Good Christmas Eve to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
We have arrived! For billions of people around the world, this is the day we’ve been anticipating for a long time, isn’t it?
Now if you were the author of “Walking with Jesus” I wonder what you’d want to draw our attention to this Christmas Eve? As you know we’ve been focusing on ONE Christmas question each day for the past three weeks. So today I ask us this: “Christmas…why WHEN and HOW did it happen?”
God made this powerful statement to our world through the angels on the night Jesus was born: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for ALL people: Today, in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord…Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests.” (Luke 2:9-14) As with ALL things God does, Christmas was for God’s great glory and for the good of all humanity!
Almighty God, the Creator of the Universe, announced this great news to the world through angels, messengers sent directly from God’s presence to the skies near Bethlehem. God had come to visit planet earth, in the person of Jesus the Messiah! He would become the Savior for the entire world through His life, death and resurrection. By God’s plan, the arrival, life and accomplishments of Jesus Christ would become the pivotal moment in all human history, from creation in Genesis 1 through the future new heaven and new earth of Revelation 21.
About 60 years later, God made another bold statement through the apostle Paul recorded for us in Galatians 4:4, which explains the timing and purpose of Christmas: “When the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.” It means that what we celebrate as Christmas launched God’s great Redemptive plan for humanity; precisely at the time in human history God wanted it to happen; and exactly where on this planet God planned it; for His great glory and the good of all humanity! Now ponder that for a few seconds.
In case you wondered, we have no Biblical record of an exact date for the birth of Jesus Christ. The Christmas date of December 25 is first seen in an early Roman calendar about 336ad! For the first 3 centuries after that first Christmas, we have no reliable evidence of any annual substantial celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ! Of course, the Jews in Israel would have no reason to celebrate the birth of Jesus nor honor the town of Bethlehem as His birthplace. And it wasn’t until almost 300 years after Jesus that Christianity was widely enough accepted across the Roman Empire to warrant holidays which would honor the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.
By the way, the entire world population was about 300 million people when Jesus was born. The region of Israel was in many ways the center of the known world at that time since it was the major thoroughfare from the northern world we know as Europe & Central Asia to the southern world of Africa, and the major thoroughfare from Eastern Asia to Europe on the west.
That phrase in Galatians 4:4 “When the set time had fully come“ is fascinating isn’t it? WHY would God choose that precise time in world history for the birth of Jesus, the incarnation of God, and the launch of His Redemption plan for humanity? May I give you three reasons which I see?
First, much of the world was united under the Roman empire at the time enabling the news of Jesus to spread via one major, global language which was Greek.
Thus, as Matthew & Luke wrote their records of the Christmas story in Greek, and the disciples scattered, their accounts were slowly distributed throughout the empire and readable by much of the world’s population at that time.
Second, the Romans had established a major transportation system of trade routes and travel, even across the Mediterranean Sea, which enabled the story of Jesus to be taken to the farthest corners of the known world.
Third, the land of Israel, while not independent, was still somewhat unified as a home for Jewish people living in much of the original region given by God to Abraham.
Soon after the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70ad, and also the Temple, and much of the Jewish population in the region of Israel was scattered throughout the empire. Thus, the events in the life of Jesus in the Galilee and Judea region, especially Jerusalem, occurred as a last opportunity for God’s chosen people Israel to fulfill the vision God had for His people in drawing the world to know God.
In their refusal to recognize Jesus as their God sent Messiah, Israel was decimated and not until 1948 was that land known again as Israel or the Jewish people centralized there again in their homeland. Now think about the significance of that over the past 2 millennia my friends!
We can presume the census of Caesar Augustus, which brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, (Luke 2:1-5) also brought almost everyone in the nation of Israel to their ancestral family town. The line of King David was long and large; thus, we can easily imagine Bethlehem would have been a census destination for thousands of people like Joseph. While the road system the Romans had built was extensive across the empire, because Bethlehem was 6 miles south from Jerusalem, we can presume Joseph and Mary followed the well-traveled main road from the Galilee region south to Jerusalem and then the primary south road to Bethlehem. We should presume their journey may have been about 90 miles by road. Considering Mary was in her 9th month of pregnancy and probably riding on a donkey much of the way, we should presume it required at least a week for their trip. We have no record in the Christmas story of their exact route nor if they stopped along the way with anyone, they may have known to take them in for the night.
Because Joseph was a carpenter, it’s possible he occasionally had carpentry projects which required him to travel to some nearby towns in Galilee, but we should assume Joseph did not travel long distances except perhaps to Jerusalem for the annual Jewish festivals like Passover. I think it’s safe for us to assume young Mary may have only very rarely taken trips away from her home, thus this Christmas journey would have been for both of them a major endeavor and especially with Mary’s pregnancy, at a very vulnerable time.
Joseph and Mary’s arrival in overcrowded Bethlehem during the census provided them only an animal stable as shelter and the birth of Mary’s miraculous baby, God incarnate, Jesus the Christ! From our human perspective, Christmas night seems a terrible mistake, a colossal mess of poor planning. But from God’s eternal perspective it was the perfect time, the perfect place and setting for God’s arrival for His visit to planet earth. In some ways it seems to me that Bethlehem stable was like a little garden of Eden where Adam and Eve began the human race journey. The busyness of Bethlehem with the Roman empire census was in such great contrast to the quietness and simplicity of that stable.
The shepherds would have felt right at home among the animals in that stable with Joseph and Mary, and a newborn baby lying in a manger! Come close my friends. Step away from the busyness of your world and come into the stable. Join the gathering around Joseph, Mary and God incarnate in baby Jesus this Christmas Eve. Enjoy the miracle. Understand the WHY, the WHERE and the WHEN of Christmas. Experience the miracle and understand that God did this miracle for YOU and ME!
Spend some time thanking God for His perfect plan and how HE designed it! Here’s a wonderful Christmas worship song for this Christmas Eve.
Today’s Scripture: Luke 2:9-14.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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