The Christ Child Is No Longer A Baby But Is King Of Kings

A first-grader said to me, “Jesus is everywhere. He’s in the trees, the sky.” She was repeating something she’d heard. But the problem with this is that it’s insufficient.

Jesus was a real person. He was and is an individual and exists to this day. In fact, there is a man now seated on the throne in heaven at the right hand of the Father, Jesus, the crucified and resurrected Son of Mary. He is not an impersonal force or a disembodied spirit. Jesus was flesh, born as a human baby. He still has his adult body, albeit now glorified and eternal, never again to die.

This is the same resurrection benefit we will partake of when He next appears and transforms believers to be like he is. That is the blessed hope of all Christians.

The four gospel stories in the Bible show us that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, grew up as an ordinary boy in a family with siblings, was taught the Jewish scriptures, worshipped in the Temple, learned to be a carpenter, and had an awareness of his divine identity.

Mark Twain said, “The two most important days in a man’s life are the day he was born and the day he finds out why.” That statement is true for me and you. It was true regarding the birth of the Christ Child, baby Jesus. He is a baby no more, but now a King.

You know the story. The natural elements were similar to all ordinary births. A young woman was pregnant. She carried the baby nine months. Her birth-pains began. A baby was born. Birth is a messy event that alters the world forever. Everything about Jesus was normal, until he was baptized with the Holy Spirit. He had a routine childhood, but a growing awareness of his identity as God’s son. As a lad, he had stayed in the Temple and discussed the scriptures with some teachers.

The birth was normal, except in his case, it wasn’t an ordinary birth. Angels, an attempted slaughter, a late-night escape, Persian astrologers bringing gifts from afar. The birth event had been presaged (a sign or warning) for generations, that a king would be born in the lineage of Judah. He would be anointed by the Spirit to rule like David as a Messiah for Israel. As the prophets had said, “He will save his people from their sins.” Sadly, a majority of Jews haven’t read the masterful foretelling of this Jewish baby’s fateful birth and death - not knowing the precise details given by the Holy Spirit through the prophet - a blow by blow description of his suffering for our redemption recorded for us a thousand years prior in Isaiah 53 in the Hebrew Bible.

I’m amazed every time I read Mary’s story. Matthew and Luke, two apostles who were gospel writers, have the most detailed account of Mary at the time of Jesus’ birth. The divinely foretold timeline synchronized with earthly events, so the birth occurred in the “fulness of time.” Realize, all biblical stories are set in the context of archeological history. The nations and politics and rulers were real. The Bible is not myth, but reality, actual history.

At Jesus’ birth, everything lined up in time. Israel was being oppressed by Rome. An occupying army was in the holy land. Final authority was in the hands of Caesar.

Then, the Liberator was born. The baby became a man. He sacrificed himself so that you and I may live. Receive Christ, heaven’s gift into your life today.