If the President comes to town, whether you like him or not, the town celebrates. If the President turn his motorcade down your street then you watch in amazement. If the most decorated official in our country shows up and ask for a room to sleep in, any reasonable person says, “I’ll make room” even if you don’t have any. Anytime a President, king, or honorable leader enters a town they are rewarded with the best of the best, five-star accommodations, and any luxury they desire, it’s just how the world works right? One of the most baffling things to me is that two thousand years ago the Creator of the universe knocked on the world’s door and was told there is no room in the inn for you. Even more baffling is that just a few miles away a band of heavenly angels announced the birth of a Savior for humanity, “Christ the Lord.” As if irony is not already overflowing, Scripture then affirms the child to look for, the sign of this Savior is a baby laying in a manger. No, not that soft cute hay filled bed we see in a nativity scene at Christmas, but the feeding trough of an animal. Kings are born into palaces, right? If the President comes to town we make room, right? Then why was the Son of God born into a feeding trough in a back-end stable? It may seem ironic but It think the answer is actually beautiful. The birth of our Lord and Savior should not only teach us that Jesus identifies with humanity, but that He identifies with the humble.
Friends, before we can see the beauty of His cross we must see the humility of His birth. Let us never forget that Jesus Christ the Lord stepped down from heaven into a manger of humility to take his first steps towards the cross where He would absorb God’s wrath for our sin by dying in our place. It is life-changing to taste the sweetness of this good news, that Jesus would come down to meet us instead of calling us to work up to Him. So likewise, in order to come to Christ we must deny the pride within our hearts and come in humility by faith professing our need for a Savior and surrendering our hearts to Jesus as Lord over our lives. As believers in Christ, his humility should still grip our hearts and drive us to abandon all self-centeredness and to walk in humility to those who are in need spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Let’s not see the birth of Christ as merely ironic, but as beautifully life-changing. Let the beauty of Christ transform your heart to follow Him with gratitude, humility, and love as you seek to be a disciple committed to making other disciples.
Blessings,
G
Zac Gardner 