How God presents the Royal Savior to us—in crude, abject humility--is a striking contrast and major indictment of how the church presents Jesus to the world, especially at Christmas: Disney-like performance, expensive staging, Las Vegas showmanship, snappy images on a screen, dazzling lights, artificial smoke, a Six-Flags-over-Jesus atmosphere, performers who advertise THEIR talents, and hero worship. Wait a minute. What ever happened to God’s method of presenting His Son and our Savior?
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The seamless, unifying theme of the entire Scriptures is the story of God’s redemptive plan to restore his personal presence with His people. We first see God among his people in the original holy of holies, the Garden sanctuary on Eden Mountain. But due to their failure of faith in God, man and woman are expelled from his holy presence and from access to the tree of life, forced to descend to the valley and experience death.
But despite this failure, God doesn’t give up on dwelling with His people. He implements a plan, a journey of faith for us, to restore His fallen people to His holy and lofty presence. The Christmas story is a seamless continuation of that same story.
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Luke is an artist. His version of the Christmas story is told not in one setting, but in five separate parts, five small paintings of Jesus, designed to be seen linked together as one large portrait. Like a puzzle with five pieces, when fitted together, these mini-portraits give us a fuller understanding and appreciation of Jesus and the meaning of Christmas.
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