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Dec 13, 2020

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:41-52

Christmas is a season we both love and hate.  We love the food and spruce trees and poinsettias.  We hate the traffic and crowds and endless television commercials.  We love the Christmas carols and holly and the warmth of our families.  We hate the icy roads and broken toys and the inconvenience of returning clothes that don't fit.

In the middle of the joy and sorrow of the season, in the middle of all the music and presents and frenzy and television drone, all but lost in the frantic madness we have come to know as the Christmas season, is the essence of this winter celebration.

The center is Jesus, but who was He?  Who is He?  Some say He was a good man.  Some say a wise teacher, a moral example to follow, the founder of a world religion.  But Jesus claimed to be infinitely more than those things.  He claimed to be divine, of the same essence as God.

And so, we are faced with only two possibilities.  Either He was divine or He was not.  If He was not divine, given His claim to be equal with God, either He was crazy or a liar.  In either of those cases, Jesus is not to be followed, but rejected.  The only other option is that Jesus was exactly who He claimed to be.

So, the only two logical responses to Jesus are either to reject Him as being a fraud or insane … or to bow down before His majesty because He is God.  He did not leave us with a third option.  He did not intend to.