By Ted Johnston
By Ted Johnston
A couple of years ago I came across a story that, to me, conveys the essence of the message of the birth of Jesus Christ that we celebrate at Christmas. Let me share it with you.
It was a snowy Christmas Eve. Inside his warm house, a man's wife and children were dressed and ready to leave for church. "Come with us," they urged him, for they loved him. "Not me," he snapped, "I don't believe all that religion garbage."
For many years the man's wife had been trying to tell him about Jesus Christ and the salvation he offers; how God's Son had become a human being in order to show us the way to salvation. "Nonsense," the man always said.
The family left for church and the man was all alone in his cozy country home. He glanced out the window at the cold, snowy scene outside. He turned to warm himself by the fire. But as he turned, his eyes caught a movement in the snow outside. He looked--cats! Three young cats were walking slowly past his window. "The fools," he thought. "They'll freeze out there for sure!"
The man put on his coat and hat and opened the door. A blast of wintry air sent a shiver through his body.
"Come here, cats! Come inside where there's warmth and food. You'll die out there." But the cats ran away, frightened by the stranger at the door. He walked outside. "Come back! Don't be afraid, I want to save you." But the cats were gone. It was too late.
"Well, I did everything I could for them," the man muttered to himself, "What more could I do? I'd have to become a cat myself in order to reach them and save them now. If I became a cat, I could tell them and show them. They'd have to believe me then, unless they were fools."
Just as he reached the door, the church bells rang in the distance. The man paused for a second and listened. Then he went in by the fire, got down on his knees, and wept.
The message of Christmas is a message that penetrates to the very heart and purpose of God. His passion is to rescue us from the cold--from certain death out there on our own.
The apostle John put it this way in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son."
Christmas reminds us that God gave in a most unexpected and miraculous way.
In John's Gospel we also read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Jesus was all that God is--all the power, ability and splendor--the Word was God.
Then about 2,000 years ago, something amazing happened: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14). God the Son clothed himself with our humanity. God become man--fully God, yet fully human. Perhaps this is the greatest miracle of all.
But why did the eternal Son of God do this? John continues, "No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man" (John 3:13). It's not possible for a man to lift himself up to God. No matter how good we seem to be, how powerful, how resourceful--nothing we ever do can elevate us to God's level. We can do nothing to bring ourselves in from the cold--from eternal destruction.
Yet God's heart is that we should not perish--his passion is that we be saved and live with him forever. And so he came down to us--he became one of us--he became Emmanuel--God with us.
Jesus Christ, dear friends, is God's great gift to us: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him" (John 3:16-17).
Though in this passage John refers primarily to the sacrificial giving of Jesus' life on the cross, that sacrifice began with Jesus' birth in Bethlehem on the outskirts of Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago.
* Did Jesus Christ come as a triumphant conquering king? No, he came as a helpless baby.
* Did he arrive wearing royal robes? No, he arrived naked and was wrapped in strips of cloth. He was laid in a feeding trough, attended not by royalty but by lowly shepherds.
The eternal Son of God came in the flesh to share our limitations as well as our sufferings. He came to show us the way to the Father--to eternal life--and then through his death and resurrection he opened that way for us.
Dear friends, I encourage you to hear the message of Christmas that God loves you and because of that he offered his Son. And he invites you to receive his love by receiving his Son.
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2000