One Solitary Life

Every year at this time I am reminded of this essay by Dr. James Allan. As we reflect on and celebrate the birth of Jesus we do not simply remember His birth. That would be short sighted to do so. Indeed we celebrate His birth but we also celebrate and remember His whole life including His death, His resurrection and ascension and glorification. It is these things we remember and enter into when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Just as at Christmas we celebrate more than the life of Christ, during the sacramental meal we recognize more than just His death. We remember Jesus and His one solitary life.

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself…

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

Philippians 2:5-11

5

 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

6

who, though he was in the form of God,

    did not regard equality with God

    as something to be exploited,

7

but emptied himself,

    taking the form of a slave,

    being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

8

    he humbled himself

    and became obedient to the point of death—

    even death on a cross.

9

Therefore God also highly exalted him

    and gave him the name

    that is above every name,

10

so that at the name of Jesus

    every knee should bend,

    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11

and every tongue should confess

    that Jesus Christ is Lord,

    to the glory of God the Father.

What do you think?

How does it make you feel?

Shalom

Steven