Today marks the first Advent, the four weeks that lead to Christmas.  It behooves us then to fix our hearts and minds to the birth of Jesus, Our Blessed Savior.  God’s willing, beginning from today I will preach on this topic from the perspectives of the four Gospels.  You see, each Gospel is unique in presenting the incarnation of Jesus, the Son of God.  While Matthew and Luke zero in on the birth of Jesus in the world, Mark and John focus on the coming of Jesus to the world. 

While Matthew looks at the birth of Jesus through the perspective of Jewish Messiah—thus, highlighting the role of Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, Luke views the birth of Jesus through the lens of the Savior of the world—thus, underlining the role of Mary, the earthly mother of Jesus.  While Mark underscores the divinity of Jesus in its relation to the Holy Spirit as a powerful and transformative agent, John homes in on the divinity of Jesus in connection with God the Father as the eternal and creative Logos or the Word.

These four Gospels uniquely bring to light the different aspects of the coming of Jesus and its impact on us, mankind.  There is nothing ordinary about His coming and yet, there is something ordinary—yet glorious—about His life on earth, as beautifully captured by Eugene Peterson’s plain translation of John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.  We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.”

The Son of God became a Son of Man and lived among us, so we could see Him and touch Him.  Most importantly so we could love Him as a person—in flesh and blood—not only as a God in spirit.  Not only did He become a part of world history, but He also became a part of our history—our ups and downs journey through life.         

Pastor Paul