By Jason Smith

“He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:7-11, NIV)

I was reading from one of my heroes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, recently. Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor who took a stand against Nazism’s cruelty during the Third Reich’s reign of terror. In one of his Christmas sermons, he reminded his listeners to contemplate the “holy mystery” of Christmas. Rather than trying to “figure out” how God could become a human or domesticating Christmas to a quaint little Nativity scene, complete with a smiling baby Jesus and cute little barn animals looking on, he said we ought to be filled with wonder during this season.

Bonhoeffer reminds us that Christmas is about God entering this world and being rejected even at the birth of Christ. Our Lord was placed in a manger — a feeding trough — not because it matched the décor of His nursery back home in Nazareth, but because no one was willing to give up their bed for Him or even His very pregnant mother.

In Matthew’s account, we read of the sinister King Herod who, upon learning of Jesus’s birth, immediately sought to destroy Him. An entire town suffered the loss of their male babies, simply because a jealous king thought he could undo the saving plan of God. Like Hitler in Bonhoeffer’s day, Herod was willing to slaughter the weak, underprivileged, and oppressed in order to assert his power over others. Sure, the biblical portrait of our Lord’s arrival puts less emphasis on having a “holly jolly Christmas,” but doesn’t Scripture give us a much more realistic portrait of our problem, and therefore what we truly need? In fact, the Bible offers a picture of hope that our world is desperate for today.

Holy Scripture tells us just what was happening that first Christmas so long ago: “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1:9). That is one reason our family hangs Christmas lights and lights candles every year. Those tiny lights serve as a reminder that on that cold night long ago, the true Light was coming into this world, piercing the darkness. This thought is staggering. Into a world being ripped apart by hatred, selfishness, racism, oppression, and greed, Jesus came. “And that is the wonder of all wonders,” Bonhoeffer writes, “that God loves the lowly … God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in.”[1]

The Gospel of John continues, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him” (John 1:10-11). This is not so much an indictment on the Jewish people as it is on the entire human race. We all need to own up to our disregard of God in our lives. Even those who cherish Jesus as their precious Savior and Lord today didn’t always do so. And still today most of the world rejects Jesus for who He truly is: the Son of God and Savior of the lowly.

Despite the hostility this world had toward Him, Jesus still came. He knew the cost of sharing in our humanity and experiencing the consequences of our brokenness. He knew that loving us to the end would mean dying a sacrificial death in our place. And yet, Jesus still came. But why did He come? Why go through all the trouble of living in this distressed and hurting world?

This brings us to the great hope of the gospel. John says, “But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). God came as a little baby, but He did not stay a baby. Jesus grew to full manhood, loving both God and neighbor each step of the way. All the way, in fact, to the cross.

The holy mystery of Christmas is that despite all the reasons He could have left us to ourselves, Jesus still came, in obedience to His heavenly Father’s will. And because He was the obedient Son, we who have “believed in His name” are granted the overwhelming privilege of becoming children of God Most High. This is where the true joy and peace of Christmas is found. Stop and wonder at the mystery of it all this Advent season.

[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger, trans. Jana Riess (Louisville, KT: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 23.