By Pastor Sunil
CHRISTmas is a festival celebrated all across the world to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ who was born in a small manger in the little town of Bethlehem.
What exactly happened on Christmas Day?
The God who created the whole world, the God who works at the universal level, at the atomic level and even at the micro level came down to earth as a small baby on Christmas Day.
* Everything in this world is sustained by God but that very God came down from heaven, put on the human flesh on Himself.
*God is very powerful than anyone in this whole world yet He chose to come down as a weak human baby.
*The God who asked Moses to remove his sandals because the place where God’s presence is Holy, this Holy God came down in a manger. The God who couldn’t bear the sandals on the ground chose to give up everything and be born in a dirty manger.
*The story of Jesus could have begun anywhere but He chose to begin it in a small manger which is the most lowly place. A place with stench of urine and dung of the cattle, a place without windows and doors for birth could never exist.
*The omnipotent God for once became breakable when he was born in Bethlehem.
*The God who is Spirit made Himself pierceable to the cruel nails when He chose to enter this world as a human being.
*The God whom the whole Universe could not hold chose to reduce Himself into a small human embryo.
*He didn’t choose a grand entry into this world but a humble one.
God has taught me 3 things from the birth of Jesus in a manger;
1.GOD IS VERY REALIST – When God sent His Son, He sent him as a child and not as an angel. Jesus went through all those life cycles that any normal human embryo goes through. Jesus went through everything in life because he wants to give us the assurance that He understands us in every way. God put His son with the poor and not the rich, with the humble and not the exalted ones. The moment Jesus was born, Herod wanted to kill him. God put His own son in a very dangerous situation. When Jesus died, there was neither an ICU to take care of Him nor any medical attention to comfort Him in the midst of an excruciating pain. God did not spare His own Son from the reality of the fallen humanity. God wants to prove it to us that He is deep rooted in all our troubles. It means that God understands our every pain, weakness and sicknesses too. God knows the agonies of human being. He is as much real as you and me are and His plans are much bigger and realistic than we can even think or even imagine.
2.GOD IS ACCESSIBLE – Charles Spurgeon once said “We might tremble to approach a throne but we can never fear to approach a manger.” God made Himself vulnerable. He didn’t restrict himself but made Himself accessible to everybody. The shepherds and wise mean were not priests but common, ordinary people and even gentiles but still God made Himself accessible to all. He was accessible from day 1 unlike the newborns who are protected from anything and everything.
3.GOD CAN BE MISSED : “And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7 NASB. Even though Jesus came into this world to restore the mankind, there was no room for him anywhere in Bethlehem to be born. Thd people in those days missed Jesus not because they were evil, but because they were not looking for Him. We can be busy with our lives, friends, etc and hence miss God. But remember that we can miss anything in life but not God.
When we look around the Christmas celebrations, we can see beautifully decorated Christmas trees, lovely stars hanging outside the homes or buildings, cakes all around, Santa Claus, Carols etc but in all these things we all end up missing the real reason for this season and that is JESUS – the Saviour of this World. Let us not miss our Saviour who was born in a manger to prepare a place for each one of us in heaven. Don’t miss your Saviour in the midst of all the beautiful things around you. Red is the colour of Christmas but red is also the colour of God’s love and God’s blood that was shed on the cross to save each one of us from the eternal hell.
We can all live in this world without Jesus but we cannot leave this world without Jesus because hell is not a good place to spend your eternity.
The whole message of Christmas can be summarised in a simple verse from the Bible which is as follows;
“”For God so loved the world (You and me), that He gave His only begotten Son (Jesus Christ), that whoever believes in Him shall not perish (in hell), but have eternal life (in heaven).”
John 3:16 NASB
