“And on going into the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and worshipped Him. Then opening their treasure bags, they presented to Him gifts – gold and frankincense and myrrh.” Matt 2:11(Amplified)

Universally, babies are regarded as objects of affection. They have a way of drawing attention to themselves wherever you find them either because of their size, the cute way they look or how they behave. They can be perfect conversation ice-breakers for total strangers. In short, they are adored and look adorable to strangers. However, as adults, the only problem with babies is that they seldom remain babies forever. They soon grow up. It is only a matter of time before they too are pushing their own babies around and that is enough time for the adoration to be replaced with scepticism, admiration or hatred depending on whichever path they choose in life. After all, both murderers and their victims were once babies.

Every year, we unfailingly mark the birth of Jesus the baby at Christmas and mourn the death of Jesus the man at Easter. His birth marked the beginning of something good, the unfurling of the final part of God’s plan for the salvation of mankind, while His death signalled the beginning of something even better, the offering and conferment of eternal life on any of mankind who through faith accepts His sacrifice as payment for the sins they had committed against God.

However, as it is in real life, we seem to be fixated with Jesus the child than we are impacted by Jesus the man. We focus on Jesus the baby because it means we can avoid thinking about the real purpose of Jesus the man, which He finally accomplished on the cross of Calvary. Like we do to adorable babies, we can say to Jesus the baby ‘Oh, you look so cute’, but His torn visage after being scourged by the whips still horrifies us. His crucifixion depicts humanity at its worst. This is the reason Christmas is celebrated the way it presently is with fanfare and goodwill. It represents a wonderful opportunity to show the best side of our flawed human nature and treat our fellow men the way we would love to be treated – a further proof that we really do not need Jesus the man.

The good news is that Jesus the baby grew to become Jesus the man, although many would have wished that He remained a baby forever. We love the baby but despise the man. The reality we have to face is that God will judge us not on the basis of our adoration of Jesus the baby, but on our treatment of Jesus the man. Having marked the baby’s birth for another year, it is time to look forward to celebrating His death and dealing with the implications that pivotal event have for your life. Now that you have finished ogling that cute and wonderful baby, it is time to impress the horrific suffering of the torn visage of Jesus the man on your consciousness and allow what you see to inform your future conduct. Never allow the spiritual Nivea visage (a commercial cream) of busyness or the distraction of living to smoothen out and thus erase the painful expression on His face, which was undoubtedly brought about by His undertaking to pay the price for our sins.

It is time to once again be aghast as we appreciate anew what Jesus had to suffer and which made our celebrating Christmas possible. Therefore, it is not enough to regard Him just as Jesus the man, but as Jesus the Lord as we submit to His leadership and seek to serve Him with our lives. By this we are saying to Him that ‘Jesus, your suffering is certainly worth our while’.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, make yourself at home in my life and reign unhindered and graciously in every aspect of my life. Amen.