Peter Witkowski Christmas Devotionals

A 4-Part Christmas Devotion: Baby Jesus & Anna’s Unwavering Faith

Below you will find a reworked version of readings used in my congregation’s last Christmas Eve Service. Each year, I attempt to highlight the Christmas narrative’s connection to the four main truths of the gospel. This set of devotional readings examines the life of the prophetess Anna who was one of the first to declare the glories of the Christ child. The readings and their corresponding Scriptures which are listed in the titles of each section are designed to be read on Christmas Eve or on Christmas morning before you dive into the goodies surrounding your tree or any other time you so choose.

Merry Christmas!

God, Creation, and Anna: Luke 1:26-38

As Mary set off in haste to talk through her news with her cousin Elizabeth who had also miraculously conceived a son, a very old and very unpregnant lady named Anna once again made her slow and methodical walk up the temple stairs to pray and fast.

The eighty-four-year-old Anna had not always trodden this path. Like many of her peers, she had married at a young age and eagerly anticipated all the joys that come with being a wife and a mother. But the children never came. And then before she could celebrate her eighth wedding anniversary, her husband died. Joy and hope gave way to sorrow and the very depths of grief. And though none would have faulted her for descending into the hopeless bitterness that made Job’s wife infamous, Anna did not curse her God. Instead, she pursued Him with her all.

Being a prophetess, Anna knew that the world had not always been broken. According to the great prophet Moses, the moment of creation – those six days during which God sent the waves crashing across the soft sands of the shore, told the massive brachiosauruses to eat some leaves, and made man from the dust of the ground – was a good and pure moment. As the first book of our Bible notes in Genesis 1:31, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”

As Adam and Eve set about naming God’s creation and ordering the garden of Eden in the days that followed, they could not fathom the irritation that would come from a bug bite much less the ideas of sorrow, barrenness, and widowhood. Adam and Eve knew only goodness, love, and justice. The animals, the trees, and the wind moved in perfect harmony with them. More importantly, our first parents communed freely with God. In other words, the founders of the human race knew only perfect wisdom and goodness. Everything from the grass under their feet to the clouds above their heads was good…very good. 

But all did not stay good. Death had robbed Anna of her husband. The creator of the universe now resided behind a curtain which Anna could not even see much less pass through.

But all that was about to change. The Holy Spirit had told Anna’s friend Simeon who also faithfully spent his days in the temple that the consolation of Israel was coming! And so, far removed from all the important happenings, Anna prayed and fasted. And waited! 

Man, the Fall and Anna: Romans 5:12-14

Anna waited for the consolation of Israel because she knew humanity faced a problem that it could not resolve on its own. Though God had created the world good, Adam and Eve with the help of a snake had become disenchanted with their creator and had decided to eat a piece of fruit from the tree of “the knowledge of Good and Evil.” They believed that God had been using his law to unjustly limit and suppress their full potential. They thought that eating the fruit…that rebellion would end in glorious liberation (Gen 2:16).

As they began to digest the fruit, Adam and Eve did experience something new. But it was not power and wisdom. They discovered shame, nakedness, and death. And instead of becoming equal with God, they found themselves forever separated from their creator and at odds with creation. Mosquitoes would now bite, weeds would grow, and cancers would form. They had sinned and had committed the first act of lawlessness, breaking both themselves and the universe.

And unfortunately, what began with Adam and Eve would not stay with Adam. When Adam fell, he corrupted not just himself but all of humanity. In other words, we all die because we are all sinners in Adam. To quote Paul one of Jesus’s earliest followers, “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men (Rm 5:12).” As the American thinker Benjamine Franklin once concluded, “Nothing in life is certain except death and taxes.” While we might protest being labeled sinners, none can dispute the realities of death.

Though we also might think it unfair to be condemned in Adam, we cannot realistically assume that we would have done any better than Adam. When given the opportunity to choose between good and evil, we still follow Adam and choose evil. As Paul noted in Titus 1:13 both our “minds” and our “consciences are defiled.” We choose evil not because someone forgot to send us a Christmas card but rather because we are at the most basic level sinners.

Thankfully, no one is as evil as they could be. None of us has attempted to steal Christmas from the Who’s down in Whoville, laughed at Rudolph’s red nose, or denied Bob Cratchit the money needed for Tiny Tim’s surgery. But we have all harbored bitterness in our souls, lusted after that which was not ours, and spoken words that we wish we could take back. Like Adam and Eve, we have chosen evil believing that God has held something back from us. And now we all need a savior. To quote Paul again “The wages of sin is death (Rm 6:23).”

Anna knew this lesson well. She had experienced the groanings of creation within her soul as she dealt with infertility and then with the death of her husband. Though she had spent her life faithfully seeking after God, God still did not freely walk with man. As God told the prophet Moses, “Man shall not see me and live (Ex 33:20).” Even the sacrifices that filled the temple with a mixture of gruesome and savory smells could not restore what Adam and Eve had destroyed. They pointed to the solution but were not the answer to sin and death. Something and someone greater was needed! Anna was waiting because that someone greater was coming!

Christ the Hope of Anna: Luke 2:1-21

Though Anna’s life had proved hard and difficult, she rejected the lie that had snookered Adam and grounded her hope not in travel, alcohol, or shopping but in the Lord.. Despite her circumstances, she trusted in the goodness of her God knowing that “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all (Ps. 34:19).”

Then in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, her trust was rewarded. Luke 2:38 reports that she got to see the Christ child…the Messiah who could do what no other man could do. That little boy would live the perfect life that Adam and all his descendants should have lived. Then what Simoen, told Mary that “a sword would pierce through you own soul,” would come true. Jesus would be wrongfully crucified, having never sinned (Lk 2:35). But in dying on the cross and in rising again, Jesus would defeat sin and death, paying its penalty and then gifting us his righteousness so that he might create a people for himself. To quote the priest Zechariah who months earlier had prophesied: “the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Lk 1:79).” And Jesus does so not only for the sins of Israel but for all who repent and believe irrespective of their origins, talents, or gifts. As Simeon notes, this salvation was both “a light of revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel.” Jesus came to restore all that Adam had lost.

Though Anna saw but the very beginning of Jesus’s earthly life, she had every reason to rejoice for the plan of salvation depended upon the Lord. As we well know, the God who kept his promise to her and Simeon and to the saints of old to send a Messiah would also raise that Messiah from the dead. In the coming of Christ at Christmas, we see both the promise and the glory of salvation and the hope of redemption.

And like Anna, we too should rejoice afresh in the goodness of God this Christmas. The salvation of all who hope in Christ is just as certain as God’s previous promises. No matter our emotions, no matter how hard our life is, and no matter how long we have been waiting for deliverance, one day soon we too will see the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Puritan Thomas Watson noted, “it is nothing to follow God in the midst of all encouragements, but it is wonderful to follow God in the midst of all discouragements.” Do not lose heart friend, keep praying and fasting. How sweet will that day be for when we are all with Christ for those who clung to promises of Christ when all seemed lost? Take heart friend, Christ has come to save us from our sins!  

The Gospel and Our Response: Revelation 16:15a

In a few hours the waiting associated with this advent season will give way to the joys of Christmas morn. Like Anna, we will celebrate the arrival of Jesus and will gather round Christmas trees engulfed in presents and around dining room tables stuffed with food.

While the ritual of this advent season is all but over, another greater advent remains in place…the advent of Jesus’s second coming.

Though Jesus has come as a lowly infant, and lived, died, and risen again to establish his kingdom and redeem sinners from the curse of the law, the fullness of that kingdom has yet to arrive. That wicked serpent who deceived Adam and Eve still reigns on earth. Even believers must still battle sin, sorrow, and death.

For all to be made right in both heaven and earth, Jesus must come once again. When he does, only those covered by the blood of the Christ child will be ushered into the new Eden where everything will once again be very good. Those who have ignored the message of Anna will be cast into the fires of hell to satisfy the eternal righteous of our creator. Friend, if you have not embraced the redemption of Jerusalem as your savior, I encourage you to do so tonight. Come and discover the hope of Anna for yourself. 

Just as Jesus suddenly appeared in the temple to the delight of Anna and many others, he will also appear a second time without warning like lightening flashing down from the east to usher his people into the new heavens and the new earth…the new Eden (Matt 25:27). Take heart friends; the redemption of Jerusalem has come and will come again soon! 

Peter Witkowski Christmas, Christmas Devotionals

The Story of Christmas: The Magi, A Mad King, & The Shepherd

Below you will find a reworked version of the readings used in my congregation’s last Christmas Eve Service. Each year, I attempt intertwine the message of the gospel with the Christmas narrative, exploring how the gospel would have shaped the worldview of those watching the birth of Christ unfold in real time. The set of four short readings below explores the Christmas story from the perspective of the wisemen. The readings and the Scriptures in the title sections can be read on Christmas Eve or on Christmas morning before you dive into the goodies surrounding your tree. Or you could just read it now or anytime (for that matter) you are in need of some gospel cheer!

Merry Christmas!

Magi, Darkness, and a Star: Isaiah 9:2

Today, the presence of the wisemen, or the magi, in our nativity scenes proves to be rather unremarkable. We just stick them next to the shepherds and all the angels. But their role in that first Christmas was anything but ordinary.  

You see, the Magi were interlopers, foreigners. To use the Jewish word, they were “Gentiles.” They had no claim upon the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or upon the city of David. If anything, the wisemen most likely hailed from the ruins of the Babylonian and Persian empires. For generations, these people groups had made a name for themselves in-part through oppressing the nation of Israel. Consequently, God had never spoken through the Babylonian or the Persian prophets. The Magi’s ancestors were unquestionably the enemies of God. And yet, here they are in the middle of the Christmas story because they had seen a great light…the star of Christmas.

Though scholars have speculated a good deal about how the Magi found the Star of Bethlehem, the Bible gives us few direct hints about the process. We do not know if the star was a comet or if it was a supernatural orb that only the Magi could see. We do not know if the Magi came to Jerusalem because they had read Daniel’s prophetic calendar or one of Isaiah’s old scrolls. We do not know. We only know the God’s glorious light had penetrated the darkness of their hearts. Faith had sprung forth where once there had only been darkness.

The idea of God creating light from nothing, and darkness boggles our minds. Every time we create something, we always do so from something else. We build Lego cars out of Legos, and we build homes out of wood, bricks, and vinal siding. With us, everything comes from something. But this is not true of our God. In Genesis 1:1-4, the very first verses of the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible, we read these words:    

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.

Where there was once nothing but darkness, now there was light, a pure and good light that reflected the glorious character of God! As John the disciple whom Jesus loved noted, “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).” At its inception, the universe knew only this glorious light. All was good. Even Adam and Eve, our first ancestors, reflected God’s perfection. But the world did not stay good. The darkness of sin would swallow up the whole human race. Floods and judgements would come. And nations like the nation of Babylon would come and go without ever catching a direct glimpse of God’s light. The world of the wiseman was a dark world. But it would not stay that way. The light had come again. The Star a Bethlehem had appeared to them. Salvation had come!

Magi, a Mad King, & a Missing Baby: Matthew 2:1-4

The people of Jerusalem viewed the wisemen with a good deal of suspicion. Yes, Herod goes through all the protocols associated with hosting foreign dignitaries and welcomes them into the king’s house. But no one in Herod’s house is comfortable with them.

As we have already noted, they are outsiders, hailing from people groups that used to terrorize the Jews. But even more troubling than their presence is their message. They have come to see, “He who was born king of the Jews.” This proves to be a geopolitical problem for Herod. Though he calls himself the King of the Jews, Herod is not a Jew. Moreover, he is rather old having spent his youth hanging out with Cleopatra and Mark Antony. No one would assume that King Herod was the object of the Magi’s search.

But their message is not just a challenge to the king’s political relevance. It is a challenge to the very idea of human independence…human self-government…to the right to live and let live.

The term “King of the Jews” was a religious claim. In other words, the wisemen were looking for the Messiah, God in human flesh.  A few years later during his trial in Matthew 26, Jesus would boldly declare himself to be the “Christ the son of God.” The non-Jews who heard this claim transposed Jesus’s words into a sign that read, “King of the Jews (Matt 27:37).” In other words, to search for the king of the Jews was to search for the Messiah, for the ruler of the universe who demands our perfect obedience…our full allegiance.

We know Herod understood the nature of the wisemen’s claim for he immediately consulted not with the politicians of his day but with the religious leaders. But as Matthew 2:16-18 would make clear, Herod’s quest was not one of worship but of rebellion. He wanted to kill Jesus. Herod was at war with God.

But such animosity did not begin with Herod. Nor was it unique to him. The rebellion originated back in Genesis 3, that first book of the Bible. Following the advice of a snake, our first parents, Adam and Eve, sought to take a run at being God through the process of eating some forbidden fruit. But instead of conquering God, they lost their natural goodness and thereby corrupted human nature. They found themselves exiled from all that was good, holy, and pure. And when God came to check on them after that first sin, they hid. God was no longer a comfort. Darkness began to reign.

Being the children of Adam and Eve, we too are sinners cut off from the glorious light of God. As Jesus noted in Matthew 15:19, the evil that infects our lives comes from within. We do bad things because we are bad. Jesus says, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” We have all lied once or twice to get out of a sticky situation or said something unkind that we regret. Though we try to be good, we must confess that we are not good. We too deserve to die for our sins. God is light and we are darkness.

But as the wisemen well knew, the light had come into the world not to condemn the world but to save it: to give life and light to men. You see the star was guiding the Magi not to Jerusalem but to Bethlehem!  

A City, A Messiah, and a Shepherd: Matthew 2:5-11

A city is much more than a dot on a map. It represents a culture, an ethos, a way of life. There is a great difference between being from New York City as opposed to Dallas. The same proves true of the towns in the gospel of Matthew. Jesus presence of the star over Bethlehem unveils more than Jesus’s birthplace. It reveals that he is the Messiah worthy of our worship.

In one sense, anyone can claim to be God. No one has an existential crisis when their weird uncle Al says he’s god, because infinite beings do not live in grandma’s basement. He also claims to be a piece of toast, but we don’t butter him either. Simply saying something does not make it true.

It is one thing to claim to be God, and another thing to empirically prove it. The biblical account of Jesus’s birth does just that. In Micah 5:2, God made the following promise: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathat, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be the ruler of Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient of days.” In other words, Jesus’s birth was not accident but the very fulfillment of God’s Word. And this was not the first time Jesus had fulfilled the words of God as a baby. Back in Matthew 1:22, the gospel writer informs us that the Mary conceived Jesus while a virgin fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 7:13-14 which says, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.” While anyone can claim to be divine, the son of God, only the one born of a virgin and born in the town of Bethlehem can legitimately make sense of the historical witness of Scripture. If Jesus where any where else, he would not be the Messiah.

In addition to revealing his divine nature, the city also reveals Jesus’s character. Instead of standing aloof from his people and terrorizing others as Herod and countless other men and women have done, Jesus comes to shepherd his people. Though he could have called down angels to crush his opponents, he willingly dies for them. As Jesus told his disciples, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (Jh. 10:11).” He atones for our sins on the cross and then rises again so that all who repent and believe can have eternal life with him. The wisemen rightly broke forth into joy and worshiped Jesus when they entered his house. As evidenced by their gifts, the Magi realized that Jesus is both their God and their savior, the very antidote to the darkness of death that has enveloped us all. And not only does Jesus shepherd them and us to heaven, he also guides us through this life, guaranteeing our spiritual growth and righteousness. Even when we go through times of darkness, struggle, and sorrow, Jesus stays close by our side. As the great king David who also hailed from Bethlehem noted, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want (Ps 23:1).”

In other words, the star came to rest upon the tiny town of Bethlehem because baby Jesus was both fully man and fully God, the shepherd king who saves us from our sins!

Gifts, Worship & the Meaning of Christmas: Matthew 2:12

The story of the wisemen found in Matthew 2 is no sentimental tale. It does not belong on the fiction shelf but rather in the philosophy section. It makes an existential claim upon our life. It declares that the baby that the wisemen found was the Son of God and that he is worthy of our worship. And if Jesus truly is more than the small figurine in the center of our manger scene, then we must do something with the story of the Magi. We must either worship Jesus like the Magi did, or go to war with Jesus like King Herod did, or attempt to ignore Jesus like the religious whom Herod consulted leaders did.

I plead with you to avoid the latter two options. War in all contexts proves to be a ghastly thing. More importantly, It will end with our defeat and eternal judgement. Indifference also proves to be an equally bad choice. Jesus said, “Whoever is not with me is against me (Matt 12:30).” Though we are content to ignore God, Jesus will not ignore us. His righteous judgement will find you out. But it does not have to.  

If you will follow the Magi to Bethlehem and worship the baby in the manger, you too can experience the glorious light that is the life of men. If you will confess your sins and lay down your idols at the feet of Jesus, you too will have every reason to rejoice with exceedingly great joy this Christmas for Jesus’s blood will wash your sins clean. He will go from being your judge to being your good shepherd. As the apostle John once said, Jesus came so that we, “may have life and have it abundantly.” May we too follow the wisemen to Bethlehem this Christmas!

Peter Witkowski Christmas, Christmas Devotionals

Mary, Joseph, & the Baby Who Saves: A Short Christmas Devotional

Below you will find a reworked version of my church’s Christmas Eve service from 2021. Each year, I attempt intertwine the message of the gospel with the Christmas narrative as seen from the perspective of those who had a roll in the first Christmas story. This set of four short readings explores the Christmas story from the perspective of Mary and Joseph. The readings and the Scriptures in the title sections can be read on Christmas Eve or on Christmas morning before you dive into the goodies surrounding your tree. Or you could just read it now or anytime (for that matter) you are in need of some gospel cheer!

Merry Christmas!

History, Mary, & Recreation: Luke 1:30-38

Christmas can easily take up residence in our minds for it is a spectacular story of redemption. But it is not the kind associated with talking animals, Grinches, or scrooges. The story of baby Jesus unfolds not on the pages of fiction but upon the backdrop of history. When the angel appeared to Mary, he appeared to her in time and space. Using audible words, the angel declared that Mary would supernaturally conceive the Messiah, the savior of the world.

We can appreciate Mary’s bewilderment at this news. Much as in our day, Mary’s day knew little of the supernatural. The last prophets had vanished from view 400 years earlier. Only the high priest communed with God and that was only once a year for a few minutes. God spent the other 364 days behind a curtain separated from sinners. Mary understandably found the idea of personally communing with God (much less carrying him to term in her body) to be perplexing.

But it was not a new idea. When time began, the first man – Adam – and his bride – Eve – freely walked with God. No curtains were needed. In fact, clothes were optional. Everything from their skin cells to their minds aligned with the goodness, love, and kindness that defined the character of Jesus. God summed up the state of the world with these words, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good (Gen 1:31a).”

Though Mary’s ancestry winds its way all the way back to Adam and Eve, the virgin mother still found the idea of giving birth to the son of God to be rather hard to grasp. If nothing else, biology was against her. But as the angel noted, “Nothing will be impossible with God (Lk. 1:37).” The God who created the universe was still very much interested in his creation. Sin and shame would be delt with in the most unexpected of ways. God would once again walk among his people. The Messiah was coming.

Joseph, Common Sense, & The Fall: Matt 1:18-19

Mary and her cousin Elizabeth who had also conceived a son in her old age by God’s grace praised God for the Messiah kicking about Mary’s womb. But Joseph, Mary’s fiancé, found the pregnancy to be a troubling sign of the world’s brokenness. Like Mary, Joseph knew that God had created the world without spot or wrinkle. But he also knew why the world of his day no longer resembled the world of Adam and Eve. He knew why God had withdrawn behind a curtain.

Despite God’s love, the first humans had heeded the teaching of a snake and had embarked upon a rebellion that consisted of them eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They disobeyed God hoping to find additional goodness and power. Instead, they found the darkest evil and a demise unto death. By that one act, Adam and Eve corrupted both their souls and all physical matter. Surveying the human condition after Adam and Eve, King David concluded, “There is none who does good, not even one (Ps 14:3).” Humanity was corrupt and forever impure. A Holy God could not commune with sinners. He had to withdraw behind a curtain.

Operating with this understanding of the human race, Joseph naturally concluded that Mary’s pregnancy was the result of a sexual sin, a selfish act that had shattered their engagement vows.

If we are honest, we cannot fault Joseph for his conclusion. We too observe the effects of sin everywhere we look. Some of us stomp about in anger the moment someone insults our cooking or asks us to work late. Others of us try to deal with the pain of loneliness through buying stuff on Amazon or through consuming shady images hosted on even more shady websites. No amount of presents or smoked ham has been able to erase these elements of selfishness, greed, and pride that define the human condition and that produce so much suffering and loneliness. In short, the holidays cannot fix the sin that ails us.

If you doubt me, I encourage you to watch the children and (perhaps some adults) as they open presents. Undoubtedly more than one child will pout like the Grinch up in his bedroom this year because grandma got him the green one instead of the red one. Though some philosophers struggle to understand why men and women do bad things, Joseph got it. He understood that men and women were sinners. In other words, he knew that people like you and me do evil because we are evil. Just as Joseph set out to put away his fiancé, God must put us away. As Paul notes, “The wages of sin is death (Rm 6:23).”

But despite Joseph’s rational conclusions, Mary was not to be put away. Her story would not end in judgement and shame. In fact, she had done nothing wrong. Though the world was profoundly broken, the power of God would prove far greater than the power of the snake. Joseph would soon learn that Mary’s pregnancy was not the result of sin but rather the supernatural answer to it. In her womb resided the Messiah who would crush the head of the serpent who had doomed Adam and Eve. A new Adam was coming who would be the life and light of men.

Jesus, Fear & Salvation: Matthew 1:18-25

Matthew tells us that Joseph had decided to put Mary away quietly for the best of reasons. Joseph wanted to avoid the public humiliation associated with dragging a sinner before the city’s elders. But Joseph also did not want to embrace her shame and forever hear people snidely say, “He’s Mary’s husband, but that is not his kid.” He feared the consequences of being with her.

Perhaps you too know fear this Christmas. Perhaps you fear the consequences that will come if the wrong person got ahold of your phone, your browser history, or of your credit card statement. You fear what would happen if all that you have done in secret was made public.

Moreover, we all fear death, that moment when we will come face to face with God. If we must hide our warts from mom and Dad and aunt Sally, can we really expect that God will be ok with our sins?

Sure, we have done some good things to compensate for our wickedness. We’ve gone to church a few times and donated to charity. And yet the fears remain. We just don’t know. Will God forgive us?

 But the great news of Christmas is that we no longer must fear. As the apostle John, Jesus’s closest earthly friend, writes, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” Or as the angel tells Joseph, “Do not fear.”

You see, the baby in Mary’s body was a special baby. The angel tells Joseph it is conceived by the Holy Spirit. It is not the result of sin but of divine mercy. The angel makes this clear when he tells Joseph to call the baby, “Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.”

Jesus comes to deal with our fears and worries. He comes to save us from our sins and our sin’s eternal consequence of death. He lived the perfect life that we were meant to live. When the snake came to tempt him, Jesus resisted the temptation and sent Satan scurrying away. Matthew would later record God the Father saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased (Matt 3:17).” Unlike Noah who had to be reproved for drunkenness, unlike Moses who had to be corrected for getting angry, and unlike David who was tainted by violence, Jesus proved to be fully righteous, the perfect lamb without spot or blemish.

Though he had done nothing wrong, he still dies on the cross. He dies for our sins, fears, and worries. He dies so that we might be free from all the eternal consequences of our sin. His blood washes all guilt and shame. Said positively, he dies so that we might have life and have it abundantly.

But he does not stay dead. Matthew 28:5-6 reports, “But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.”

Through his death and resurrection, the baby conquers death. We must no longer submit to it. The light prevailed.

When Joseph awoke from his dream, he went and did as God commanded. He married Mary, protected her virginity until the birth of Jesus, and then named Mary’s baby, Jesus, as the angel commanded him. He placed he trust in the Lord his God and came to know the peace of God. But what about you? What will you do? Will you repent of your sins and implore Jesus to save you? Will you exchange your fears for abundant life? We you trust Jesus and obey him?

Fear not, Jesus has come to save us from our sins.

Will You Ponder: Luke 2:15-20

Redemption has come. The baby in the manger came to create a pathway back to the paradise that Adam and Eve had walked in. As the apostle Paul noted in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This indeed is good news of great joy. The shepherds rightfully burst forth into praise when they saw the prince of peace lying in a manger. Jesus is worthy of worship for he saves his people from their sins.  

Admittedly, worshiping a baby in a manger proves to be a rather uncommon practice. The people who first heard the shepherds story all those thousands of years ago understandably wondered about what they had heard. They did not fully understand that the crux of the universe’s story was unfolding before them. I suspect, the average Bethlehemite wrote off the events of that night as just another odd moment in their lives.

But the virgin Mary knew better. She treasured the appearance of the shepherds and their tale of peace on earth. She knew it was true for God had revealed to her that baby Jesus would exalt “those of humble estate (Lk. 1.52).” Long after the last whispers of the shepherds’ voices faded in the distance, Mary continued to meditate upon what she had seen and heard. Those events would be for her a source of great inspiration and hope.

They should inspire us as well. Within the historical events of the first Christmas story, we find the good news of great joy, the spirit of Christmas: a Messiah who saves sinners from sin and death. It is the pondering of this gospel that provides us with a joy that never fades.

Friend, it is this joy that we long for you to experience this Christmas Eve. If you have always stood outside the stable wondering about Christmas, we invite you to come to the manger tonight and to worship Jesus. Come ponder your sin, God’s goodness, and Jesus’s work on the cross. Confess your sins, repent of your evil deeds, and then believe on the finished work of Christ. Come meditate upon the true Christmas spirit, the spirit of redemption.

May our pondering upon baby Jesus lead us all to treasure the Messiah afresh this Christmas!