Weekly Theme December 15 through 21

Christmas Confronts Us
 “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
-Matthew 1:20-21

Why did Jesus need to come into the world? Jesus came into the world because you and I are lost without him.  We need to own up to the reality that we have a basic need for Jesus to save us from ourselves and bring healing and wholeness into our lives.  Jesus came into the world because you and I can do nothing to eradicate or forgive our sin.  Jesus came to give his life as a sacrifice and to pay the penalty for our sin so that we would not have to pay that penalty.  We need to own up to the reality that Jesus came into this world to deal with our sinfulness.  Jesus came into this world to win a victory over death and to give us life that will last for all eternity.  We need to own up to the reality that through our own efforts we could never earn the gift of eternal life and that Jesus has provided it for us through his defeat of death.  Christmas, the coming of Jesus into this world, confronts each of us with our own basic need of God’s intervention in our lives through the redeeming action of Jesus.  We need to be confronted with the fact that Jesus came into the world because we need him.