The Promise of the Manger
"Praise God! God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord! God bless the coming kingdom of our father David! Praise be to God!" Mark 11:9-10The crowds accompanying Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday shouted these words as they threw branches in his path. The words would have been just as appropriate had they been said at the time of Jesus birth in the stable. This is the promise of the manger; God's son had come to earth as a human baby, born to a lowly virgin, to reveal and fulfill God's plan for the salvation of the world.
At Christmas time we celebrate the birth of the Christ child and at Easter we celebrate his resurrection from the dead. Between the manger and the cross, Jesus lived here on earth as a human being and as the Son of God. He loved, preached, taught, healed, raised persons from the dead, and cast out demons. He rebuked the Jewish leaders who had become too ritualistic with the law and had forgotten God. He made his teaching clear to his listeners through parables and he taught his listeners the meaning of the commandment to "love thy neighbor."
One promise of the manger is love, the love of God for all mankind. He loved so much that he gave his own Son so that the world might be saved from sin. The Son loved so much that he gave his life for his people, the Jews, as well as for all other people of the world so they might have life abundant.
Jesus provided an example of how we should love God and one another. The thirteenth chapter of Corinthians tells us that Jesus described love as patient and kind and as free of jealousy, conceit, and pride. Love doesn't keep records of other's wrongs and is happy with truth, not with evil. Love never gives up; its faith, hope and patience never fail. Jesus said, " . . . faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love." How do we love like this?
Jesus birth and life remind us of our responsibility to seek to be Christ like, to love in a sacrificial way. Our faith journey helps us grow in understanding of how we as individuals and as a church should exhibit that love in our families, in our communities, and in our world. At this Christmas season, let us think about the promise of the manger for our lives. Let us pray that God will show us ways that we as individuals and as a church together can contribute to the building of God's kingdom through sacrificial love for God's children everywhere.
Maudie Karickoff
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