Transcript
It's so easy, with all the lights and the decorations and the family gatherings and the cookies, to forget what the scene was like that first Christmas. Really what happened was glory collided with tragedy. Unimaginable glory came to earth. God became flesh. Angels actually announced this birth of the hope of the universe.
Glory Connecting With Tragedy
But at the same time, King Herod, scared to death of his own political power, was planning the slaughter of countless infants. Glory connecting with tragedy - and that's really the biblical story - is that the glory of God's presence, the glory of God's promises, the glory of God's grace collides with the tragedy of sin. Countless moments of suffering and injustice and evil while God's working His plan and redeeming His own. The place where you see, again, the direct collision of glory and tragedy is on the cross of Jesus Christ.
I always think about this. I think about this every time we put up a tree. I think about this in the morning when I'm doing my tweets and looking at the tree that this is not really the tree that Christmas is about, that there's this tree of calvary where the glory of the presence of the Messiah, the glory of the plan of God to offer salvation, forgiveness, transformation, ultimate deliverance.
The pathway of that glory was unspeakable tragedy that the one perfect human being who ever lived would suffer an unjust and violent death. If you were unaware of God's plan, you would stand at the foot of that cross and you would think, "This is the worst tragedy ever."
But here's the Christmas story, the worst thing that ever happened was the best thing that could ever happen because nothing could be worse than the murder of the Messiah. Nothing could be better than the sacrifice of the Messiah for the salvation of the world. My hope is that when you think of Christmas, you'll get beyond the things that are okay to enjoy and remember that because glory was willing to face tragedy, we have hope and life and peace forever. That's the Christmas story.
