Dec 19 2013
John’s Nativity – The Word became Flesh
John 1:1-18
No baby, no manger, no shepherds, no wise men, no guiding star, not even a virgin! This is John’s nativity – he omits them all. For John Christmas is simply: the Word became flesh. Not as cute as the baby, not the stuff that inspires awesome snow scenes, but it has the same conclusion: Jesus is Emmanuel – God with us. Or put John’s way – the Word become flesh.
John doesn’t tell us why he omits the manger and the virgin birth, but we can make some calculated guesses. Perhaps, unlike Matthew and Luke, he felt he should only testify to what he saw. Or perhaps he was trying to respond to specific questions people had at the time of writing; like how can Jesus be both God and man? Or how can God have a Son? Whatever his motives were we are grateful for the rich insights that accompany his explanation of the origins of Christ. More
Dec 27 2013
The Response of the Magi
Matthew 2:1-23
So the Messiah finally arrived. And how did Israel respond – with joy perhaps? Ahem, well no. They were ‘disturbed’! That’s right; Herod, the priests and all Jerusalem were disturbed! Nice! What’s going on here? Something fishy! Sorry Lord Jesus, I know we’ve been waiting hundreds of years for you, but there’s no reception. What, no one? Well none from Israel; but there is this bunch of astrologers who have been following a star – as they do – and they say you’re something special. Yeah, they even brought some gifts.
Hmmm … you know the story. In this post we look at three responses Jesus received at the original Christmas and find that not much has changed with peoples responses to Christmas today. More