A Strange Way to Save the World

 If one steps back from the Christmas story and thinks about it logically, the whole idea seems crazy. God coming to earth as a baby. Letting Himself be raised by a couple who had never raised any children. Growing up as a boy with all of the joys and pain of childhood, all with the end result of being nailed to a cross for our sins. 

  God can do anything. He is God, after all, so why not do it an easier way. God could still have found a way to save the human race without coming as God in man.

  Max Lucado wrote a book some years back that was originally titled "A Cosmic Christmas", later re-titled "An Angel's Story." It is a fictionalized telling of the Christmas story. As plans are being set in motion for Jesus to come to earth and be born as a baby, Satan arrives to check out what is going on. It is fiction, but we know from the story of Job that Satan can evidently interact with God on some level. He is mocking God for how successful he has been at turning people from God, then the story goes like this: 

The King walked over and reached for the book. He turned it toward Lucifer and commanded, “Come, Deceiver, read the name of the One who will call your bluff. Read the name of the One who will storm your gates.” Satan rose slowly off his haunches. Like a wary wolf, he walked a wide circle toward the desk until he stood before the volume and read the word:

“Immanuel?” he muttered to himself, then spoke in a tone of disbelief. “God with us?” For the first time the hooded head turned squarely toward the face of the Father. “No. Not even You would do that. Not even You would go so far.”

“You’ve never believed me, Satan.”

“But Immanuel? The plan is bizarre! You don’t know what it’s like on Earth! You don’t know how dark I’ve made it. It’s putrid. It’s evil. It’s…”

“IT IS MINE,” proclaimed the King. “AND I WILL RECLAIM WHAT IS MINE. I WILL BECOME FLESH. I WILL FEEL WHAT MY CREATURES FEEL. I WILL SEE WHAT THEY SEE.”

“But what of their sin?”

“I will bring mercy.”

“What of their death?”

“I will give life.”

Satan stood speechless.

God spoke, “I love my children. Love does not take away the beloved’s freedom. But love takes away fear. And Immanuel will leave behind a tribe of fearless children. They will not fear you or your hell.”

Satan stepped back at the thought. His retort was childish. “Th-th-they will too!”

“I will take away all sin. I will take away death. Without sin and without death, you have no power.”

Around and around in a circle Satan paced, clenching and unclenching his wiry fingers. When he finally stopped, he asked a question that even I was thinking. “Why? Why would You do this?”

The Father’s voice was deep and soft. “Because I love them.” (From An Angel's Story by Max Lucado)

  He could have done it another way. But He didn't. Maybe He wanted to feel first hand what it is like for us to be born and grow up, to go through childhood, adolescence.

  And maybe He wanted to give us Christmas. A time when we can kneel at the manger and see the miracle of God as a baby, a bundle of hope and joy for the world. At Easter, we look at the crucified and risen Christ, and that is a whole different picture, but Christmas gives us a baby, Emanuel, God with us and in us. Christmas started it all, Easter finished it. God became vulnerable, become one of the weakest of us, a baby, to show us how much He loves us, and to set His plan of salvation in motion.

We'd never have done it that way. Give up our only Son for people who for the most part had no interest in us or in doing what is right.... no way. But God did. He doesn't always operate in orthodox ways that make sense to we humans. He picked what seems to most of us, a strange way to save the world. But what a way.

I'm sure he must have been surprised
At where this road had taken him
'Cause never in a million lives
Would he had dreamed of Bethlehem
And standing at the manger
He saw with his own eyes
The message from the angel come to life
And Joseph said...

Why me, I'm just a simple man of trade
Why Him, with all the rulers in the world
Why here inside this stable filled with hay
Why her, she's just an ordinary girl
Now I'm not one to second guess what angels have to say
But this is such a strange way to save the world

To think of how it could have been
If Jesus had come as He deserved
There would have been no Bethlehem
No lowly shepherds at His birth
But Joseph knew the reason
Love had to reach so far
And as he held the Savior in his arms
He must have thought...

Why me, I'm just a simple man of trade
Why Him, with all the rulers in the world
Why here inside this stable filled with hay
Why her, she's just an ordinary girl
Now I'm not one to second guess what angels have to say
But this is such a strange way to save the world

Now I'm not one to second guess what angels have to say
But this is such a strange way to save the world
...this is such a strange way...such a strange way...a strange way...
to save the world.