Whenever a death or tragedy occurs around Christmas, people often comment on what a horrible time to deal with death. Many people, myself included, are dealing with death this Christmas of 2013. From the empty place at the table to the empty place in my heart, the season of fullness is hollow.
How does someone comfort in a loss at all, let alone a loss at Christmas?
Rachel lost her son, and then she lost her other one. Her husband could not comfort her, nor could her friends. She died in her grief. Even though she died thousands of years ago, her cry is still heard all around the world - the cry of grief, grief that refuses to be comforted.
There were many like Rachel in Bethlehem, and it was no silent night. It was a night of grief, or despair, of refusing comfort. Why did you send your Son if He seemed to only bring more pain? Salvation? The mothers of Bethlehem were not experiencing salvation but overwhelming grief.
Mary seemed to sneak out of Bethlehem just in time and miss the grief of Herod the Great.
Mary watched her son crawl, toddle, walk, and run. She fed him and then He fed her, from loaves of bread and fishes to the Bread from Heaven. If any woman was ever captivated by her son it was Mary the mother of God's Son. He did not come to escape death, but to walk straight into it.
The small baby Mary held in her arms spread His arms out and died.
Christmas is a story about grief, specifically the grief of a mother.
Jesus walked into our grief, into our death, and came back with the keys of death and hell.
The hope of every mother, from Eve the mother of Abel to Mary the mother of Jesus to the mothers of the Sandy Hook elementary students, is the little baby born in a feeding trough.
Jesus Christ offers eternal life to all of us freely.
Jesus Christ can deliver people from death.
Jesus said to a grieving sister, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
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