HIS COMING INTO WORLD HISTORY AS THE SAVIOR OF MANKIND had been prophesied for 2,000 years, since the opening chapters of Genesis in the Old Testament. It also came down through such grand major prophets as Isaiah at least 700 years prior to the Virgin birth in Bethlehem:For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end. (Isaiah 9:6-7a)
Strategically, it was a brilliant time for a conqueror to be born with a network of Roman roads and commercial travel routes throughout the known world, a cohesive Greek language and monetary system and a location smack dab at the crossroads of Egypt, Turkey and of course Rome and beyond.
Judea was dominated by the despised Roman Empire with its central bankers, immoral dictators, mammoth armies and brutal, hedonistic culture. Still, there was another ruling elite in the promised land: A haughty cadre of Old Testament Jewish scholars and 'religious zealots' known as Pharisees whose heads abounded and overflowed with Old Testament knowledge, Hebrew history of redemption and high expectations. But their hearts were arrogant and hard as rocks.
They were God's chosen people and they alone knew what they wanted, needed, yes demanded, in the savior that was to come to liberate them and topple the current world political/economic system.
They were expecting a spectacular nuclear military/political might to arrive with guns blazing, to kick butt and establish a new world order with them---the Pharisees--as the head of everything, such as the world had never seen.
Even Judea's wicked, self-serving King Herod knew the Old Testament prophesies and was expecting a mighty world conqueror to come....But no one, NO ONE, ever expected what was about to unfold in the Middle East as the time-space continuum was supernaturally, but quietly, humbly split for all time in Bethlehem. No one expected.....this....
No one, let alone the Pharisees, expected two comings....the first one involving a tiny baby boy born under a lean-to into the most humble of circumstances to an almost poverty stricken mother....A child many would consider a bastard who would become a carpenter for most of his life before being baptized at the age ofo 30 by a honey/grasshopper eating lunatic in the Jordan River, then beginning a 3- year ministry of miracles--- turning water into wine at a wedding feast etc, etc, etc---and speaking in symbolic parables and rhymns that many refused to, others could not understand.
An child born to be killed in the most brutal of ways by the very men who were expecting him! A child born to first change the hearts of men and women rather than their political, economic and social status. A child who claimed to be God Himself in the flesh come to save the world--- anyone regardless of race, color, sex or creed---who humbled himself to repent of the depraved lifestyles they were living.
An obedient child who would conquer the snake in the garden and death itself by dying on a Cross, being resurrected and promising one day to come again-- a second time---as the mighty ruler they were all expecting in the first place. A child who came in truth to destroy organized religion and begin personal relationships with anyone---Jew or Gentile--who humbled himself enough to realize he or she was a sinner in need of a Savior to transform his priorities and life.
Absolutely unthinkable!Ttoo preposterous for words! Blasphemy! A joke crucially unfunny and unjoyful to the ensconced ruling religious/ political classes. How dare God even consider doing such a thing to them!
And yet, according to the Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, it did happen just that way and a lot more too. A supernatural member of the Triune Godhead came to the densest of matter in the flesh to continue the redemptive history of fallen man by suffering every conceivable indignity and rejection by us, for us all. If you don't have the good fortune to know this Great Savior, Jesus Christ, it's never too late. Kneel down at that manger and ask Him into your life, to guide and comfort and change you from the inside of your heart out. All we have to lose is everything we don't really need. And everything God wants to take from us so He can give us his eternal blessings without end. The only prerequisite is knowing we need Him. And here's the clincher: no sin, no selfishness, no former lifestyle however bad or good is beyond His saving grace and redemption. Nothing is too bad or too good to exempt us, if we merely ask Him into our lives and hearts and begin a personal relationship with HIM. It's not about religion really, he came to destroy organized religion---even Christian pharisee rule-keeping and strictures--- and begin a living body and church fellowship of believers who base their relationships on love and forgiveness and genuine transformation.
He came to bring Truth to Live By. He did not come to enslave us again with shackles of hard-hearted dos and don'ts.
Jesus Christ IS the most perfect Santa Claus, the eternal Santa, that we never knew we needed and still have in our midst today. And yes, He IS coming again one day in a very, very different way.....but that's another story for another time!
Take home here, as then and for all time is only this: HE SHALL REIGN FOREVER! HALLELUJAH! THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM.
God bless and Merry Christmas!
---Webutante, from Manhattan
2 comments:
Better call on God to protect you from the blizzard.
OK, cause it's coming fast!
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