The Night Hope Entered The World
The birth of Jesus is a well-known story of the Savior’s entrance into this world. It is recounted year after year in churches through sermons, plays, productions and programs. It is reiterated in song and portrayed through television shows and movies. It is a great story, but it is so much more. It is a true account and cause for celebration. However, if someone were to ask you what the takeaway is, what would you say? If someone asked you what the bottom line is or what is the point, what would you say? Would you be able to articulate it?
When I think about what Jesus Christ did in being born in a manger in Bethlehem to a teenage mother and her betrothed husband through the immaculate conception of the Holy Spirit because of God’s love for mankind, I sum it up in one word…HOPE! What is the purpose of it all? Hope! What is the bottom line? Hope! The night that Jesus entered this world as a baby born in a manger is the night that Hope entered this world. That’s the bottom line. Prior to this event, humanity was lost and doomed to destruction. In the beginning, God created a paradise out of nothing in this earth and created man to rule here and have dominion over everything (not each other). It was a utopia…a peaceful place of abundance where mankind communed with God with no need for a buffer or mediator. There was nothing separating mankind from God because mankind was not yet acquainted with sin. However, through one conversation with the deceiver, Satan, mankind traded this utopia and peace with God for destruction laced with the sweetness of forbidden fruit. In an instance, sin had entered humanity. This sin left a stain so ingrained in the human soul that the blood of lambs, goats and bullocks could not redeem humanity, but the blood of the Son of God could and did.
The star that shined above the earth from Bethlehem the night that Christ was born into the world was a sign that Hope had entered the world. Because of Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection, mankind can once again receive eternal life…the eternal life that mankind was created by God to have, but squandered and forsook when they gave into the evil devices of Satan in the Garden of Eden. Jesus was born to parents of modest means evidenced by their offering up a pair of turtledoves and pigeons for a sacrifice at the time they took Jesus to Jerusalem to present him before the Lord (Luke 2:21-24). He was born to a teenage mother who was yet betrothed to a man (Joseph) who wandered whether the fact that she was impregnated by the Holy Spirit was the truth. He was born to parents who lived in a place called Nazareth where he would be raise, which is the place that Nathaniel would later question, “can anything good come out of Nazareth?” It is this Jesus, who entered the world in modesty, whose birth was cause for speculation and indeed controversy, and who grew up in an obscure place…this Jesus who was the embodiment of Hope in the earth. This Hope is signified by the names that grace his character…Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), and Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).
~Dr. DeShonda Bailey, Lead Pastor
