From Swaddling Cloths to the Cross
By Dean Collins
It truly is hard to take in. The divine chose to take on flesh so that he could take on our sin so that our debt would be canceled, setting us free from the bondage that crushes and curses us. He was born that he might die for our sins and through his resurrection give us a promise and a guarantee of life with God forever in a fully restored and perfect Heaven on earth.
As I read both the birth and crucifixion narratives it strikes me how from the beginning to the end of Jesus’ life on earth, he demonstrated perfect submission. In Luke 2, we read that Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manager. Consider this for a moment. God chose to put on skin and be bound in swaddling clothes. Complete authority and power submitted to being swaddled and restricted to his mother’s care.
Now consider what John described in his Gospel (18:12): “So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him.”
Jesus could have fought back. He could have resisted. This is the Almighty God allowing himself once again to be bound by human hands. This time he would be tortured and crucified, not swaddled and rocked in the arms of a loving mother. He surrendered to an angry mob because of his love for you, for me, for everyone.
If you take time to read John 18 and 19, you see that over and over Jesus allowed sinful man to bind him, lead him, send him, take him, flog him, strike him, deliver him, and crucify him. No resistance, only humility and surrender motivated by love.
We must never forget that Jesus endured these things because we are enslaved by our sin. As hard as we might try to resist, the chains of sin hold us tightly. Our selfishness breaks out. Our motives are not pure. Our will is weak. We are bound with no hope of deliverance and life except by the sacrifice of the one born to die that our chains might be broken. Because he came and died and rose again, we can live forgiven and free and eternally in right relationship with God, with each other, and with all of God’s creation.
Paul said that Christ has set us free for freedom, and therefore we must stand firm, not allowing ourselves to submit again to our former bondage of sin and death. In order to do that we must come with the mind of Christ and humbly submit to his love and his mercy. We must allow Jesus to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
My favorite Christmas song, “O Holy Night,” speaks powerfully to the work of Christ on the cross that followed a night long ago when the Almighty chose to allow himself to be bound in human form so that he might one day surrender to a cross for our salvation, freedom, and life. He did this for all people and for all time
As we celebrate his birth this year I pray we will have a fresh awakening of his love and his presence that will lead us to love one another more completely.
Merry Christmas.
Your time with God’s Word
Luke 2:7; John 18:12-13, 24, 28, 31, 33; 19:1, 3-4, 16-17; Galatians 5:1 ESV
Photo by Laura Garcia
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