Ordinarily Extraordinary
Luke 2:21-40
December 31, 2023
“My eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel."
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The birth of Jesus is an extraordinary event taking place in a seemingly ordinary manner. While Mary's pregnancy was extraordinary, Jesus' birth was not. Rather than immediately beginning to preach and heal people moments after being born, the infant Jesus, like any other newborn, was fully dependent upon his human mother. The one who would walk on water had to learn to crawl before he took his first steps. The one who would feed multitudes fed at his mother's breast. The one people would travel miles to hear teach babbled gibberish before his first words.
The fullness of Jesus' divinity co-existed with Jesus' humanity, neither overcoming the other.
Familiar Bible verses ought to boggle our minds rather than just glossing over them. For God so loving the world that he gave his only son, the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us, and the angel's news of a Savior's birth ought to cause our brain to glitch.
Jesus is a divine dichotomy - fully human and fully God.
It is beyond human expectation and understanding, but there it is. Amazingly, God so loves the world that he gave his only son as an atoning sacrifice to do something every bit as amazing. Rather than condemning us, he saves us through the gift of his son.
