I sincerely wish each and every one of you a wonderful Christmas Season. May we all take time to reflect upon the profound gift of the One who was so great that He emptied Himself (kenosis) of all His regal glory and power in order to be our earthly High Priest, able to fully sympathize with our weaknesses and frailties. The birth of Yeshua is the greatest miracle and gift ever given, and all the world’s most glorious music sounded in perfect unison would never be enough to redound in complete thanks and adoration for God’s salvation obtained through Him.
Even the pagan, postmodern world cannot escape the allure and romance implied in the gift of God’s Son to the world, though of course it has hijacked the inner meaning of this miraculous event for commercialism and mammon. Nonetheless, we glory in the birth of Yeshua and understand that it represents the very salvation of the world. Indeed, the Father so loved the world (and that includes the secular world of postmodern despair) that He gave His only begotten Son to be the means of salvation for all….
The birth of Yeshua is of course connected to His sacrificial death, and the life He lived in complete surrender to the Father was meant to demonstrate that He alone is the efficacious Healer and High Priest (Mediator) of us all. “But [He] made himself nothing (ekenosen), taking the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men; and being found in human form, he brought himself low by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:7-8). “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1-4).
By putting our trust in Him, we partake in His chayei olam – eternal life – sharing in His invincible love. He is faithful and true, our Prince of Peace and Beloved Savior. Blessed be His Name forever.