Because of the Christ of Christmas
we get to celebrate the life in Jesus. We get to celebrate the eternal hope in
Jesus. We get to celebrate the Joy of Jesus. Even though there are tears and
grief we gaze at Jesus through our tears, which act as prisms, and through them
we see the beauty and the blessings of Jesus. I love short stories. I love a
little story by Somerset Maugham called, "Appointment in Samarra", which
is about a servant who is living in Baghdad. As the servant was out in the
marketplace buying some goods, someone behind him bumps into him, and he turns
around and sees death. He sees what looks like a very frightening gesture, like
death is threatening him. So he runs home to his master and says, "Master!
Master! Death bumped into me at the marketplace. When I turned around and
looked at her she made a frightening gesture. I need to flee. I need to run.
Would you let me take a horse? I want to head to Samarra where I can hide from
Death." His master says, "All right, you can take the horse and you can go to
Samarra."
Later that afternoon the master is
in the marketplace and sees Death, and walks over to talk to Death. And he
says, "My servant said that he ran into you this morning and that you frightened
him. Why did you frighten my servant? Why did you make a frightening
gesture?" Death says, "I didn't make a frightening gesture. I was just startled
to see him because I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra. I didn't
know what he was doing here in Bagdad."
Every one of us is going to die.
We don't want to think about that during the Christmas season but we're going
to die. By becoming human and dying for us, Jesus has defeated the power of
death and the devil, and he's freed those who were held in slavery by their fear
of death. Because Jesus came to earth and lived and died, we don't have to fear
death. There is life after death when our bodies are raised and we live forever
in the new heaven and the new earth.
Jesus was born to a rather humble circumstance. There were no
lights. There was no heat. There was no midwife. There were no pain
medications. There was no help and support of any kind other than Joseph.
There, in that humble situation, Mary gave birth to a baby, wrapped him in
strips of cloth, as was the custom in that day, and laid him in a feeding trough
for cattle, a hay manger. Yet the writer of Hebrews tells us that there was
great glory in that birth, in the humanity of Christ, that Jesus Christ became
human in order to bring many sons and daughters to a place of glory. That
begins right now and continues until that day when we're fully glorified, when
we're raised together with Christ in new bodies.
Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
In Christ,
Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment