“Now the birth of Jesus the
Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to
Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the
Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose
her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to
do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son
of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived
in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will
save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill
what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Look, the virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and they shall
name him Emmanuel,” which
means, “God is with us.””
-
Matthew 1:18-23
It’s
after midnight as I write this, and there is one reason why I’m not in bed: my one-week-old
son won’t fall asleep. He’s not crying or even whimpering, but boy is he
squirming, and I’m left to decipher what he’s trying to tell me as he flails
those little arms and legs. At this stage of his life the list of possibilities
is short: chances are he wants food, a clean diaper, some help being burped, or
maybe just to be held by his mommy or daddy. And whatever he wants, he’s
counting on me or his mother to do it for him.
The
more I learn about my own child, the more I think about the one whom Christmas celebrates.
After all, this is the season every year when we rejoice at the coming of Jesus
Christ into the world, not as a conquering king or a powerful prophet, but as a
baby boy. As the angel told Joseph, the day would come Jesus would save his
people from their sins, when he would offer hope to the hopeless and release to
the captives—but first, he would be a baby.
When
we think about Jesus as Emmanuel, “God with us,” our minds tend to fast-forward
to the adult Jesus, the one who so visibly embodied God’s power and presence on
earth. It’s easy to understand Jesus as God with us when you imagine him
walking on water, raising the dead, and casting out demons. But the truth is,
Jesus was God in the flesh from the beginning, from the day he was born and
laid in a Bethlehem manger.
And
what that means, unbelievably, is that for a time, God not only loved people,
he needed them. Like any other baby, Jesus
needed to be fed and bathed and clothed, and he was counting on his human
parents to do that for him. Strange as it is to imagine, the very life of God’s Son was dependent upon a Nazarene carpenter and his young wife. Before Jesus
ever called a disciple or even uttered a word, God was already enlisting people—counting on people—to help carry out His
mission, in ways big and small.
There
is a reminder there for us today. Just as when God blessed Mary and Joseph with
their task, or when Christ called the twelve disciples, or when the Holy Spirit
was poured out on the church at Pentecost, today God is depending upon His people to carry out His mission. All believers are called to proclaim the good
news of the kingdom of God until Christ’s return, to show this world the love
of God just as Jesus did, with compassion, holiness, and self-sacrifice. It is
not an optional task, nor is it extra credit for overachieving Christians—the mission
of God is one entrusted to all of the church. So this Christmas and in the new
year to come, may you devote yourself to God’s work. He’s counting on you.
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