Christmas

Christ Mass. What really is the focus of this coming celebration? During this season of Advent, for what are we preparing?

We are preparing to receive the birth of the one who is given the name of Jesus, which is, Yahweh Saves. So as we look to the advent of Jesus, we look to the coming of the one whose name is Our Salvation. We look to the coming of our birth or our generation back into the Image of God. Truly this is a rebirth or regeneration for us.

Is Christmas a celebration of a birthday? It most certainly is, our birthday. It is the celebration of the coming of salvation through the one born King of the Jews.

After His birth in Bethlehem, His birth was announced to shepherds in the fields by the hosts of heaven. “Unto you this day is born in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” Upon hearing this news the shepherds responded with desire to go and see this great thing that had been told to them and upon finding The Lord Saves just as the angels had told them, they in turn told everyone they could find. They worshiped the Lord for what had been revealed to them. Some time later, wise men came from afar, having seen the Savior’s star in the east. They came asking for the one born King of the Jews in order that they might worship Him. They did not come to sing “Happy Birthday” but to worship the King born to the Jews. This was not even their king. He was born King of the Jews. They did not celebrate the birth of other kings, only this King. They came to worship God. They came to receive and worship the one who is their Salvation, their Life.

Eventually many other people of the world were told of this great miracle of the gift of Salvation wrapped up in swaddling clothes. They were told that they, too, were included among those who were liberated from their ignorance so that they might know the meaning of life. They were instructed regarding the means by which the Savior is born to us also today, through water, bread, and wine. So these men, also made wise through the preached Word, came bearing in their arms their children to be flooded with God’s grace in Christ, and then came to worship Jesus in the purest form, as He is found wrapped in bread and wine, just as He promised and His apostles instructed.

Thus, in time, a special day was set aside and named Christ Mass, to celebrate the birth of the Church of the New Testament in Christ’s blood. Those who had been born through water and the Word wanted to be certain that on this day they would be gathered into the Lord’s remembrance so that they would never forget that He does not forget. He comes to His Church as oft as they do this, but they appointed a special day that proclaims this by the very name of the day. Christmas!

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