Yes, now's the time of year when the Church of England celebrates the coming of the angel Gabriel to Mary to tell her that she was going to be pregnant with Jesus. Hang on a minute! We're approaching Good Friday and Easter. This is when we focus on the fact that the grown up Jesus died and rose again from the dead in order to earn us salvation - life with God while we're on Earth and a place in Heaven after we die. Sometimes popular culture sends the message that we shall live for ever because of Christmas; there's a warm fuzzy glow about being saved by the birth of a baby in a stable in the middle of winter, while we open presents around a tree in comfort with (maybe) snow outside. Yet, Christmas on its own was never going to save us. Jesus was born to die for us and so Good Friday was always part of the plan. He was tempted on various occasions to ditch that plan, take a path of giving people what they want through miraculous provision, performing spectacular acts to grab their attention, or even to worship the devil outright. Of course, the biggest and hardest temptation to give up came the night before he was killed, in the garden of Gethsemene, when he had the option of walking away before Judas arrived to betray him. Had he succumbed to any of those ways of avoiding the suffering before him, we would perhaps still have had Christmas to celebrate, but no Good Friday or Easter - and no salvation.
Maybe it seems a bit odd to celebrate Gabriel's announcement to Mary at this time of year. Of course, it's nine months before Christmas, and Easter is related to the date of the Jewish passover, which is around now. So it makes sense in that regard. However, perhaps it also serves as a useful reminder that Christmas and Good Friday are linked. The wise men from Persia gave Jesus myrrh - a symbol that Jesus was born to die. Simeon, when Jesus was presented in the Temple, just over a month old, prophesied that something dreadful would happen, which would pain Mary in her heart. There are various prophesies in the Old Testament that the Messiah was going to suffer for us and Jesus himself, on several occasions, prophesied his own death, explaining that it was necessary.
Jesus was born to die - that's clear. We're all going to die at some point, but the central reason for Jesus' being born at Christmas was going to be his death for our salvation. So at Christmas, let's not celebrate just a baby who came to save us, but a baby who was born with the expressed intention of dying to save us, and who overcame various temptations not to go through with it along the way. Equally, on Good Friday let's remember that Jesus didn't die because the Jews got fed up with him, but that this was the endgame in a thirty-something year plan that started with his leaving Heaven to be born as a baby among his own creation.
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