In the days leading up to Christmas 2010, I was having a conversation with my friend Dan Raney about the nativity scene and its significance. Besides tried but true concerns over the materialistic elements of the holiday (gifts, family reunions, nostalgia) obscuring the spiritual ones, there is a deeper, more personal side to Christmas and the nativity scene which I have come to understand.
On the outset, the story of the nativity always seemed to me to be a kind of
magical children's story. It is easy to separate the nativity scene from the rest of Jesus' life because of centuries of tradition which highlight the nativity as an occasion for a holiday (a holiday which I absolutely adore by the way, so don't get me wrong on that count).
In all the nostalgia and hoopla, I find myself forgetting the magnitude of Jesus' birth and what the implications are of this scene.
Sometimes it is easier to contemplate the implications of Jesus' appearing on earth when I consider the alternative: where would I be if he had never come? I shudder to think of how close we are to oblivion if it were not for Jesus. Throughout the Bible, Jesus' accomplishments are said to result in "salvation" for
us, that we are being
saved from something.
I imagine what it would be like if I died and God was not there. The imagined horror is almost too much to contemplate. Jesus saves us from that.
1 John 5: 9-12
We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God which he has given about his son [Jesus]. Anyone who believes in the son of God has the testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son. He who has the son has life; he who does not have the son of God does not have life.
It is through Jesus that life is found, and that life is eternal. God says so.
John 17: 1-5
After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your son, that your son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began."
The purpose of Jesus appearance was so we could know God = that we may have eternal life. I personally believe this begins on earth (the transformation) and continues long after (in God's presence, in heaven).
To me, this idea is revolutionary. The Jews have been waiting for salvation, the rest of the world does not believe in it, but we have it right now! Jesus made it possible to know God...right now. What other hope is there but to know God?
Now that we know God, Jesus continues his work: everything is transformed and made new.
Revelation 21: 1-4
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
Who is facilitating all of these things? Jesus is. Not us.
Revelation 21: 5
He who was seated on the throne said "I am making everything new!" Then he said "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."
Jesus transforms everything.
Revelation 21: 6-8
He said to me, "it is done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But to the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.
This fiery lake is what it is like to be apart from God. Because of Jesus appearance on earth, we are saved from that separation and come into a much different inheritance: all of this heaven stuff instead of this hell stuff. Jesus made this possible.
In this way, the nativity scene amazes me not only because of the surrounding details (the star, the angel chorus etc.) or even the connection with the cross. But rather, I am amazed by the fact that the nativity scene happened
at all.
The fact that Jesus happened is easy to take for granted until we realize how powerless we are.
When my family drove through Canada as part of a cross-country trip, our van conked-out in the middle of Canada’s many expanses of wilderness. We had no cell-phone. There were no houses or towns nearby. We were lost.
We were completely at the mercy of our circumstances.
Without warning, a tow truck appears in the distance and then pulls over to see if we needed help. We weren’t even waiting 20 minutes before he showed up. He towed us to the nearest town (about 45 minutes away) and we were able to get the van fixed. My parents always say that that guy was an angel.
This is a real-life, honest-to-goodness, salvation story. Having done nothing, having earned nothing, we were saved by the tow truck – we were certainly unworthy of this blessing.
What I remember most was the relief at seeing this tow-truck arrive. How much more so is our relief at seeing our salvation through Christ?
That is what strikes me about the Nativity scene when I consider it today. Relief and amazement that it happened at all.
