The Life and Mission of Jesus Christ: Episode 06

Rev. Sun Myung Moon: The Life and Mission of Jesus Christ
Chapter 1: Jesus’ Birth and Youth, Christmas, Page 14-15

Christmas

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:4-7)

 

The Christian world honors Christmas by setting up nativity scenes of Jesus in a manger. Actually a manger is a very lowly place. They celebrate Jesus’ being placed in a manger, but is this the kind of place God’s Son, the King of kings, should be born? Do you think God truly wanted his Son to be born in a stable?

What about Jesus’ mother, who knew through revelation what kind of son she was bearing? Do you think she was happy that her son, the Messiah, was born in a stable? I’m sure Mary would have thought that the Son of God would deserve more than the most elegant palace. The appropriate way for the Son of God to arrive would be with announcements of hour-by-hour bulletins and a proclamation throughout the land when he arrived.

If the priests, scribes, and rulers of Israel had known of Jesus’ coming, I’m sure that during the months before his birth everyone would have been eagerly awaiting his arrival, and would have come to worship even before he was born. Mary would have been treated like a queen wherever she went. A record would have been kept of everything she did—if she ate a snack, how many times she went to the bathroom, how long she slept. If people had truly known that the Son of God was in Mary’s womb, the twelve tribes of Israel would all have competed in trying to serve him before his birth.

If that had been the case, do you think the people would ever have allowed him to be born in a stable? A great fanfare would have been prepared, great bells readied to ring and bands to play. Should the birth of the Son of God be an event greater than America’s Independence Day? America preserves her cracked Liberty Bell, but a small bell that rang to herald the day of Jesus’ birth would be preserved in a shrine as a priceless item. If there were a record of people fighting each other to be the first to offer the new baby some gift at his birth, would that make Jesus unhappy?

Jesus came after God had worked for 4,000 years in preparation. After all that preparation the greatest event was the coming of God’s Son to this earth. Is the fact that he then came in such a humble way to a lowly place the pride or shame of history? Ultimately Jesus was crucified, but if Jesus had begun his life in the recognition that he was the Son of God, would the history of his life have been different? Truly he would have been treated as the king of Israel. Furthermore, if he had been embraced by the chosen people, then he should have received more glory as God’s representative than the emperor of Rome.

God wanted to see all the great priests of the day gather to hold the holy child. If Jesus had been recognized from the moment of his birth as the Son of God and the long-awaited Messiah, then all the chiefs of the 12 tribes would have competed to serve him as he was growing up … . From the early days Jesus would have known he was born as the Son of God and his mission was to be the King of kings, who would initiate God’s kingdom here on earth. Would history have been different then? Then wouldn’t the entire world celebrate Jesus’ birth, generation after generation?

Will fruitcake and ice cream make a merry Christmas? Christmas is truly the celebration of the birth of God’s Son, but without knowing God’s purpose for sending him there cannot truly be a celebration of Christmas … . After hearing me speak, “Merry Christmas” becomes “Concerned Christmas.” The true content of Christmas is the amount of love you gave during the year. That is far more dazzling than any amount of decorations.

The True Meaning of Christmas
December 25, 1979