We wonder why He came as a baby. We expect that since God is so grand, he would’ve come down as some extravagant ruler or arrived on a flashy flaming chariot just to prove himself and announce that the Messiah has come. That’s how we’d get the job done. Or something along those lines, right? Be obvious and show your power to everyone, we’d say. But instead He came out of a womb, as a baby, just like each of us. God became a human and experienced what we have all gone through. He made us and then He became one of us, experiencing the design of His own creation. And He did so in such an inconspicuous way. In the most humble of manners. (I don’t know, but were you born in an open barn?)
It’s been said before, but God’s way of coming to meet with us and of sending the Messiah is so shockingly ordinary. In a way that’s not only simple, but grossly unappreciated by man. Jesus is visited by shepards, who were by no means highly regarded, just eternal wanderers on the earth with their sheep. Yeah, the wise men visit, but Jesus is hidden away from the king in the midst of all this. You’d think that maybe it would be okay to get all up in the face of a king ruling over a mere empire if you’re the savior of the world, but Jesus has to lay low for the time. There’s really no rational argument against Jesus’ arrival NOT being strangely unimportant and unanticipated by the vast majority. I mean, His parents aren’t even given a decent place to stay. Essentially anyone whose heard from Joseph and Mary about the baby being conceived by the Spirit has turned away from them thinking this couple who was once their friend is insane. None of those people are excitedly telling everyone that a Messiah is on the way. Yeah, we can’t really understand God’s decision here, except to say that God’s plan here reflects His desire to meet us in person and not as some far off being or separated power. However, this odd and unexpected turn of events is mightily powerful. I think we miss the truth of this in a particular way. As I was at the Christmas Eve service tonight, I was inspired by this wonderful possibility. This is what I was thinking: there are so many moments in the Bible where God gives us free choice. When He created Adam and Eve, He gave them freedom. The first humans weren’t created robots, and none after were either. From the beginning, God offers freedom, we are never obligated or forced to follow Him. God says love and obey me, God says there are consequences for all our actions, but His grace and forgiveness are even greater than that in the long run. Look at Solomon at the end of his life in 1 Kings. Solomon doesn’t obey God’s command to stay away from marrying multiple women. God knows the women will become his idol and completely overshadow Solomon’s heart after God. God says Solomon must be punished, but God honors His promise first and foremost. God fulfills the promise He makes to David, Solomon’s dad, so Solomon still lives a good life. (But his kids won’t as a consequence.) And even then, God’s grace appears in various ways to Solomon’s descendants. Another example of God’s freedom in creation is the fallen angels. Lucifer, the most beautiful angel at one point, turns from God and take many angels with him. Obviously, Lucifer is banished, but God doesn’t get rid of Him, which He has the power to do. Sin enters the world, as a result of God creating freedom. And maybe you’d start to think that freedom could be a bad thing. After all, we misuse it and the results are often monumentally detrimental. And you could begin to believe that sending Jesus to earth in such a quiet way is a bad idea, because now Satan can use the doubts about Jesus to his own benefit. Maybe you’d imagine that an inconspicuous arrival means less people are saved, because less people see the full glory of God. But you need to stop thinking that. Those ideas are from the devil, who wants you to see God’s freedom as an opportunity for Satan to deceive more people. Satan wants you to think that the more time that passes before Jesus returns, the more chances there are for him to drag people with him to hell. Satan wants you believing that people will choose him over God. And above all, he wants you to think that freedom is a terrible thing, because look at all the bad that people have used it for. But don’t you see? If Satan has free reign, so do we. This is where the wonderful.possibility comes in! While Satan has the freedom to destroy and hurt, we have the freedom to love and build up. You see, power comes with freedom. Someone who chooses to love Jesus has much more conviction than someone who is forced to. God knows that love works better than fear. He is the creator of it. He knows that love roots deeper than fear ever can. And because of that freedom works to our advantage. Freedom means our faith is always relevant, because our faith makes sense in the context of any kind of pain or joy. Freedom means we are freer than any bond that the devil can try to trap us in. Freedom means God loves us enough to let us choose, because when we learn, we grow, and that allows us to understand our relationship with Him in an unshakable way. Do you understand the goodness of freedom? It is delicious. Quick case-and-point: Another look into why Jesus came in a not-so-obvious way which I’ll explain in a recent day scenario. Let’s talk about an imaginary top-notch a-list celebrity. If this celebrity wants friends who actually appreciate them as a person and not a “friend” who is out to get personal gain by leveraging the reputation or connections that the celebrity has… will the celebrity boast about his/her career and status? Probably not… even if they’re proud of what they do and really enjoy acting. Chances are they will instead keep that part of their life on the down low until they can gain the trust of people. Then when the celebrity knows that they’ve made a genuine friend they’ll reveal that part of their life, which the real friend will understand in a truly interested and selfless way. I think it’s similar for the position that Jesus was in, not that he didn’t want people to be sure that He is the Messiah, but that he really wanted to change people’s hearts towards God, not just their mind. You see, if Jesus came all obvious-like, people would miss the real reason of following him. In fact, they would probably follow Jesus just to go to heaven, just a one way ticket kind of deal. They wouldn’t ever change their hearts toward God, or understand the point of faith, except that it gets them security in the afterlife. In the Gospels, when Jesus casts out demons, some of them declare that He is the Savior in a mocking manner, and Jesus silences them from giving away his identity. In the story, it is not time for Jesus to reveal his identity so blatantly. But this story speaks back to the devil’s goal of manipulating God’s creation of freedom. See, why would the devil of all people help reveal Jesus’ identity? Quite possibly, it’s cause if people heard the devil declare Jesus as the awaited Savior they would be fearful and follow Jesus out of fear. And doing something out of fear doesn’t work; it’s forced and it’s not genuine. I think the biggest disservice that Satan does to us all is making us scared of hell, which takes the focus off of being excited for heaven. Hell is unimaginably terrible, but heaven is not enjoyable for people who dont love God or don’t care about being reunited with God. It’s bad that some people want to go to heaven, just because they don’t want to go to hell. The devil is so good at showing us how bad badness is that we forget to notice how good goodness is often times. To anyone who was willing and seeking to see it, Jesus’ actions and words displayed his position as the true Messiah. His humble arrival as a baby was a great gift to us. A reminder of freedom. And a reminder that God has a plan, that is good. Emmanuel, God with us. What a blessing! Case closed.
0 Comments
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
July 2016
Categories |