My own attitude about Christmas has changed over the years. A day that was once purely celebratory is now also profoundly humbling. In many ways, the facts surrounding Christ's birth are as important as the fact of Christ's birth. How he arrived was a signal of why he arrived: to redeem hearts, not to rule nations.
It's remarkable how often ambition becomes cruelty. In our self-delusion, we persuade ourselves that we're not just right but that we're so clearly right that opposition has to be rooted in arrogance and evil. We lash out. We seek to silence and destroy our enemies.
But it is all for the public good. So we sleep well at night. We become one of the most dangerous kinds of people a cruel person with a clean conscience.
The way of Christ, by contrast, forecloses cruelty. It requires compassion. It inverts our moral compass, or at least it should. We love rags-to-riches stories, for example, so if many of us were writing Christ's story, we might begin with a manger, but we'd end with a throne.
But Christ's life began in a manger, and it ended on a cross. He warned his followers that a cross could come for them as well. An upside-down kingdom began with an upside-down birth. When Jesus himself is humble, how do we justify our pride.
David French
Luke 1 51 God has shown strength with his arm;
For the proud scattered in the imagination of their hearts.
52 for the powerful God brings them down from m their thrones
and lifts up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has come to the aid of his children ,
in remembrance of his mercy,
It's remarkable how often ambition becomes cruelty. In our self-delusion, we persuade ourselves that we're not just right but that we're so clearly right that opposition has to be rooted in arrogance and evil. We lash out. We seek to silence and destroy our enemies.
But it is all for the public good. So we sleep well at night. We become one of the most dangerous kinds of people a cruel person with a clean conscience.
The way of Christ, by contrast, forecloses cruelty. It requires compassion. It inverts our moral compass, or at least it should. We love rags-to-riches stories, for example, so if many of us were writing Christ's story, we might begin with a manger, but we'd end with a throne.
But Christ's life began in a manger, and it ended on a cross. He warned his followers that a cross could come for them as well. An upside-down kingdom began with an upside-down birth. When Jesus himself is humble, how do we justify our pride.
David French
Luke 1 51 God has shown strength with his arm;
For the proud scattered in the imagination of their hearts.
52 for the powerful God brings them down from m their thrones
and lifts up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has come to the aid of his children ,
in remembrance of his mercy,
Waco1947 ,la