The Nativity stories of Matthew 1–2 and Luke 1–2 made a deep impression on me as a young and new Christian. I’m not sure why, but their theme of the historical coming of Christ may have resonated with the experiential coming of salvation into my own life.
My conversion from atheism to Christ happened in the final months of 2002 and the occasion of Christmas must have put the Nativity stories in right front of me at that formative time. The theme of “dawn” aptly describes the experience of my coming to faith, especially after what had been a bleak few years for me.
We see this theme in the opening of Luke’s Gospel.
In Luke 1:76–79, Zechariah prophesied to his newborn son John (the Baptist) about the role he would play as the forerunner of the Christ:
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
For you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
To give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
Because of the tender mercy of our God,
Whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
To guide our feet in the way of peace.
This Christmas, as you remember the coming of Jesus, remember also the significance of his coming. Jesus has profoundly impacted countless individuals and families. He doesn’t fix all their struggles, but he does fix our standing with God and sets us on a new path with a new outlook which leads us to a new life with a bright final future.
This should remind us that our sharing of the message of Christ involves two parts. There is the message of what God has done in the sending of Jesus. There is also the significance this coming can have on people. The gospel message includes the historical acts of God as well as their potential experiential impacts by the Holy Spirit.
If you were to share something of the gospel from the Nativity stories, how might you point out these two themes?