AP

The Mediator Christ Jesus

No politician campaigns on the promise of poverty for all! The plan is to eradicate poverty.

Yet there are outstanding models of morality, which deliberately reject possessions and comfort, in the life of service they have chosen. Orders of nuns, monks and brothers, for example, often quietly attend to the needs of their neighbours, even for those whom society has forgotten. Other movements, religious and irreligious, find contentment in following a simple way of life.

The mission statement of Jesus of Nazareth, fulfilment of Judaism and founder of Christianity, included these words: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven…” [Matthew 5:3]. His ministry demonstrated that attitude of spiritual poverty. He deliberately chose the company of the unfortunate, outcasts and beggars, failures and even criminals, in the hope of showing them God’s life.

700 years earlier, the prophet Isaiah warned God’s people not to be afraid of powerful enemies, and not to copy their cruel methods of conquest. God’s people would be saved by faith in Him, whose victory over evil is achieved … wait for it … by “the footsteps of the poor” [Isaiah 26:5-6].

At Christmas we sing the praise of Jesus the long-foretold Son of God, coming from Heaven to save his people from sin and its consequences. Though a king, he was not born in a palace. His parents were descended from the line of King David, yet they travelled the hard road to Bethlehem. Joseph walked. Who can imagine the discomfort of Mary pregnant and bouncing along on a donkey?

There are those who elevate Mary to the status of a mediatrix to act as a go-between for sinners and their Saviour. Apart from anything else, this is unnecessary. The Bible makes it clear, that “there is only one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” [1 Timothy 2:5].

The Christmas story, as the Bible reveals it, picks up “the footsteps of the poor”, whose victory was announced through Isaiah. The progress of Christianity is stained by people destroying each other in the name of faith. These episodes are the fruit of pride and intolerance. Christianity is not based so much on a doctrine to die for, but stands squarely on the Person who died for us.

He did not come with trumpets and armies [Isaiah 53:2-3]. He “ grew up ….. like a tender shoot,

like a root out of dry ground.” He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain … held in low esteem. Yet, “he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” [v12]. The sheer majesty of what God achieved through the coming of his own Son into the world, is lost on those who insist on taking control of their own salvation. Religions and philosophies, however impressive, are useless in the end.        

Jesus was not a man born to be king, he was a king born to be man. A thousand times in history a baby has become a king, but only once in history did a king become a baby.

He did not come among us for conquest. He came in love to give life to dying men and women, attracting people conscious of their unworthiness to be in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Sentiment attached to the birth of a poor baby in a stable on that first Christmas is crushed by the vision of the man Christ Jesus suffering and dying on the Cross, because we are sinners.

The manner in which our Saviour came illustrates his call for disciples to be “poor in spirit”. He came with nothing but his own majesty, which he could not deny. We come to him claiming nothing, but  our spiritual poverty.

The Christmas message is not about getting away with evil, but doing away with evil. In some ways, Christmas joy is like the commuting of a death sentence. The King of Heaven himself has come into the world to save those who trust in him. There is a place for all those who are willing to acknowledge their spiritual poverty.

Rise above the sentiment of a poor baby born in a stable to royal, but impoverished parents.

Take up the challenge of Wesley’s hymn:

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,

Hail the incarnate Deity

Pleased as man with man to dwell

Jesus, our Emmanuel.

At Easter we say: ‘Jesus has risen!’ At Christmas we say: ‘God is with us.’

Mild He lays His glory by

Born that man no more may die,

Born to raise the sons of earth,

Born to give them second birth”

Hark! The herald-angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

To start afresh with God who made us, reject sin and seek forgiveness earned by Jesus. Focus on a loving Saviour this Christmas. He says to those who trust him: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” [Matthew 5:3].

– Tom Halls