Ordinary Life

December 26, 2024

The gifts are all opened, the wrapping paper gathered up. I trust the Christmas glow hasn’t completely faded with the rising sun. Maybe you have a week’s vacation, but for most, it’s back to work and ordinary life. Just like Jesus.

“And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord” —Luke 2:21-22 

Mary and Joseph did what all good Jewish parents did: brought their baby to the temple for circumcision, thus marking on his body the faith of his family for generations. We Christians often forget that Jesus was a Jew from birth to death. He lived and taught as a Jew, upholding the Law, but also fulfilling it in himself. Because he did so, obeying even from birth, and then suffering the Law’s punishment for sin, he is qualified, and the only one qualified to be our Savior. It began way back here, culminated as he hung on a cross and rose from the dead. 

If the story hadn’t played out as it did, we wouldn’t have celebrated yesterday. In fact, we never would even have heard this story. So be thankful today that from the very beginning, Jesus lived ordinary life as a Jew. Which means you can live ordinary life as a Christian.