The Humble Birth of Jesus (Sermon Illustration)
Think about the wonder of that first Christmas morning. The King of Kings and Lord of Lord, the Savior of the world, was born.
Jesus Christ left heaven and all its infinite glory and chose to be born a human baby on Earth. In his infinite power and wisdom, he could have chosen to be born in a palace, but instead, he chose a barn.
Philip Yancey remarks on the incredible humility of Christ as follows:
I remember sitting one Christmas season in a beautiful auditorium in London listening to Handel’s Messiah, with a full chorus singing about the day when “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.” I had spent the morning in museums viewing remnants of England’s glory—the crown jewels, a solid gold ruler’s mace, the Lord Mayor’s gilded carriage… looking toward the auditorium’s royal box where the queen and her family sat, I caught glimpses of the more typical way rulers strode through the world: with bodyguards, and a trumpet fan-fare, and a flourish of bright clothes and flashing jewelry. Queen Elizabeth II had recently visited the United States, and reporters delighted in spelling out the logistics involved: her four thousand pounds of luggage included two outfits for every occasion, a mourning outfit in case someone died, forty pints of plasma, and white kid leather toilet seat covers. She brought along her own hairdresser, two valets, and a host of other attendants. A brief visit of royalty to a foreign country can easily cost twenty million dollars.
In meek contrast, God’s visit to earth took place in an animal shelter with no attendants present and nowhere to lay the newborn king but a feed trough. Indeed, the event that divided history, and even our calendars, into two parts may have had more animal than human witnesses.1
Jesus had every right to be celebrated like royalty, but he chose a humble birth. If only our humility could resemble that of Christ’s.
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