Death, Moses & Birth of Jesus

calendar_today December 26, 2017

menu_book Deuteronomy 34:5 ,

person Rev. T. J. Campo

view_list The Choice of a New Generation ,

You may WONDER… especially if you’re a visitor …you may wonder WHY we would read THIS passage on Christmas Eve…. So let me explain in two ways: continuity and contrast.

By continuity I mean that for the LAST FOUR YEARS we have used the Fall sermons to walk with Moses – four autumns in a row, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy – and with the end of this last book (5th book of the Bible) we come to the end of Moses and I felt like we should give him a proper good-bye… for the sake of continuity… NOT TO MENTION the continuity of the whole Bible – it’s one continuous story from Genesis – Revelation.

And THEN for the sake of contrast… I THINK we fail to appreciate Christmas (not the gifts and family and parties etc but the MEANING) we only GET it if we see it in contrast…

In other words…we talk about the birth of Jesus as light coming into the world and we think, “Oh! That’s nice!”

And we read, “A Savior is born…” and we think – “Aw! That’s so sweet…” but until we ask the question: A Savior to save us from WHAT? And a light to show us WHAT?…Until we get the contrast, then Jesus Christ’s birth is only… sentimental…and it won’t stagger our imagination and it won’t seize you like it should…