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For the primary time in current historical past, Christmas has been canceled in Bethlehem. Though church buildings on this birthplace of Jesus will nonetheless maintain non secular providers, the twinkling decorations that normally gentle up this West Financial institution metropolis will stay darkish this vacation season.
Bethlehem’s officers have scrapped the annual Manger Sq. Christmas tree lighting and fireworks show, Christmas parade and vacation market. The festivities of Christmas appear out of step with the gravity of battle.
The thought of a darkened Bethlehem in 2023 leads us to contemplate what the primary Christmas should have been like, in that very same place, greater than 2,000 years in the past.
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The night time was interrupted by a sudden celestial glow as an angel appeared and introduced the excellent news of Christ’s start to shepherds within the fields, shortly joined by “a large number of the heavenly host praising God” (Luke 2:8-14). A shining star forged its gentle over Bethlehem, guiding the smart males to worship Jesus (Matthew 2:Sept. 11). However all too quickly, the enjoyment of these days was overshadowed by anguished grief.
Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Hanania poses for a portrait in entrance of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, West Financial institution, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023. Palestinian Christians are marking a somber Christmas this 12 months, canceling festivities because the battle between Israel and Hamas grinds on. (Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Instances)
You might keep in mind the story. The angel advised Joseph in a dream that King Herod was plotting to homicide Jesus. Joseph, in obedience to God’s command, took Mary and Jesus and fled to Egypt that night time — simply in time.
In a match of satanic rage, Herod determined to remove any potential “King of the Jews” (Matthew 2:2) by killing each Jewish boy aged 2 and beneath in Bethlehem and the encompassing area (Matthew 2:13-16).
To explain how Bethlehem’s households responded to the ruthless bloodbath of their harmless infants and toddlers, the Gospel author Matthew quoted a prophecy from Jeremiah 31:15: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and nice mourning, Rachel weeping for her kids” (Matthew 2:18).
This brutal slaughter of Jewish kids should have regarded much like the harrowing pictures we noticed in our newsfeeds on the times following October 7, 2023 — when Israel was wracked as soon as once more by the sinister bloodshed of members of the family, pals and neighbors.
There’s actual stress within the Christmas story. Christ’s start looks as if it ought to have been a triumphant second for God’s folks. In the end, right here was the long-awaited Messiah, whose coming signaled the top of oppression, ache, and despair. The Savior was born!
However it wasn’t lengthy earlier than first-century Bethlehem needed to bury its slain infants. God had arrived, but the ability of sin and dying remained. How may one small city bear to expertise its brightest night time, adopted by considered one of its darkest days?
Christmas incorporates a thriller: the restoration that God’s folks had anticipated to occur abruptly would as a substitute unfold over time. Israel’s hope started to unfold the rays of its dawning gentle in Bethlehem, on the first Christmas. “For yonder breaks a brand new and wonderful morn,” the Christmas carol says. However the gentle grew slowly. God works on His time, not ours. There was extra to be achieved, extra to be revealed.
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From our vantage level, Christ’s start feels prefer it has been adopted by an pointless delay full of ache. God got here to earth. He grew to become considered one of us as a way to save us. But right here we’re, two millennia later, coping with the identical points.
In a match of satanic rage, Herod determined to remove any potential “King of the Jews” (Matthew 2:2) by killing each Jewish boy aged 2 and beneath in Bethlehem and the encompassing area (Matthew 2:13-16).
We nonetheless really feel the sting of dying. Too many tables may have empty chairs this 12 months, as they’ve yearly since Christ’s start. Is Christmas actually “excellent news,” then? Is it nonetheless price celebrating?
I feel the solutions are present in my favourite Christmas carol, “Pleasure to the World.” When Isaac Watts composed this hymn in 1719, he didn’t intend it to be a Christmas carol. His focus was not a lot on Christ’s first coming as a child in Bethlehem, however on His second coming sooner or later because the righteous King of the earth, who “guidelines the world with reality and beauty and makes the nations show the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love.”
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As I level out in my new guide “Are We Residing within the Finish Instances?,” “the Outdated and New Testaments hyperlink the primary and second comings of Jesus. What God began at Christmas two thousand years in the past can be accomplished at Christ’s return. Proper now, we dwell within the in-between time with all of the attendant ache and heartache. However sooner or later earth will obtain her King, who has promised to conquer the sting of evil, injustice, and dying ceaselessly and ever.”
This wonderful, everlasting future started many centuries in the past on an unsuspecting, darkish night time in Bethlehem. We are able to thank God that the newborn who was born in that little city will return quickly to complete what He started on that blessed Christmas day.
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