The Simple Birth

• The greatest and the highest became the humblest and the simplest.

• The richest became the poorest that the poor might be rich.

• He feasted with sinners that they might not starve in their sin.

• He fasted 40 days that we might feast the Bread of Life.

• He emptied Himself that we might be filled.

• The Lion became the Lamb that sheep might become shepherds.

• His heart was broken that He might heal the broken-hearted.

• - His body was crushed that we might be made whole.

• He was rejected that we might be accepted.

• He was bruised that we may be healed.

• He was condemned that we might be justified.

• He was judged that we would not be judged.

• He was deserted by the Father that we might accepted by the Father.

• He died as the innocent One that the guilty might be declared innocent.

• He is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the World. He is God’s holy, human paradox

And this lamb was revealed to the shepherds. Men who didn’t have a reputation to protect or an ax to grind or a ladder to climb. Men who didn’t know enough to tell God that angels don’t sing to sheep and that messiahs aren’t found wrapped in rags and sleeping in a feed trough.

So …

while the theologians were sleeping

and the elite were dreaming

and the successful were snoring,

the meek were kneeling.

They were kneeling before the One only the meek will see. They were kneeling in front of Jesus.

That’s the challenge of His simple birth. God doesn’t impress you with pomp, He simply presents you with truth. Those who are meek, those who are weak, those who, like the shepherds, are willing submit to that simplicity, see their lives forever changed. Those who are waiting for the show, like Herod, like the High Priest, and like the Pharisees, they doubt and disbelieve.