One of the mind-bending truths of Christianity is that the man Jesus, born of Mary as a baby, who grew up in Nazareth and developed and matured like all humans do, is also the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, creator of all things. This section of scripture helps us see both Jesus’ absolute and foundational humanity and His absolute and foundational divinity. Jesus is both the true son of Mary and the true Son of God. Both His humanity and divinity are total, and both are totally necessary for Him to be all that He needed to be to redeem and restore all creation.
Jesus was born a Jew. In fact, He would end up being the ultimate Jew. The only one to ever fulfill completely and fully all the requirements and commands of the Old Covenant and in so doing He would usher in a new covenant by fulfilling the old one. This new covenant through Jesus is the means by which all people, Jews and Gentiles, could become the people of God. This passage is a reminder that Jesus is the centre point of all history and that our future will be determined by how we respond to the redemption He offers.
It’s easy to become so familiar with a passage like this that we lose the immensity of what is taking place. In this passage Luke records that the one who is beyond time is born into human history, that the creator of all thing’s has stepped into His creation. And what makes this even more startling is the setting. Jesus, God become flesh, enters time and space in anonymity and vulnerability. He’s born to a teenage mom and laid in a trough used to feed animals. The entrance into human history does not take place in the halls of power, in the places of prestige and privilege, instead God appears in the most humble and lowly way imaginable. And yet, a birth noted by no one of note at the time, becomes the moment by which all history will end up being divided. Christmas matters because Christ has come and that changes everything.
Elizabeth gives birth to the son God had promised through Gabriel. Zechariah’s muteness and deafness are removed after he names his son John in obedience to what God had commanded. Upon the lifting of his silence, he proceeds to prophesy. The time of the Messiah is at hand. God is providing the Saviour He promised. Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant promises God made to Abraham. He has come to rescue and redeem people. To shine light on those who live in the darkness and to bring life to those under the shadow of death, and John would have the honor of preparing the way for Him. As people who have received the salvation Zechariah foresaw, we now get to bear testimony to Jesus as the one who came to bring light and life and peace to a world filled with darkness, death and fear.
The faith of Mary is an example for us. It’s marked by humility that demonstrates itself two ways: First, she is surprised that God would grant to her the honor and blessing to be the mother of the Messiah. Second, she is humble enough to take God at His word. It’s also marked by a willingness to trust God despite what it might cost her. Having a child out of wedlock was a surefire way to lose her reputation, the husband she is betrothed to and any future moving forward, but she not only believed the words of God, she also believed that God would provide for her. Finally, it’s a faith that is marked by hope. She believes her God will not only be her salvation, but that through the child she is bearing He will bring salvation to all His people. Mary provides for us not only an example of the type of faith God honors, but a picture of the people of faith our world desperately needs.
As Luke begins recounting the events leading up to Christ’s birth, he starts with a prediction of another birth—that of John the Baptist. John’s birth serves as a powerful reminder that God remains faithful to His promises, even when it seems like He’s gone silent. John’s birth marks the end of the 400-year period of silence in the salvation narrative. It reminds us that even when our prayers seem to fall on deaf ears and our faithfulness goes unnoticed, God is always true and working. He continues to work even when all hope seems lost, when our dreams are dashed, and even when our prayers have become little more than a faint hope. This story calls us to persevere in steady faithfulness, believing that God’s promises are reliable and that He often responds when we least expect it
In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul describes the role of disciples of Jesus as that of an ambassador. For those of us who are disciples of Jesus our role is to represent King Jesus to the world around us through our actions and our words. We are to go to all those who do not yet know Jesus as King, who have not entered his kingdom and plead with them to “be reconciled to God.” On the cross Jesus did everything that was necessary to reconcile people to God, He took our sin on himself and offers to us His righteousness, deciding to receive that offer is the first step every disciple of Jesus must take, but it’s also the message every disciple of Jesus is called to take to the world.
In 1 John 4:20 John makes the point that Jesus had previously made in Matthew 22, which is that a true love for God will evidence itself in a love for others. In fact, John says, if we say we love God but fail in our duty to love our brothers and sister in Christ we show ourselves to be liars. What does it look like to love one another? Well in John 13:34 we see that it ought to look like the way Jesus has loved us. Jesus served us, he’s shown grace to us, he forgives us, and he sacrifices for us. This is the type of love we are called to demonstrate to one another and when we do so we show the world that we belong to Jesus and we show the world how deeply Jesus loves us.
When Jesus was asked what the greatest command is, He replied: ““Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command.” If being a disciple of Jesus is learning to obey all that He commands, then it would seem being a disciple has to start with growing our love for God. The question then is how? How do we grow our love for God? In 1 John 4:10 the apostle John gives us the secret, by growing in our knowledge and understanding of just how much God has loved us! If we are going to grow as disciples who love God, we are going to have to grow in our knowledge of the God who loves us. Most particularly we are going to need to keep our eyes fixed on the cross as the ultimate testament to God’s overwhelming love for us. Application:
Are you participating in spiritual disciplines that are drawing you into the presence and love of God?
Are you daily spending time in God’s word and in prayer?
Invite people to understand God’s love for them more clearly and deeply by taking the NT from 30,000 ft class or if they are a young adult the practicing Sabbath class.