Just a Baby

“And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn ”

For what great disaster might you need to have a hero? Against what insurmountable problem would a powerful warrior be just the thing? To conquer a world-dominating madman, a colossus of evil towering over the earth with supernatural power, how much do we all need… a Savior?

We all have been in it. Trouble , I mean. Trouble so bad that you would despair of any solution . Capital T Trouble. Being broke, unemployed, or friendless is nothing to compare to this kind of trouble . We've faced an impenetrable wall of flame, a fire with a real vengeance, like an enormous forest fire that breathes and that lives and that has your address . We may have been destined to live at the time of the Big One , an earthquake so violent that nothing will remain standing —and fall into the yawning bottomless chasm opening right at our feet. We share a common enemy, a spirit rival of God, a psychotic genius who owned this planet .

These things were all in our future . We had come under the power of darkness, we had transgressed the will of God, we had been under sentence of death— and what is more, we had deserved every last bit of it. What to do? Who might save us from this evil fate?

You may imagine an embattled warrior, the man of steel, a superhuman titan, larger than life, greater than the comic book heroes. It would take more than such a one to defeat the enemy that stands against you. All the bright and brilliant angels of heaven together could never unravel the mystery or oppose the judgment of God Himself against sin, death and the devil. God Himself had been barred, kept from subverting His own will by His own will from simply by granting blind amnesty. But His love for His creation drove Him to His most improbable device, a plan that no one would ever suspect, and no one ever did suspect it. The devil never saw it coming. Neither did we.

A virgin conceived and gave birth to a Son. The prophecy of Isaiah had been all but ignored. 7:14 This Son would be called Immanuel , meaning God with us . What could that mean? He would be just a baby, a mere human child— what could He do for us?

The carpenter Joseph, Mary's betrothed husband, found out she was pregnant. It would have been another man, so he thought it best to dissolve the wedding arrangements quietly. But an angel from heaven appeared to him, telling him this child was of the Holy Spirit. This will be a boy and you shall call His Name Jesus , meaning God is Savior , and He will save people from their sins. Matthew 1:18-25 Mary's cousin Elisabeth heard Mary's voice when she came for a visit and her own baby leaped within her womb. Luke 1:41, 44 Just a baby in the womb , and yet John, who would become the Baptist, knew the presence of his Master , though hidden in his own mother's womb.

Just a baby , and born so poor and destitute his parents could only supply an animal stall for a delivery room and nursery, He was wrapped in cloth windings and, for his bassinette, a manger , the crude wooden trough filled with hay for donkeys and cattle. What a peculiar sight! Such an uncomfortable place to give birth to your first child. And such a loving couple, they did whatever they could.

Just a baby , but shepherds looked in on Him that night, excited as they were about a vision of angels from heaven who sang of God's redemption of mankind and a new peace for us all, born a Savior, the awaited Messiah. The angels said he was to be found wrapped just like this and laying in a manger. It had to be Him! Mary heard and kept these words in her heart.

But just a baby . Imagine : a billion eons before the worlds were made, before anything at all existed except God the Three in One, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in an eternity before anything else existed: this eternal God the Son , Logos , Word of God, dwelt in Eternity without beginning. The only light was the God who was Himself uncreated Light. He shone in that darkness and the darkness could not surround or eclipse or understand His Light.

When God said, “Let there be light!” this Second Person of the triune God was the very utterance of the Father, doing the Father's expressed will as the spoken Word. The Word who was light created light in a dazzling super-speeding burst of energy and matter that warped and ripped the blackness of space and time came into being, eventually slowing to the pace we know. The expanding energy burst slowed down, cooled off and stars formed, nebulae, clusters, galaxies, solid bodies, and this planet. The Word did all that, and the morning and the evening were the first day.

Now this same Word , God the Son , maker of all this, consented to be made part of His created world. He did it in order to save us, to be our champion. He had to become one of us, to live with us, to die for us, in order to obey the Father's will and still obtain the pardon we can't get for ourselves. He joined into the life of a human being, a single cell, then a rapidly developing living, physical person. Human and divine mind were aligned in Him, two complete natures merge and become One Person, Jesus Christ.

And this night , this blessed night, though washed in the blood of this world and chilled in its brisk evening air, the world's Savior comes squeezed into a new sensory experience. The infant shakes, having lived in warm liquid for months, his little limbs quiver in his nakedness. Helpless, too weak even to lift His head, struggling to keep His eyes open, He gazes on the kind face of the man whose voice He knows. Then He sees her , His mother, His only human parent: eyes meet, comfort flows from her body to Him still. Th is creator of the universe has become one of the most vulnerable of its offspring . He stares in wonder at the faces of animals, the long, sad nosey faces of donkeys, the massive solemnity of an ox, the innocence of sweet little lambs, the haughty austerity of the camel. They're all so Big! He's so tiny. Just a baby, a helpless newborn child.

It's struck me recently just how young Jesus was ev en at the time when He concluded His earthly ministry , when he ascended to the Father after laying down His life and rising again from death. I am already 21 years beyond his years at that time, and I look at what He achieved as a 33-year-old . Only a little past being a boy, this man bore the unrighteous judgment of His generation, silently went to His unjust execution, and prayed that, in His death, the Father might forgive us. We don't know what we're doing. But He knew. He knew what was in man. A 33-year-old understood me, for He was in so many ways like me . He was the Son of man. He was the epitome of my race. He was the offering of mankind, the only perfect sacrifice we could offer God to set aside our eternal banishment from His divine Presence. Such a young man it was that held on His shoulders the sins of the whole world.

But tonight we look at the babe. His tiny hands have also shaped the worlds. His little eyes saw the creation at its beginning. His thoughts have always held all truth and righteous values. Being from the heavens for eternity, what could it have been like for Him to come here? So dependent. So innocent. So frail. So like us, and yet so unlike us. What a wonder He came as one of us. What a wonder He would do this for us.

Children figured large in Jesus' public ministry. He held them in highest honor. He set a child before His disciples and said, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.” Matthew 18:3-5 “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” Mark 10:14 “Have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” Matthew 21:16

Isaiah reported God's prophecy that in His peaceful Kingdom yet to come, the wolves will live at peace with lambs, leopards will sleep next to goats, calves and lions together, cows and bears feeding side by side. In this vision, the human infant plays safely where the poisonous snake's lair is. Isaiah 11:6-9 The helpless child is as powerful in God's kingdom as the most virile man.

So, if you have a monster to overcome, the kind of evil antagonist no one can oppose: you don't want the common hero, warrior king . A baby, just a baby , born in Bethlehem at the time of the census in Palestine over 2000 years ago— that baby went on in a few years to conquer the Lord of the Air , whose power over all mankind was a total, complete, crushing and determined ownership, destining many to eternal fire. Many still go to the fire, but He has made a way for all who will take it. We kneel before the baby, give Him our present, let Him know we are His now, and thank Him for coming to our world, being one of us, living and dying for us.

We thank the baby, we bless the baby, we worship the baby born as on this night. Just a baby , and yet our king. Just a baby , and forever our champion over sin, the world and death. Praise King Jesus, born as on this day for us. Praise Him, even though our Savior comes as just a baby.

PFH+