One of the things that I look forward to during Christmas time is all the decorations. Normal suburban houses become beautiful displays of lights and decorations that can bring awe to the kid in all of us. There is a Santa and some reindeer at almost every house. Candy cane lights line the fence with a waving snowman display by the mailbox. These all bring a little bit of joy, but my favorite decoration is the nativity scene. They can be as simple as a small Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus on a coffee table to the extravagance of having every farm animal, shepherd, and angel they can imagine in the scene. No matter how big or small I still love it because it reminds me of why I truly celebrate the season. The only thing I find wrong with it is sometimes we leave Jesus in that manger as a baby. Why do we do that?
Every year thousands of churches and millions of homes probably have some sort of nativity scene decoration. We put a lot of celebration into a little baby in a barn. Now of course this baby is the savior of the world but he isn't that little baby anymore. In Revelation 1:14-18 John in his vision describes Jesus like this:
" 14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades."
That doesn't sound like a little baby to me.
This also extends to his death on the cross. We have little crucifixes around our necks and on our walls, and sometimes we concentrate on the dying Jesus. His death on the cross was important to his mission and I am so thankful that he did that for me, but that's not our emphasis.
The birth and death of Jesus are vitally important parts of our faith and you need to believe in all of it but those events were means to a greater purpose. A.W. Tozer writes in his book "The Radical Cross":
"Christ was born that He might become a man and became a man that He might give His life as ransom for many. Neither the birth nor the dying were ends in themselves. As He was born to die, so did He die that He might atone, and rise that He might justify freely all who take refuge in Him. His birth and death are history. His appearance at the mercy seat is not history past, but a present, continuing fact, to the instructed Christian the most glorious fact his or her trusting heart can entertain."
When you fixate on the baby in the manger or the man on the cross as something more than acts to reach the ultimate goal of reconciliation you have missed the point. The power to save and touch lives today is not with baby Jesus or dying Jesus but with resurrected Jesus. The same Jesus who touches hearts and lives today.
I challenge you this holiday season to think of the resurrected Jesus whenever you see a nativity scene, and be reminded that the God of all the universe loved you so much to come to earth in a humble way, as a child, to bring salvation to all who will accept it.
