Explore the Bible: December 25

You Will Find • Luke 2:1-15

By Rick Henson

One of my earliest memories of the public Christmas celebration was in a second-grade play at Highland Elementary School in Meridian. My twin brother and I dressed in old bathrobes and pretended to push invisible plows back and forth across the stage.

When the narrator spoke of the long-awaited Messiah, Ralph and I hesitatingly spoke in unison, “When, oh when will this good King come?” Then we nervously looked around and pretended to plow some more as the curtain descended.

I didn’t understand it at all. To me it was a story from another land. I knew it was important but did not know why. For too many people, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord,” (KJV) is simply a line in a play.

Several years later I met Jesus as my Savior and experienced the new birth. Wow, the good King did come. He came into my heart and he saved me.

Christmas is so much more than a celebration when you know the Star of the play personally, like a proud father saying to someone sitting nearby, “That’s my son!” When I see a manger scene I think, “That’s my Savior!”

Imagine what the shepherds thought when they heard the story from the angel, and then heard the multitude of angels announce, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14 KJV).

When the angels left it was silent. Though it is not written in the text, I suspect the shepherds looked at each other and one quietly asked the others if they saw that, too.

They went to Bethlehem and discovered the Savior with Mary and Joseph, just as they were told. They left celebrating and sharing what they had seen and heard.

Though the angel spoke of peace, they lived in a time void of peace. I wonder if about thirty years later they put it together. I suspect many years later they told people, “I knew Him when…”

God did not bring external earthly peace to that area or any area. His peace is internal and personal. Just before Jesus left the disciples he said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27 KJV).

Later Jesus said further, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 KJV).

For many, Christmas is a time to party and revel not in Jesus but in the season. Like watching a play of children and not knowing any of the participants, keeping up with the plot is tiring and meaningless. You just want to be done with it.

For one without the Savior, they often just want to be done with the holiday season. What if we introduced them to the Star of the play?

I’m sure our mother swelled with pride as her seven-year-old boys walked back and forth across that stage wearing faded bathrobes. Knowing the participants makes all the difference. Let’s introduce them to the Star of the story — not the one over the manger but the One in the manger. 

Henson is minister of outreach and evangelism at Bethel Church, Brandon.