Title: Glory and Peace / Luke 2:1-14
Contents
Glory and Peace / Luke 2:1-14
Since their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, human beings have been living in a world dominated by sin and death, living in the threefold pain of anxiety, distrust, and uncertainty. Therefore, human beings have longed for salvation from such suffering and death. In other words, they have been hoping to return to the Garden of Eden, that is, to come to God. This hope and effort for human salvation was manifested in the form of religion, and various religions were created on this earth. Anyone who knows the nuclear issue as a global problem will not be able to raise any objection to the fact that the modern age we live in is an 'age of insecurity'. P. Tillich said that 'anxiety of existence, anxiety of conscience, and anxiety of death' are these, and they are even more disturbing because the end time is near. Scientists who felt threatened by the explosion of population, pollution of the environment, depletion of resources, and the fear of nuclear weapons, and modern intellectuals worry about the future of mankind, saying that 'it will be difficult to survive 100 years from now'. So the EC authorities said, 'Have only two children, respect art instead of technology, conserve resources instead of development, and then don't forget the end of history'.
Why did Jesus come to the stable, old age?
The name of Jesus means 'salvation'. It tells us that salvation is his whole. He saved, but did not put salvation first. He wanted to save lives, but before he could save lives, He loved us first and gave them up. He did not rescue those in lowly from high, but He loved us and came to us. Therefore, the religious leaders at that time treated Jesus as a secular man. To them, in terms of ritual and religious sanctity, Jesus was absolutely unacceptable. Therefore, he was said to be 'a glutton and a drinker,' and he came to be regarded as a very secular person.
Jesus was originally equal to God, that is, He is God. Of course, he was God, not man. But he became human. 'God is with us', that is, 'Emmanuel' does not mean that man did not serve God just because he deserved it, but because he deserves to be with him, it just means that God became human. God became flesh. God became man and became righteous. The strong became the weak, and the high became the lowly of that manger. This is a precious truth.
Human beings who are sinners cannot be righteous and cannot approach God, but in the end, God became human. In the end, the righteous became sinners. He came to be God but not God, righteous but not righteous, strong but weak, noble but lowly. This is what God means with us.
The birth of Jesus, the God incarnate, is the 'day' of my new life. My life is the life in which it is born. This is the good news that will soon spread to all people. 'Glory in heaven, peace on earth' This is happening in heaven and on earth at the same time. Just as a righteous person is born in the body of a sinner and a holy baby lay in an ugly stable, it is good news that a lowly human named 'I' is born with new life no doubt
The story of the stable birth recorded only in the Gospel of Luke consistently testifies that Jesus came to the stable and lived the life of the stable. If you read the Gospel of Luke to the end, you can see that the life of Jesus ended with the cross. His life began with the lowest and ended most miserably. It means nothing to those who do not confess Jesus as the Christ, but it makes us think what kind of life our lives should be for believers who confess Jesus as the Christ. If the history-changing Savior came to the stable and the end of his life was the cross, then we should know that this is the way of life of believers in Jesus Christ.
Today, the Korean church is more advanced in loving buildings than stables, and Korean church members are more inclined to go the way of fame, power and wealth rather than the way of the cross, freedom and responsibility, rights and duties, common sense and prejudice, and certainty. Confusion in which self-righteousness and self-righteousness cannot be distinguished promotes disorder in our society. The meaning of Jesus coming to the stable is not to be exalted, but to be humbled to become glory in heaven and peace on earth.
The cross is an event of dying not only to survive, but to remove the power of death for others. The Christian life today should be a life near the stable and the cross. Thus, to understand rather than be understood, to love rather than to be loved, to forsake and die while serving rather than being served, this is the church and the way of Christ's disciples.
In order for the church of today to honestly testify to Christ as the salvation of mankind in this society, it must bear the cross. When we can share the suffering of the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned, the sick, and everyone else in mental and physical suffering, we can truly be the church that brings Christ into today's society.
What is the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ? The glory that human beings demand is self-centered wealth and glory, but the 'glory to God' that Jesus did was to raise the fallen, heal the sick, be kind to the poor and the little ones, hate cruelty and injustice, and do not rebel even when insulted. It is the glory of seeking forgiveness from the enemy, that is, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving hope to the disappointing, loving without discrimination, working for human peace, and embracing all peoples as one brother.
The form of 'peace' that God wants can be found throughout the New Testament.
If 'the worship of the shepherds' was the earthly response in the birth of Jesus, the 'praise of angels' was the heavenly response. The angels sang in unison, "Glory to God in the highest." Through this praise, all the glory of the birth of Jesus was attributed to God. Indeed, God's extreme love and goodness, who sent the Messiah to save mankind, deserve praise. In other words, God deserves to be glorified in other things, but the event of saving human beings who have no choice but to die because of sin is His glory in the highest place. On the other hand, this goodness of God who sent the Messiah brought peace to this lowly and lowly world, and true peace came from Jesus Christ, who was born in human form to save mankind.
The cry of faith witnessed by so many angels, that is, that God's good will is "glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth" is the gospel of the gospel, and it may not be the truth of the truth. none.
"Glory" to God and "peace" to people is life's greatest hope.
Merry Christmas!