This writer believes that the birth of Christ, which Christians celebrate at this time of the year, is one of the supreme events in human history. It was the culmination of the creation; it set in motion His mortal ministry and His suffering and agony in Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary. His emergence from the tomb broke the bands of death and gave to all mankind the gift of living forever as resurrected beings. Mankind’s debt to Jesus Christ is immeasurable.
As we celebrate Christmas, I wish to share my deep conviction that Christ is not only our Savior, but if we choose He is also a great and wonderful friend and a marvelous benefactor. This is demonstrated by how Christ interacted with the common people of His time. His emotions and feelings were not unlike our own. That he demonstrated great compassion for downtrodden people and the hungry multitudes is recorded often in the Holy Scriptures. His verbal exchanges with the scribes and the Pharisees tell us how deeply He despised hypocrisy. Christ’s combination of silence and terse replies before the Jewish Sanhedrin and before Pilate and Herod, were great displays of divine dignity. He was impatient with His disciples whose faith was not strong enough to heal the sick or feed the multitudes.
Jesus showed great respect and love for the poor widow who cast her lowly mite into the temple treasury. He made her a shining light and caring legend wherever true charity is recorded. To all that He healed, Jesus showed genuine compassion and understanding. He understood the insidious curse of leprosy, and the darkness of those who could not see a glorious sunset or behold the face of a sweet child. To the wayward sinner, he gave hope and encouragement as He taught the forgiving principles in the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Prodigal Son. Thirsting at the well in Samaria, He assured the Samaritan woman that she too was a daughter of God, and eligible for membership in His Kingdom. Walking a dusty thoroughfare, He instantly knew that virtue had gone out of him. Jesus turned, despite the protestations of his disciples, and changed forever the life of the poor afflicted woman who had so much faith that by merely touching His garment, she was cured of her blood disease. Jesus marveled at her faith. Like the widow and her mite, he made this woman a righteous example to His disciples of all ages.
There are few, if any, personal accounts recorded in the Gospels more touching and meaningful than Christ’s brief encounter with the woman taken in adultery. His enemies really believed that they had found a way to entrap Jesus. How, they reasoned, could this Galilean heretic fail to uphold their narrow interpretation of the Law which required that she be stoned; “but what sayest Thou?” After writing something on the ground, He rose majestically and gave His immortal and indicting reply. “He that is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her.” Not a single accuser had the audacity to say to all assembled, I am sinless. Embarrassment and shame do not adequately describe those hypocrites as they left the temple. Stones that moments earlier were intended for the adulterous woman’s body were quickly dropped, placed in a robe pocket or concealed behind clenched fists. Seldom during Christ’s ministry, had the intellectual discussion been so one-sided.
The woman’s accusers are fortunately not the real story in John’s account. Christ’s remarks and personal interaction with the woman are the real lessons for each of us. After the scribes and Pharisees departed, Jesus said unto her, “Woman where are thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?” She softly replied, “No man Lord, and Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.” As Jesus spoke, He looked deep into her soul and conveyed to her, and to each of us who would read the account, the sublime peace of divine love. Having been spared a painful death, she left the temple alone knowing that her standing in the Kingdom of God was now in her own hands.
May I say that Christ will be a friend of anyone who genuinely seeks his friendship. I believe Jesus has all the wonderful characteristics we attribute to prophets, grandparents, moms, dads, religious leaders and dear friends. The Jesus I know appreciates a magnificent Clydesdale, a beautiful garden, the beauty of a New England autumn, and a thoughtful sermon ended on time. He appreciates small acts of kindness, understands tears at a grandmother’s funeral, and respects the great scientific, medical and engineering accomplishments of our time.
I believe the Savior is moved by a child’s first vocal prayer, and a stirring rendition of “How Great Thou Art.”
I’m certain that he is very displeased by the poverty extant among some of His brothers and sisters on the earth, and is touched by a children’s chorus with its enthusiastic voices, including the monotones, and a five-year old girl’s first ballet lesson. He is deeply saddened when a child is abused or murdered. He is amused by the first steps of a determined 10-month old boy and pleased when a teenage youth refuses to use drugs. Having given His life for his friends, He was personally touched by those men on both sides who died at Normandy, Stalingrad, Iwo Jima and Antietam. He was deeply saddened by the evil atrocities committed at Auschwitz, Bataan, in the Gulag Archipelago, and in Cambodia.
I believe that Jesus was terribly hurt when Herod killed all of the children less than two years old in Bethlehem and surrounding towns. Some were about to enter their terrible twos; some had just learned to walk, while others were still crawling on the rough floors of their humble homes. Christ knew all of them by name, and I believe sincerely that when He went to the spirit world, He tenderly took each one in His arms and told them that He loved them and that He understood.
Jesus welcomes with open arms a venerable elder from China, Ghana or the mountains of Bolivia, and a young Pakistani mother whose life is ended at childbirth. The Stranger of Galilee has deep compassion for children’s hospitals and for the Mother Teresa’s of the world that are “…doing it unto the least of these my brethren.”
The Jesus I know shares the happiness and passion of newlyweds and the sorrow and sweet memories that his wife’s passing brings to a 90-year old grandfather who loses 70 years of love, friendship and togetherness when his sweetheart goes back home. Jesus rejoices in those whose discipleship He knows is sincere, and longs for the return of the prodigal sons and daughters. I believe Jesus loves the poor urchins of Calcutta as much as he does you and me and the prophets, and that every handicapped person in the world is very precious to the Savior. He is not impressed with the accumulation of great wealth and dismisses worldly fame and physical beauty as quite irrelevant. Election to a Hall of Fame will count considerably less than the widow’s mite.
Christ has blessed us beyond measure. He is the great hope of mankind in this troubled world.
(Robert K Wolthuis lives in Pleasant View, UT)