Christmas is the best. But it is the best beginning of any possible story because this story had the best middle and the best ending. Christmas is glorious because it made Good Friday and Easter possible, and they are the best. Good Friday and Easter made Ascension and Pentecost possible, and they are the best.
If any part of the story is taken out, then the whole story collapses. And if the story collapses—since that story is our gospel—then we are still hopeless, lost in our sins. Without Christmas, there is no Pentecost. Without Pentecost, there would be no point to Christmas. If this story collapses, then we collapse too.
God is the ultimate weaver of tales. But His tales are not wispy bits of imaginative whimsy. This world is not His sketch book. This is His novel, and every detail in it hangs together. Not one scene is out of place, and not one character was badly written. Everything ties together, including those elements we do not yet understand.
Rachel could not be comforted because her little ones were no more. They had the great privilege to go out to battle, battle with the great serpent, before they were two years old. They lost their lives in that battle, but they gained all the spoils of the war. Rachel lost her boys, but in the resurrection, she will be comforted.
Before Jesus was revealed to the nations as Messiah the Prince, He certainly had disciples who proclaimed they would die for Him. But during the Lord’s earthly sojourn, no one did die for Him—except a collection of nameless little boys. And in the resurrection, we will learn who they are, and find out their names, and their mothers will bless the manifold wisdom of God.
The day is coming when all will see the resolutions of the imperfections at the beginning in the blinding glory of the end.
Wow. Thanks! Doug, your exhortations are some of your best work. How ’bout publishing them?
One of the saddest parts of the Christmas story is the slaughter of all little boys in Bethlehem. No one sings carols about them, and RARE is the sermon that reads that part of the story, much less expounds on it. It’s messy, it’s ugly, it’s horrific. It fights against the lovey-dovey feelings we’re supposed to conjure up as we gaze upon the blinking lights while “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” plays in the background. It slaps us in the face and forces us to realize that God, in His awesome Providence, killed off dozens of babies at CHRISTMAS-time!… Read more »