Christmas
and Easter merge today. Think briefly about Christmas. The Father sent His Son
to earth in a most incredible way -- the ordinary way, a natural birth!
The wisdom of God put to shame the wisdom of humankind when His Spirit sparked
conception in the womb of a young woman. This woman, Mary, gave the weakness of
her body, of her social status, of her future reputation into the strong arms
of the one and only Almighty God; and this God gave His only Son to live and die
and, thus, to break Adam’s death curse. On Christmas, deity and humanity lay in
an ox’s manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes.
One
woman’s offering herself to God’s seemingly impossible purposes resulted in
God’s uniting full deity and full humanity in His only Son, Jesus the Christ. Because
of Mary’s obedience, God mobilized her weaknesses; and Mary received the
promise that the child to be born would be “called holy, the Son of God”
(Lk.1:35).
On
this Resurrection Sunday, let us be keenly aware that like His mother, Jesus
was fully human with weaknesses and limitation. Jesus needed His Father’s
strength throughout His days on earth. He said, “Whatever I say is just what
the Father has told me to say” (John 12:50). The student is not greater than
the Teacher. The lamb is not the Shepherd. The pot is not the Potter. The
sinner is not the Savior. When we give God who and what we are and have, He
mobilizes our weaknesses with His strength.
The
way back to God is Christ’s expensive gift -- His 100 percent human body
hanging bloody on the cross of God’s anger. Three days after His death,
Christ’s 100 percent weak human flesh burst from swaddling strips and through a
closed grave into full view. Because God the Father had fully accepted Christ’s
offering for sin, we have the promise that “everyone who believes in Him
receives forgiveness of sins through His name” (Acts 10:43).
Blessings,
Roger Sorensen
ReFocus Prayer Director, Orange Friends Church
