Have you ever thought about what it meant for God to leave heaven and come to be born as a poor baby? Life for poor people in Jesus’ day was not exactly easy! Poor people didn’t earn much anyway, and then they had to pay the taxes. Taxes were high! I mean reallyhigh! Farming was pretty much the only way most people earned money, and just to begin with, people had to pay about 50% of what they earned in taxes to the government. On top of that there was the “poll” tax, where every second year they had to pay 1/4 of what they had made to the Romans! If that wasn’t enough, King Herod (the “Great”) – you know – the mad one who liked to build a lot, had to pay for his building projects somehow! He had a ruthlessly efficient system for collecting taxes from the poor people, that made life unimaginably intolerable! For some reason the rich didn’t seem to pay taxes very much!!! Meanwhile poor people died of malnutrition during famine times… even in Jerusalem!
When Herod finally died in 4 BC, the people started a revolution, and – you guessed it – that brought the cruel might of the Roman army down on them… with full force! People all around Nazareth, where Jesus was to grow up, had been caught up in a bloody war! Brothers and fathers had been butchered. Homes burned. Crops spoiled. Poor villages pillaged.
Whenever I think of a typical crib scene, you know the ones, with three wise men bowing, Mary and Joseph standing around, a donkey… then baby Jesus lying on a bed of straw, it all looks so cosy! Of course, nobody really knows what it was like, but I think you can guess, not many people were feeling sentimental!
The great question is… why did he do it ?!
Why should Jesus come to live among the poor? We know Mary and Joseph continued to live as poor people, since when they presented the sacrifices for Jesus at the Temple, they had to bring a couple of birds… and couldn’t even afford a lamb! Without a doubt, they lived a hard, hard life… that’s very hard for us to imagine! Daily life for them would have meant suffering!
So why did he do it? Why should he suffer? Think about it! Would you choose to go and live somewhere where every day means hard hard work, just to scrape together enough to survive? Where there is no real chance of ever improving things for yourself? Would you do that, if you had the chance to live in comfort forever instead?
This is the Christmas story… that “He came down to earth from heaven, who is Lord and God of all!” Jesus became poor for us! Of course the end of the story is that he did a lot more than become poor! In fact, he even gave up his life – dying on a cross – so that we could have eternal life! Even so, his suffering did not begin on the cross… but from the first day of his life, he knew exactly what it is like to live in a rotten-old-world! He did that, so that people like us… ordinary people… could be saved from our sins! What a joy, to know that when this world is over… it will be heaven to come for everyone who repents of sin and trusts in Him!
Two thousand years ago… the angels were singing at the sight of the really Great King, lying in a manger… the Great Creator… come down to be the Saviour! Now my heart is singing with them at the thought! How would you feel if someone had given up everything to buy you the most amazing Christmas present? Yet that thought doesn’t even come close to what Jesus has done… since Jesus didn’t only give everything up… but he took my place and took the blow from all of God’s anger with my sin!
May this Christmas be a time of singing in your heart as you see your sins taken away by the one who, as the Bible says, “became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”
By Tom Drion – Pastor at Grace Life London, in London, England.
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