Holidays

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Holy Visitation.



What Child is this? O don’t you know,
Heaven’s kiss to earth below.
Could He be Messiah?
What Child is this? Among the beasts,
His star draws wise men from the east?
Could He be a king?
What Child is this? Lies in a manger,
His birth announced by countless angels.
Could He be their Captain?

Sweet, sweet Jesus, tender Jesus; lowly meek and mild.
So nice, so passive, so submissive,
Meet the Christmas Child.
Read the Book and finish the story, why was He reviled?
Meet the Lord, the King of Glory,
God, untamed and wild!

What Child is this? So tender, gentle,
With righteous zeal He cleared the temple.
Could He be the Judge?
What Child is this? So quiet, so meek,
The waves obey Him when He speaks.
Could He be the Word?
What Child is this? Weak and helpless,
In Him alone, salvation rests.
Could He be the Way?

What manner of Baby can this be?
Was born to die, to make men free.
Could He be the Savior?

He cast out demons, raised the dead,
Freed the captives as He bled.
His name is Lord Almighty!



‘And she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.’ – Luke 2:7.

This is the well-known scene, which characterizes our portrayal of Christmas in most churches and is even still reasonably common outside the church, at least where people have the courage to oppose the tyrannical, modern dictator called ‘political correctness’.
As believers we tend to focus on this picture as presented by Luke, if and when we can find the time in our hectic shopping and social schedules. As a result the marvel, the mystery and the majesty of the birth of Jesus are largely lost as we briefly look on at our sanitized depiction of this truly miraculous epic event.
What really occurred that holy night? Do we ever take the time to just marvel at the wonder of it all? The manger where Jesus was laid was actually a feeding trough used by animals; mules, donkeys and other beasts of burden. It was no doubt a dirty, smelly and noisy place, not a very fitting location for the introduction to the earthbound life of the King of the universe, the Lord of all glory. For this is no ordinary babe that lies in that feeding trough, this is the God-man, the Savior of mankind, God the Son wrapped in weak and helpless human flesh. The eternal Son of the Almighty Father has stepped out of heaven, divested Himself of His awesome glory and limited His attributes as He humbly comes to His own creation for the express purpose of dying the cruelest and most unjust of deaths to rescue His helpless and hopelessly lost children. Meditating upon these facts should drive us to our knees in worship.
Let us go a little further into the life of this Man called Jesus as we fast-forward thirty or so years. For some strange reason He is almost always depicted as one who was a pale-skinned, rather feeble looking pacifist, and the various renderings of artists throughout the centuries and cinematic portrayals have only etched this implausible image upon our minds eye. This must surely be an example of man doing what he does so well: creating God after his own image. Where do we get this flawed picture of our Lord? Certainly this is not the impression given by the gospel writers. The four gospels present a rugged, fearless hero on an earth shattering and history-changing mission. Where on earth did we get this picture of Jesus as this feeble fellow? Jesus was no doubt a rugged and robust young Man, He was a construction worker, a carpenter by trade, it is highly doubtful that He spent His time making intricate ornamental pieces; instead He probably had to lug around some heavy timber. It is very doubtful that he was the pale skinned specimen we are so used to seeing in those paintings; during His three-year ministry He walked countless miles over rocky and mountainous terrain under the blazing Middle Eastern sun. He often had no place of shelter in which to stay (Luke 9:58) and spent many a night in prayer in the wilderness and mountainsides (Luke 5: 16, 6:12). He spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness without any food whatsoever and at His weakest and most depleted was still more than a match for Satan himself with all his cunning and guile (Mat 4:1-3, Luke 4:13). We can see that Jesus was physically fit, rugged and fearless, a Man of the outdoors, a real Man.
What about the language that Jesus used? We sometimes give the impression that Jesus spoke kind and gentle words to everybody, being meek and non-confrontational. Jesus was meek, but meekness is often misunderstood, it is not the same as weakness, it would be better stated as gentleness and humility, and one can be mighty and strong and still be gentle and humble. Indeed Jesus possessed unimaginable power yet was willing to be a humble servant and One who was abased (John 13:5, Mat 26:67,68), because of His love and His obedience to the Father. Jesus though was most certainly not afraid of offending people; His language was often very confrontational and His words left people either challenged and transformed or offended and angry. Jesus never watered down a sermon to please His audience, His speech was bold and direct and many of His sayings were extremely hard.
In His own words He did not come to bring peace but a sword (Matt 10:34). His words were hard and strong and demanded a reaction. This is all a far cry from the stereotypical, watered-down Jesus we often see portrayed, looking very wooden, with his hair parted in the middle, pleading with people to follow him.
Let us look at just a few of the many hard and confrontational sayings of Jesus-
“And I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.’” – Matt 7:23.
“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. …And he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” – Matt 10:37,38.
“And if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you … and if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off….” - Mat 5:29, 30.
“He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not sow with Me scatters.”- Matt 12:30.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites…You fools and blind men…You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of Hell.” –
Matt 23: 14,17,23.
Hardly the language of a person who is trying to make friends and influence people, but that was not the purpose for which He came. He came to set the captives free, to deliver the crushing blow of defeat to the enemy of our souls.
Jesus spoke and acted larger than life because He was. He spoke of mountains being cast into the sea, of camels jumping through the eyes of needles, He cast out demons on a regular basis, He stilled storms by the speaking of a word, He was not afraid to show His zeal as He went on a righteous rampage in the temple against those who were defiling it (John 2:14-17).
We sometimes accentuate certain qualities of Jesus at the expense of others, in the unfortunate attempt to make Him more universally acceptable and appealing. Jesus was indeed among us as a helpless little baby, He was kind and compassionate, merciful and forgiving and will forever be, praise His name. But let us not make it appear that He was in any way less than the epitome of all true manhood, He was the Son of man and all that real men should aspire to be in word, action and truth. He was a miniaturized (so to speak) representation of all that His Father is and that includes His untamed wildness, danger and unpredictability. There has always been and always will be danger in following the uncontrollable and mysterious God; it threatens all our attempts at living a predictable, comfortable life, yet it is what we were created for, and the silent yearning of every heart.
Towards the end of the gospel of John we see a glimpse of the glorious nature of Jesus break out, when Judas and the Roman guards went to arrest Him, ‘When therefore He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back, and fell to the ground.’ – John 18:6. A day is coming when all the ungodly of all the ages will fall down at the feet of Jesus in recognition of who He really is in all His splendor and majesty.

The wonder of the incarnation is that the majestic and eternal, almighty Son of God would humble Himself and come to live amongst us, as one who serves. His objective was clear; He came to lay down His life for us, who deserve only His wrath; that is the wonder of Christmas; that is the mystery of the incarnation.
Let us get away from the one-dimensional and flawed depiction of our Lord and take the time to get to know the real Jesus - the zealous Prophet, the passionate High priest and the warrior King.

Read Isaiah 63:1-6 and Revelation 19:11-16.
Jesus came 2000 years ago as a lamb to be sacrificed; He greatly humbled Himself and laid aside His splendor and majesty. When He comes again He will come as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, to conquer, rule and reign; His majesty and glory will be witnessed by all. Hopefully you and I will have no problem recognizing our victorious Lord because we will have taken the time to get to know the real Jesus. May He have no difficulty recognizing us, because hopefully we are a reflection, however faint, of our Lord with His fearless passion, His self-effacing servant’s heart and His loving zeal.

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy” – Zephaniah 3:17.
Holy Visitation.

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