Away In A Manger

Away in a Manger... Meeting the King of Christmas

2 Two thousand years ago, God sent us a Messenger with a very important message. He sent His only Son into our world, to be born the same way we are, to endure the same pains and griefs that we suffer, to put up with frustration and rejection and death just like we have to. (Hebrews 4:14-16; also 2:9-10) God instituted a policy that those who would trust God because of His Son would be given citizenship in Paradise. (John 3:16-21, Romans 5:1-2) Suppose you were the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and you had only one child, whom you loved whole-heartedly. Suppose you had to send an ambassador to a difficult nation which was blocking a peace accord. Suppose your intelligence community told you that the leaders of this nation planned to slander, insult, reject, beat, torture, and murder the ambassador. To convince this renegade nation of your sincerity and your concern for them, there are only two possible choices for ambassador: yourself or your son. Which would be easier, to go yourself, or to send your only child? That’s easy to answer, isn’t it? Any loving parent would rather face the pain themselves than send their child, their only child. For God to send His only Son to be rejected, humiliated, and tortured to death, instead of coming Himself, is the same as saying, “I love you so much that I will prove it by making Myself vulnerable to the limit to you.” As a result of becoming one of us, it is obvious that this Son does understand our fears and griefs. He understands you. He lived a human life like ours. Hebrews 4:15 says, “We do not have a high priest who can’t understand our frail minds and bodies. He was tested in every way that we are, but He didn’t sin or fail.” I recommend that you talk to him. He’s not a “babe in a manger” anymore. He listens. He cares. He can help! And He will, if we let Him. I recommend it, from forty-seven years of personal experience. Consider what God allowed His Son to go through to open Heaven’s door for us: Jesus was born in a manger - that is, a sheep pen. What kind of hygiene would you expect to find there? What kind of place is that for any baby to be born in? And what kind of entrance is this for an extremely important ambassador with an extremely important message? Why wasn’t this ambassador announced publicly, with proper protocol and respect? For one reason, because His life hung by a thread even from the beginning: “When Herod saw that the wise men had deceived and eluded him, leaving the country without telling him where this ‘King of the Jews’ was, he became enraged. In order to insure that he eliminated this potential rival, he ordered the murder of all the children in Bethlehem and its suburbs who were two years old or younger.”

3 (Paraphrase of Matthew 2:16) [The wise men had told Herod that the one born to become King of the Jews was at most two years old.] The Prince of Peace understands how a refugee feels. His own government wanted Him dead from his infancy until the day they succeeded: because He healed a man on the Sabbath, and declared Himself equal to God, and declared Himself to be the Messiah. (See John 5:18, 7:1, and 10:31.) The King of Kings knows what it feels like to be broke and homeless: “As Jesus and His disciples were traveling, a man said to Jesus, ‘Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.’ But Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ ” (Luke 9:57-58) He knows what it feels like to be betrayed by a trusted friend: “As Jesus and his disciples ate, he said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.’ " (Matthew 26:21) “...he that was called Judas...went ahead of the arresting officers, and approached Jesus to kiss him. [This was the pre-arranged signal to show which one was to be arrested.] But Jesus said, ‘Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?’ " (Luke 22:47-48) Jesus knows what it is to be alone: [in the garden of Gethsemane] “Then Jesus said, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow, even to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me’...and he returned to his disciples and, finding them asleep, said, ‘What, Peter, could you not even watch with me one hour?’ " (Matthew 26:38 and 40) He knows what it is like to be deserted by your closest friend when you need friends the most: “Then Peter began to curse and swear, saying, ‘I don’t know the man [Jesus].’ And immediately the rooster crowed, and Peter remembered what Jesus had said, ‘Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And Peter went outside, and wept bitterly.” (Matthew 26:74-75) Jesus knows what it is to be slandered: “(Jesus said,) ‘Because I tell you the truth, you don’t believe me. Which of you can prove me guilty of sin? And if I speak the truth, why don’t you believe me?’...Then the Jews answered, ‘Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan [a despised half-Jew, half-Gentile], and you have a demon?’ " (John 8:46-48)

4 He knows the frustration of suffering injustice: “And when Jesus made this response, one of the officers standing near slapped him and said, ‘Do you talk like that to the High Priest?’ Jesus said to the officer, ‘If I have said something evil, call attention to it, but if I spoke properly, why do you hit me?’ ” (John 18:22-23) “Pilate said, ‘What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ?’ Everyone said, ‘Let him be crucified.’ Pilate asked, ‘Why? What evil has he done?’ But they cried out all the more, ‘Let him be crucified!’ " (Matthew 27:22-23) He knows what physical pain is like: He was beaten and mocked by the police and had a crown made of thorns jammed down on His head by them (Mark 15:17-19 and 29-32), spat on (Matthew 26:67), whipped (Mark 15:15), and finally crucified, which is nothing less than death by torture. That is what Christmas Day led to. But it didn’t end there! It proceeded to the resurrection, which was testified to by more than five hundred eyewitnesses! (First Corinthians 15:6) And the end of what began on Christmas Day will be this: “Then I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth, for the first heaven and the first Earth had ceased to exist, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the residence of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them, and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, because the old order of things has ceased to exist.’ He Who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ And He said to me, ‘Write this down, because these words are true and trustworthy.’ He said to me, ‘It is done! I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. To anyone who is thirsty I will give freely from the fountain of the water of life.’ ” (Revelation 21:1-6) “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9) “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bull, and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, says the Lord.” (Isaiah 65:25)

5 You can be there! You can join the celebration of the Restoration. You can have joy and peace and health and happiness forever, if you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead: “...if you say publicly that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9) “When they heard this, their consciences were troubled, and they asked, ‘Men and brothers, what shall we do?’ Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ to be pardoned for your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.’ " (Acts 2:37-38) If you’re not sure about Jesus, ask God to show you the truth about Him. If (and only if) you ask for the purpose of following truth wherever it leads you, then God will answer. He loves you. He wants you to share an eternity of joy and adventure with Him! Join us in Paradise! It’s your decision. No one can keep you out of Heaven if you choose to enter. Although the goal of a Christian is to become like Jesus, it’s not possible to do so by your own strength. Good news: you don’t have to! You don’t have to be a “good” person to become a Christian. Look: “When the professors and priests saw Jesus having dinner with tax collectors and sinners ["sinners" meaning anyone they didn't approve of], they said, ‘How is it that He eats with tax collectors and sinners?’ When Jesus heard this, He replied, ‘Those who are healthy don’t need a doctor. Those who are sick do. I didn’t come to call the righteous to repentance, but losers and sinners.’ " (Mark 2:16-18) If you change your thinking about Jesus and believe in Him, God will strengthen you: “While we were still weak, at the appointed time the Messiah died for the wicked. Very few people would be willing to die even for a righteous man. God proved His love for us in that, while we were still wicked, the Messiah died for us.” (Romans 5:6-9) “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) It’s not easy to become what you should become, but perfection is not required. All that is required is a sincere effort to become like Jesus. If you begin the journey, God will not let go of you until you are safe inside Heaven’s gates. The apostle Paul expressed his confidence in these words:

6 “...I have been appointed to be a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles [concerning Jesus]. For this reason I suffer persecution, but I am not ashamed, because I know Whom I have believed in, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have entrusted to Him until He returns.” (2nd Timothy 1:11-12) I urge all who read this to take this seriously. Search for the truth about Jesus. Remember that, if Christianity is true, the best possible source of truth is the Bible. If you will read it and ask God to show you the truth, for the purpose of following the truth wherever it leads you, He will respond. I know He will. He answered me. I know He’s real. I know it’s true! You can too.