by Rev. Callum Macleod (Moderator of the General Assembly)
The birth of Jesus is a time of great joy for the Christian community. The festive season gives us an opportunity to reflect on His birth and the gospel message of which He is the centre.
We rejoice in the birth of Jesus because he brings to us the presence of God. We come to Bethlehem, and we find no ordinary infant. Jesus is the promised King whose titles include Immanuel (God with us) and Mighty God. God promised to His people in the Old Testament that He would send His Son into the world for our salvation. The King arrives in the news of the birth of Jesus. The child Jesus born to Mary is the Holy One, the Son of God. The wise men from the east came to Bethlehem to worship Jesus. As we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we join in the worshipful spirit of the wise men as they came to find the newborn King.
We rejoice in the birth of Jesus because of the projection of God’s light. The Bible tells us that the whole world is in darkness. In the birth of Jesus, ‘light has come into the world’. The invisible God has made himself visible in the arrival of Jesus, the Son of God. God is light. Jesus is the ‘radiance of the glory of God’. The beams of light which radiate from God through Jesus His Son give us an insight into the character, nature, purpose and love of God. This glorious light is for all the nations of the world! The darkness of the world is dispelled and there is hope in Jesus. We celebrate the birth of Jesus as we bask under the radiated light of the goodness of God.
We rejoice in the birth of Jesus because of His participation in our humanness. Not only did the Son of God come to be with us, but He also came to be one of us. The headline story is that, in the birth of Jesus, the Son of God became man. He embraced our humanness and our environment. From the moment of his birth, Jesus bore the weight of our sins. As the story unfolds, we learn that Jesus was born to suffer for our sins and to reconcile us to God. We become the children of God because Jesus loved us an gave himself for us. As we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we marvel at the wonder of His embrace of us as He rests in the loving arms of his mother, Mary.
We rejoice in the birth of Jesus because of the proclamation of peace. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Peace on earth was proclaimed at his birth (Luke 2:14). The mission of God to establish peace on earth took Jesus on a pathway to the cross. The peace that he secured at Calvary is more than the absence of conflict. It is peace with God. It is peace with our neighbour. It is ‘peace for all nations.’ It is an everlasting peace. It is the shalom peace that secures for us a place in the paradise of God. As we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we give thanks for the peace that is embodied in his person.
I wish you all a Happy Christmas. I pray that God will lighten up your lives with all that the birth of Jesus means today and always. And I pray that lasting peace is established in our broken and suffering world.