By DR. LARRY MOSES
No one asked me but… Tomorrow is Christmas; it is the birthday of Jesus Christ. It is a strange birthday. Gifts are given to those who attend the party not to the birthday boy. Many who received the gifts don’t even believe the birth took place. Many have no idea why they are celebrating, but it is always fun to receive presents.
The birthday boy, Jesus, is the giver of the greatest gifts one can receive. Jesus gave us the gift of his humanity. We who believe are awed by His divinity, but we should be just as amazed at His humanity.
He came to earth to set the example of how we should all live. Jesus came into the world as a complete man as well as a complete God. Jesus as a man felt the same things you and I feel every day. He can honestly say to you and me, “I understand how you feel my son or my daughter for I have been there.”
He too had a friend betray Him, he too succumbed to his mother’s wishes by turning water to wine. He saw and felt ingratitude. When He healed ten lepers, only one returned to thank Him. Strangers let him down. He healed a man and asked Him to tell no one, but the man could not keep it a secret. Friends did not live up to His expectations. In His time of need, His best friends fell asleep. One of His best friends denied knowing Him three times. World situations frustrated Him to anger as He drove the money changes from the temple. He faced temptations, and the fear of death, and the thought that His Father had deserted Him. Jesus assumed all of these facets of humanity as a gift for you and me.
He could have come to earth in his God presence exclusively. He could have claimed His throne on earth for all things are His. He, however, chose to come in his humanity to give us an example of how we should live
Jesus faced and resisted earthly temptations. He knew that all Satan promised Him He already had. We are often tempted and give into the temptation because we forget that we have been promised all that God has given his Son. We are told we are joint heirs with Jesus which entitles us to all of God’s goods and wealth. When tempted with earthly goods, we need to keep in mind what God has set aside for us as His children.
Jesus came out of God’s love for man, but keep in mind that Jesus also showed His human anger when He cleansed the temple of the money changers. Fortunately for the money changers, they felt Jesus’ human anger and not his Godly anger. Had it been His Godly anger, legions of angels may have been called down to destroy those who desecrated the holy place of God. There are issues that should anger all believers and sometimes it is imperative that those of us who believe follow the example of Christ. We live in a nation engaging in holocaust of epic proportions as hundreds of thousands of unborn children are legally being killed in their mother’s wombs. The Lord’s name is taken in vain as a routine matter.
These are just two things that believers should become angry about.
Do you ever become frustrated with things in your life? Christ too became frustrated. As you read the Word, how often do we hear Jesus say “O ye of little faith?” Don’t you think Jesus was frustrated in the Garden as He asked his disciples to pray only to have them fall asleep three times.
What a gift God gave us when He sent His Son to earth in His humanity to give us an example of how we should live. To know that Jesus understands what we deal with every day from a personal and up close experience is gift of immeasurable value.
A second gift Jesus gave us is His willingness to not only share our burdens but to actually take them up Himself and carry them with us. The classic old hymn “What a Friend we have in Jesus say it about a well as anyone can. The third verse states: “Are you weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care? …take it to the Lord in prayer. Do your friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer. In His arms He’ll take and shield thee…”
What a great gift Jesus has given us with his willingness not only to share our burdens but to take then up Himself and carry them with us. While Jesus does not promise to remove all our burdens He has promised to help us carry them. The poem “Footprints in the Sand” by Mary Powers talks about a walk on the beach with God and she is puzzled by footprints that sometimes seems to reveal only one person walking and God explains it to her: “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you. Never, ever, during your trials and testings. When you saw only one set of footprints, It was then that I carried you.”
The third and greatest gift is the salvation given through His sacrificial death and resurrection. Hanging on the cross, Jesus died as a man and this completed His humanity. He suffered all the pain and anguish of man. As a man He took all the sins of the world and atoned for them in his death. Jesus had no sin and the humanity of Jesus could not die without sin. The wages of sin is death and Jesus had no wages coming. He took all believers wages unto Himself and through His grace those who believe will have everlasting life. The second half of the third gift was the resurrection for without the resurrection the miraculous conception, birth, humanity and death on the cross would be meaningless.
And what do we have to do to receive these and the many other gifts God has for us? It cost you nothing or it would not be a gift. It is yours by grace because you cannot earn it. All Jesus asks is that you believe in Him as the son of God. During the Christmas day, as you enjoy the family and the earthly gift giving, take time to remember the many gifts God has given to us.
Thought of the week… I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today; I know that he is living, whatever men may say; I see his hand of mercy, I hear his voice of cheer, and just the time I need him He’s always near. – A hymn written by Henry Ackley
