The Christmas Story

I am a part of a group called central (well i used to be until i went away to school). It is the college group at my home church: Graceland Baptist Church. Tonight we talked about the Christmas story. However, it was not the normal, "Mary and Joseph traveled from afar for a census; There was no room in the Inn; Jesus was born in a manger; Wise men and shepherds came to visit," story. We broke up into four groups and discussed four aspects of the story, based in Luke, to find a common thread. The four aspects were Zachariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the birth of Jesus.

Zachariah and Elizabeth. Zachariah was a priest and Elizabeth was his wife. The were told by an angel of the Lord that they would give birth to the one who would lead the way for Jesus. Now Zachariah did not believe; consequently the Angel made him mute until the Baby was birthed. He did not believe because Elizabeth and he were advanced in years, and she was beyond the point of giving birth. nonetheless she gave birth to the one that would lead the way for the Messiah.

Mary and Joseph. Mary was a virgin(she had never had sex). She was young and engaged to Joseph. An angel of the Lord appeared to her to tell her she was going to give birth to Jesus. Firstly, this is amazing because she had the opportunity to caring God inside of her. Secondly, this is amazing because she had never had sex. this is not, however, what Joseph thought. To avoid embarrassment he was going to divorce her quietly. An angel of the Lord came to Joseph telling him not do this because his soon to be wife was carrying God and that she had done nothing wrong. So, they stayed together and she gave birth to Jesus.

The Shepherds. They were out with their flocks and a whole host of Angels came to them telling them that Jesus was born and to go check it out. They dropped what they were doing and ran to see this messiah.

The Birth of Jesus. Well...it was just that. He was born

now this sound like what described earlier, and thus far it is. But there is more to these things than just this, so much more. Before i go any further i will go ahead and tell you the common thread because it is extremely important. All of these people were common, just like you and me. They were no better or worse than anyone else. They were not royalty. The were common.

It is this fact that makes them amazing. I was noticing as we were discussing this that the people involved in his birth directly reflected his ministry. Jesus' target was the common people not the royalty. Another thing i noticed was that the shepherds reflect the disciples. When the Angels came to the shepherds, the shepherds left their sheep to go see Jesus. When Jesus called the disciples, he called them to leave their lives behind to follow him.

Jesus, while in heaven, was directly face to face with the father. They were perfectly satisfied, they need nothing else. But, Jesus turned away. He turned away to come down to earth. He loves us so much that he left his father and their total satisfaction so that we could one day be with him and his father for eternity.

That is the story of Christmas and it seems that it is so often left out of the story. Yes, God sent his son in the form of a babe. We forget Why he did this. It is that Why that makes Christmas so amazing.