PASTOR MIKE’S MEDITATIONS
Characters of Christmas
December 2019
Angels and wise men, Mary, and Joseph, shepherds who watch their sheep by night. These are just some of the characters that color our memories and reflections of Christmas. Whether it is those characters who fill crèches or we find on our Christmas cards, Christmas would not be the same without those who surrounded our dear savior’s birth. The question is, why are they there? Why did God include these people in the greatest story ever told?
To answer that question, we have to go back to the Old Testament, as we will do during this Advent & Christmas season, to understand that each of the “Characters of Christmas” are uniquely placed for a very specific reason, to fulfill prophecy. For instance, it took Joseph being from the line of King David and needing to go back to Bethlehem to check-in for a census decreed by Caesar Augustus, that fulfilled the place of Jesus’ birth. No human being can predetermine the place of their birth. Yet, God worked through Joseph’s lineage and his relationship with Mary, to fulfill the prophecy from Micah 5:2 that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem. When Luke fills us in on the details (Luke 2:1-7), these are not extraneous to the story but a significant reminder that God fulfills his promises.
And then there was Mary. Likely a teen, and not yet having consummated her relationship with Joseph, God brought about a miraculous conception through this willing servant. Isaiah 7:14 tells us that “The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” When Matthew lets us know how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about, he is showing how God was performing the Grand Miracle of Jesus’ birth in a way that fulfilled Isaiah’s words of prophecy.
When we hear in Isaiah 9:2 that “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned,” little did people of Isaiah’s day know that God will powerfully fulfill that promise through the presence of angels who shone brightly that night when the Light of the World came into the world. The angel’s presence shed light on the meaning and significance of Jesus’ miraculous birth.
The Old Testament is also clear that Jesus’ coming would be for all. Isaiah 61:1 tells us that the poor will have good news proclaimed to them. So, when watchful shepherds, who were some of the despised of society, have angels appear to them who announce, “Do not be afraid, I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people,” (Luke 2:10) God was once again coming through, showing that what he said would occur would come true.
Finally, when wise men come bearing their gifts from afar we can have Isaiah 45:22-23 ringing in our ear: “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other…Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.” The Lord of the universe who stepped into time and space as the Savior of the Nations would draw not only lowly shepherds but also the high and mighty of the surrounding nations to come and bow their knee before him. As Paul would later write, “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10). So this Advent, as we explore the Characters of Christmas, my hope and prayer is that each of us find our own kneeling places before our Savior Jesus, that through the story of Christ’s coming, we too are led to bow down and worship Him!