Surprise.
I can’t imagine another word for what they experienced. They were just two followers of God, an unsuspecting couple witnessing something that, someday, the whole world would hear about. The sky was lit with the beauty of heaven’s army, declaring glory to God. The world’s riches cast before their infant, as mighty, wealthy kings honored him as King of kings. The world was rejoicing. Christ was here. And war was declared.
What a weird way to end that paragraph. It feels weird to do so, and still, it’s what was happening. We associate the nativity scene with peace because it’s all true: God was with us, fulfilling what he had promised. The One who would crush the serpent’s head had arrived on the scene. Victory was coming, and freedom was in sight because Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace and the Mighty Lion of Judah. There is no one like him. And we needed a victory.
The movie starts, but it begins in the middle of the storyline. The characters are stunned and numb, standing in the aftershock of something traumatic. Glued to your seat, you’re looking for any indication of what had happened — loss, an accident, destruction? Their body language says it all. It’s terrible, whatever it is. If you could sense the world was ending, then that’s what this scene is communicating to you. As far as you’re concerned, and the main characters, too, there’s no going back. That’s just a guess, but it’s what I imagine the moments following their sin felt like.
We long for something we’ve never experienced on this side of the garden. But Adam and Eve must have longed for what they once had and, in the meantime, waited for the words God spoke to the serpent in Genesis to come true, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15). The first prophecy of redemption, hope, victory, Jesus. It’s just a guess, but I would assume Eve and Adam held onto those words for the rest of their lives, words we no longer hold onto because we have Jesus. We know the prophecy came true.
The prophecy from Micah 5:2 says, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from old, from ancient days.” One day, Jesus will return and reign over the world. We won’t have to watch people we love hurt, fight against our sin or be heartbroken by another awful news alert. Everything will be right when he is ruler. This Christmas, when we look at the story of Jesus’ birth, let’s not see a disconnect between the someday and Bethlehem.
The Christmas story is incredibly compelling when you see it through the lens of need. It’s more than just a sweet story, and it’s not cute. It’s the glory of God on full display, declaring that he is the Savior and ruler and that nothing can stop him. It’s the realization of the promise made back in the Garden of Eden. Christmas is more than the birth of Jesus. It’s the keeping of a promise that sin would be defeated, death would have no hold on us and we’d be set free. This Christmas, know that the conqueror has arrived, and he is setting captives free.
He rules the world
with truth and grace
and makes the nations prove
the glories of his righteousness
and wonders of his love.