It’s pretty obvious that Christmas is coming. You would be hard-pressed to miss that fact. The “signs” are all about, and have been for some time. (When did they start? In August?)
You know what I mean … the trees on tops of cars, the strings of colored lights on homes, the decorations up in malls, endless ads on TV and, of course, those TV specials that recycle every year. Everyone is having a big sale, and Christmas music plays endlessly everywhere as well.
You’d have to be living in a cave to not know that Christmas is coming. There’s so much excitement, such anticipation, and then … bam, it’s over.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get those decorations down ASAP. I want that tree gone, and most importantly, no more Christmas music!
Even though we would have a difficult time not realizing that Christmas is almost here, here’s something kind of strange: When the first Christmas came, most people almost missed it altogether.
There were no inflatable snowmen, Grinches or illuminated reindeer on front lawns. You couldn’t hear any Christmas music in the streets. Nobody strung any twinkling lights in the palm trees or around their little huts. There were no special red-tag or blue-light sales at the market downtown, or festive wrapping paper.
Children did not “find it hard to sleep that night,” for it was a night like any other. But the first Christmas was not without its own signals and signs, dating back a few centuries. The Hebrew prophets had predicted a coming Savior, the Messiah, who would be born of a virgin, from the ancestral line of David, and born in Bethlehem, a little town not far from Jerusalem. All Jews of that day knew Messiah was coming. They looked and prayed for that day.
And yet on the eve of the very first Christmas, it was pretty much “business as usual.” Things had been pretty bleak for the Jewish people for some time now. There had been a long silence from heaven, stretching back 400 years. No prophets, no angels, no miracles. Their land was occupied and ruled by foreign invaders, the Romans. Pax Romana was in full force.
The Romans had installed King Herod. For his part, Herod had erected pagan temples for the worship of false gods. Ironically, he also was in the process of rebuilding the Jewish temple as well. People referred to him as “the king of the Jews,” but in reality he was a puppet governor, and Caesar was pulling the strings. Herod was also an absolute tyrant, murdering members of his own family because of his jealous paranoia.
Things were very, very dark.
It was time for Messiah!
Angels were scurrying about, getting things ready for the sunrise. But before that, the promised forerunner had to come. Suddenly, one of God’s highest-ranking angels bursts onto the scene!
The supernatural invaded the natural, as the mighty Gabriel was dispatched from heaven to a priest named Zacharias. The elderly man of God had long prayed for a son, for his wife Elizabeth had been unable to conceive. But Gabriel said, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth” (Luke 1:13-14, NKJV).
First an angelic visitation, and now a miracle! Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth were going to have a son in their old age, and they were to name him John. The boy would grow up to be known as John the Baptist, the prophesied forerunner of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
But Gabriel wasn’t done.
He next went to a young peasant girl named Mary living in Nazareth. Luke 1:28 (NLT) tells us that “Gabriel appeared to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!'”
That awesome heavenly messenger went on to tell Mary how she was to be a fulfillment of prophecy, and would bring forth the long awaited Messiah of Israel. Gabriel also confirmed this with her husband, Joseph.
Things remained relatively quiet for a time, as Mary carried her baby to term. Just before the baby was due, however (at the very worst time to travel), God prompted Caesar Augustus to rule that everyone in the Roman world would be taxed. As a result, Joseph and Mary were compelled to travel to Joseph’s ancestral home of Bethlehem to make payment.
This, of course, was in keeping with the prophecy of Isaiah, who said, “You Bethlehem, though you be tiny among the thousands of Judah …”
Joseph had some big-time concerns as he and Mary entered town. To begin with, they had been turned away by the innkeeper and had nowhere to stay. And Mary was ready to give birth! Retreating to the humble shelter of a cold, dark cave or stable, Mary gave birth that night to a baby boy, naming Him Jesus.
The sky lit up with radiant glory as angels appeared to announce the event to shepherds out in the fields near town: “‘For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men'” (Luke 2:11-14, KJV).
Sometime later, mysterious men from the Far East arrived in Jerusalem, seeking “the king of the Jews.” Herod pitched a fit and called in the scholars, who confirmed that Messiah would indeed be born in Bethlehem. Apparently, however, they didn’t take time to make that short journey to see if such a momentous event had indeed happened. It seems they couldn’t be bothered, and just went on with whatever they were doing.
Herod, however, took this all very seriously. Resenting any potential threat to his precious throne, the evil puppet king ordered all the baby boys of Bethlehem slaughtered.
But God had already directed Mary and Joseph to leave town, which they did.
Christ, the long-awaited and hoped-for Messiah had finally come! But for the most part, everyone missed it. The innkeeper, the people of Bethlehem, the scholars, Herod and all of Rome.
Yes, they missed the first Christmas, but as I said, you would be hard-pressed to miss the ones that followed. But here is something to consider: Jesus is coming again!
Jesus came the first time at the precise right moment in history, according to God’s schedule. We read in the book of Galatians: “But when the right time came, the time God decided on, he sent his Son, born of a woman, born as a Jew, to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own sons. And because we are his sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, so now we can rightly speak of God as our dear Father” (4:4-6, TLB).
That same Bible also tells us that Jesus will come again at just the right time. In the last book of the Bible, He says, “Look, I am coming soon!” And again, “Look, I am coming soon!” (Revelation 22:7,12, NLT).
The Bible is very clear in pointing out that Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth. There are 260 chapters in the New Testament, and Christ’s return is mentioned no less than 318 times in those chapters. Just as surely as Jesus came the first time, “right on time,” He will come again to this earth.
The question is, are you ready?
