Jesus entered by lowly birth
To give all he had to this earth.
In swaddling clothes, a baby wrapped
His destiny our God did map.
In ministry, He was betrayed
By Judas’ kiss quite firmly laid.
Sent by leading priests to stand trial;
Charged as King, there was no denial
In death and burial, He freely gave
To those His Father sent to save.
Like a crim’nal, His back was whipped.
His body was bloodied and stripped.
The priests and teachers mocked aloud
Their jeers were heard throughout the crowd,
‘If you’re the Messiah, Prove it!
Can you save yourself? Just do it!’
To Father’s will He did submit
Sins of this world would He remit.
A pure, Holy, unblemished Lamb
To save the lives of All of man.
On Simon’s back the soldiers tossed
The heavy burd’n of Jesus’ cross.
For his clothes, soldiers tossed the dice,
Our Savior paid a higher price.
Darkness fell, changing day to night,
The world sought to put out the Light.
The crowd heard Jesus’ tortured cry:
“You abandoned me my God, Why?!”
Bystanders thrust the sour wine
Into the mouth of the True Vine.
One more cry where they could hear it,
“Father, I release my Spirit.”
Immedi’tely the veil was rent;
To the throne room our Savior went.
The world with earthquake was shaken.
“The Son of God has been taken!”
He was pierced for our transgression.
His blood flowed for our accession.
His body wrapped, laid in a tomb,
But this was not His final room.
His fate was to be raised again
To reconcile the world of sin.
His last words were “It is finished.”
Our image, His grace refinished.
© 12-11-2011 Kimberly M. Alligood
Note: To explain my thoughts on the last two lines: Jesus’ last words as a man were ‘It is Finished.’ but His words live on and on. We are transformed daily into His image when we accept him as our Savior and Lord and follow His will for our lives. Pressing towards the mark of seeing like him, treating others as he would, etc. He paid all of the debt to take us back to God. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5, we are being called back to God:
And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (NLT)
Some may think my comment odd, but this is about as great a Christmas message as there is out here, Kimberly. It has troubled me for some time now that the celebration of Jesus’ birth does not include “the rest of the story.” It’s like a lot of people only think about “baby Jesus” and stop right there.
Well done, Mrs. Alligood! A Blessed and Peaceful Christmas and New Year to you, Mr. Alligood and your families!
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Thank you “Mrs. AL!” I agree with you. ; )
Merry Christmas and a prosperous and Happy New Year to you and yours!!
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