Jesus was born into a world at war:
Jews - angry and embarrassed, bitterly opposed Rome's armies that occupied their land.
Romans - deeply at odds with Jews and with anyone else who stood in the way of Roman expansionism, breathed out threats and all too often made good on them.
Political despots - like Herod, insanely and viciously jealous of those - both real and imagined - who threatened their power, killed the innocents
Elitist religious leaders - like the Pharisees and the Saduccees, vying for spiritual domination, imposed impossible legalistic requirements upon the masses of non-elites, many of whom yearned for true worship and the true God.
Zealots - like Judas, dreamily forecast popular uprisings, so convincing and so swift, that Jews would feel strong once again and Rome could only wince at its inability to repel the local militia.
Not a good time.
Not much saving grace here,
Not much peace into which the Savior, the Prince of Peace could come.
But he did come.
And according to the Scriptures, it was the right time:
"But when the right time came, the time God decided on, He sent His Son, born of a woman, born as a Jew..." (Galatians 4:4)
Jesus' coming is about God's merciful ability to positively transform life, no matter how desperate our circumstances may look. He came because He was sent. And he was sent because his father wanted to bring us home to a restored, forgiven, grace-filled relationship with himself.
This Christmas - 2000 or so years after Jesus' birth - we, too, live in a war-torn world. But lift up your eyes. Our Redeemer lives! He comes to us again, invisibly but invincible, bringing his hope to the broken-hearted and discouraged, his love to the lonely, his forgiveness to the sin-stained, his power to the victimized, his joy to the weary. Christ the King comes to change our hearts and change our vision. And he fills our emptiness with new songs - songs of life and not death, songs of blessing not cursing, songs about a future and a hope.
As we receive him anew, we declare,
"Come Lord, Jesus, into every circumstance of our lives. Come on your terms."
Dr. John P. Williams, Jr.
General Superintendent, EFC-ER
