While they were there the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth

to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:6-7 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53:6 The Gospel writers were realists. For them the account of the Christmas miracle of the Incarnation was not a sentimental story of gentle animals and wonderful people who were basking in the glow of a story told to children. What each of the Gospel writers tell us is anchored in historic fact and it outlines for the very real sufferings, decisions and difficulties of those who participated in the Nativity of our Lord. For Luke, the Christmas narrative is focused upon the deliberate action of God, in powerfully fulfilling His Word. All of His Word is here to be fulfilled, even those parts that describe the coming Messiah as the Suffering Servant. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as Incarnate God among us comes in such as way as to be humbled in suffering. He is the Son of Man who has no place to lay His head. He is obedient to His Fathers will even to the point of death. In coming in this way He revealed that the Fathers redemptive purpose was to set us free from sin in a way that displayed the weakness and foolishness of God. So often we approach the account of the birth of Christ as if it is a description of strength and power. Truly the wisdom, power and strength of God are on display here but we do not see them in the way we might expect. The Christ does not enter our world as a powerful conqueror; He comes as a helpless baby. He is vulnerable, and weak, and needy. Yet the Glory of the sovereign God shines through Him for those who know how to see it. What a precious thing this is. We desire to worship Him as those who come to God with a strong and pure faith. Deep down we desire to make ourselves worthy of His grace. The truth is that we can never accomplish this. We are broken, weak, sinful and needy. He meets us in our weakness and redeems us. Thomas Watson, a Puritan Pastor expressed this so well when he wrote. Faith lives in a broken heart. He cried out with tears, Lord, I believe. True faith is always in a heart bruised for sin. They, therefore, whose hearts were never touched for sin, have no faith. If a Physician should tell us there was a herb that would help us against all infections, but it always grows in a watery place; if we should see a herb like it in colour, leaf, smell, blossom, but growing upon a rock, we should conclude that it was the wrong herb. So saving faith always grows in a heart humbled for sin, in a weeping eye and a tearful conscience. The truth is that even in His birth the Lord Jesus Christ comes as one who must suffer for our sin. The Gospel writers point us ahead to the cross where Jesus is lifted up so that each of us can be drawn to Him for cleansing. We meet the Lord at the cross and find there His life. To meet Him in His humiliation is to share it with Him. At the cross, or as we celebrate Christmas, at the manger we acknowledge the deep brokenness that is our reality in sin. We dont stop there however, because we

also acknowledge here that He laid down His precious life for us as our substitute sin bearer. His blood is sufficient to cover over all of our sin. We can never be perfect as we come to Him, but we can be honest. It is not our righteousness that gives us eternal life, it is His, and His alone. Such humility and weakness brings us into His presence as worshippers, singing the glory of our God who meets us in weakness and calls us to real faith. Luke calls us to glorify the one whose coming was met with rejection and humiliation, but who demonstrates in this way the wisdom and power of God. The whole focus of the account is upon the Glory of God in the face of Christ. That is where it must be. Praise the Lord! Have a Merry, Christ Centred Christmas!