Nearly four million babies are born in the United States each vear. The most popular day for babies to make their entrance into the world is Tuesday – at least according to recent statistics. The next most popular dav is Thursday. Sunday is the slowest. The most common birth month is September.The most common minute of birth is 8:00 A.M.
When we think about all the new babies, and giving birth, it happens so often that we need to ask some fundamental questions:
Why is this Child-the Child that we celebrate every Christmas-so special? Four million babies enter the world in the United States in one year. One hundred and forty million babies are born worldwide and we’re singing about one child born over two thou sand years ago, far away, in an obscure part of the Middle East? What’s the big deal about this one child? Why do people make such a fuss about one baby being born to a teenage girl that long ago? What Child is this?
Thirty-three years later, they asked the same question at the street corners in Jerusalem.
“And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?” (Matthew 21:10) All the city said it then; and all the world has said it ever since. For twen-ty-one centuries this one central Figure has haunted the conscience of mankind. Typing “Jesus” into the Google search engine will yield approximately 665 billion results.
The question posed by Nicodemus, when he encountered Jesus, has echoed across the generations, “How can these things be?”
After all, for the greater part of His life he labored as a carpenter. His home was in an obscure village. He was born in a stable.
Wealth and official position, He had none.
The first thirty years of his life were seemingly unremarkable. His friends were mostly poor peasants and fishermen. When He left home and started preaching His own family tried to stop Him, thinking and saying that He was mad. The theologians and scholars were appalled and dismissive of His teaching. The crowds that initially gathered in great numbers to see and hear Him soon dwindled and then mostly vanished. His own best friends showed signs of doing the same. “Will you also go?” He had to ask them. At the end they deserted Him to His fate. He died a felon’s death, hanging between two thieves. He was buried in a borrowed grave.
But then an astonishing thing happened.
It was whispered in the streets of Jerusalem that death had not finished Him. It was rumored that He had been seen alive.
Suddenly His disciples appeared in the streets proclaiming that He had risen. They said that He had come back to them. They reported that Jesus had conquered death!
Not surprisingly, when the crowds heard that, they laughed and mocked this whole preposterous story. The Book of Acts in chapter two reports that people responded to this incredible account by saving the apostles had been drinking. They are “full of new wine.”
The message of the church was this:
The living God has broken through into history in an unpresented way.
Once and for all, in a life lived out upon this earth,
God has spoken and has given the full and final revelation of Himself.
In Jesus God has come.
This electrifving and dramatic statement “turned the world upside down.” It split history into two parts so that every event is now dated with reference to His coming, either before or after. His life and teachings have marked the centuries. Through His influence, great movements have swept over the earth. In His name, men and women of every age have offered their lives and gifts to enrich humanity.
Many of the world’s most celebrated works of art were impacted by Jesus’ life and teachings. Before modern means of communication, artists used paintings to share Jesus’ majesty. Most are familiar with Rembrandt’s “Head of Christ,” Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” and Michelangelo’s painting on the Sistine Chapel Ceiling. Similarly, many of the world’s great composers, Bach, Haydn, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Vivaldi produced a wealth of sacred music. Their music was inspired by their deep faith in Jesus Christ.There is no way to measure the breath of His influence on all our lives.
Jesus sent his disciples out to “preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” (Luke 9:2) He told his disciples when they looked after the sick, they were caring for Him (Matt. 25:36). Accordingly, when the Council of Nicaea met in 325 A.D., the bishops were told that any town large enough to have a cathedral should also build a hospital. Across the vears followers of Jesus have led the way in building hospitals to care for the sick and dying. The oldest British hospital, St. Bartholomew’s was founded by a religious order. “The same can be said for the first hospitals in Mexico and Canada. In 1801 the U.S. had three hospitals.
Each of the three were created by followers of Jesus. Here in East Tennessee, for many vears the primary healthcare providers for our citizens were three Knoxville hospitals, Saint Mary’s, Baptist, and Fort Sanders Presbyterian. Typical of the three were the seven opening words in the founding documents of Baptist Hospital, “Founded on the teachings of Jesus Christ.” The seeds that produced the modern hospital and modern medicine were planted by devout Christians who were motivated by their sincere Christian beliefs.
The same concern led to the founding of the world’s oldest Universities, The University of Paris and Oxford University. Both were established by followers of Jesus. The same can be said of the oldest and most prestigious U.S. universities. They were founded by Christ followers, primarily to train clergy.
Examples include Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth and Colombia. The original motto of Harvard read, “Truth for Christ and His Church.” Despite the recent efforts to shoulder Him out of man of our universities, the fact remains that they were established in His name. The University of Tennessee traces its origin to Blount College in 1794. The college was founded by Rev. Samuel Carrick, a Presbyterian minister. Carrick began the college to teach seminary classes to students of all denominations.
Like many universities, The university of Tennessee. found it’s beginning with a purpose of sharing the message of Christ.
What child is this? Nearl 2.6 billion people claim adherence to some kind of Christian faith. That’s close to one in three people on Earth. Although there are still places in the world with very few Christians, you meet people every day who have wrestled with the question of Jesus’s identity until they reached a point that their soul was able to say, “My Lord and My God!” They believe He is the Son of God who was crucified and raised from the dead for the salvation of all who trust in Him. After twenty-one centuries, we still baptize believers in His name; when love and marriage come, we whisper our vows in His name; when life is over, we lay our dead beneath His cross; and it is in His message of eternal life that we find comfort. This Christmas season we will sing with great feeling the words of penned by William C. Dix.
