Christmas as Act one in God's passion play.  God is passionately in love with us.  By us I do not mean as a group, I mean He loves each individual person and sees in them the potential for them to become saints and to live with Him in heaven. 

GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST AND PEACE TO PEOPLE OF GOODWILL! 

Michael The Lesser wishes all of those who read my blog a very Merry and Holy Christmas.