It’s not what you may think. I was, in fact, leading a tour of the Holy Land. We had just visited the Shepherds’ Fields on the outskirts of Bethlehem. The tour bus mistakenly traveled back up the same road, thus providing an ideal target for a frustrated young Palestinian.
It was a piece of flint the size of a baseball, chiseled into a sharp-edged projectile, and delivered by slingshot through our bus window. Had it connected with a passenger’s head, it would have been fatal.
This was another vivid reminder that Bethlehem is a battle zone. Jerusalem is only four miles away, and in between is the demarcation line dividing Israel and the area governed by the Palestinian Authority.
But the Battle of Bethlehem raged long before the 1948 War of Independence. No doubt Phillips Brooks was thinking of this when in 1868 he wrote his famous carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” It concludes:
“Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”
He understood that the birth of the Son of God wasn’t really about twinkling lights, candy canes, and gifts under the tree. It was a crucial turning point in the cosmic war between good and evil, between God and Satan, between our eternal destiny in heaven or in hell.
Those unrealized hopes and brooding fears he mentioned are symptoms of the damage done to us by sin, and show our desperate need for a Savior.
Jesus’ birth is unique. First, because He’s the only human born by His own choice. The rest of us just showed up one day. “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15) The Babe of Bethlehem was on a mission!
Over earth’s portals might well be written, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here”—until He arrived. Seeing we’d cut ourselves loose from God and were hurtling into the dark, He left His palace for penury, angels’ praise to be the drunkard’s song, and royal robes for a carpenter’s homespun.
But second, the birth of Jesus was unique because He was born to die. Here was His purpose, as He said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) He came to appeal to us to return, prodigal-like, to the Father’s House. He came to provide a blood-red bridge from our sinfulness to God’s righteousness. His love took Him from Heaven to Bethlehem, from Bethlehem to Calvary, and from Calvary back to Heaven, but now bringing with Him a vast multitude of saved ones to share that place where unresolved hopes and nagging fears are changed to blessed reality and everlasting joy.
Third, Jesus’ birth united God and man in one Person. “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh.” (1 Tim 3:16) Since He’s the only Mediator, only He can reconnect us with God, the giver of eternal life.
“As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:12) The old hymn asks, “Have you any room for Jesus?”
Article by Jabe Nicholson first published in the Commercial Dispatch, Saturday, December 16, 2023