What Happened at Bethlehem

Many people have told the story of the event at Bethlehem, a small town in Israel over 2000 years ago. While the reality of the story is undoubtable, the purpose of the story remains a mystery to the entire globe. Why would God become human? The entire human race has an intrinsic perception of the deity and spirituality. Many religions accept the supremacy of the deity and adhere to their beliefs in the supernatural. What baffles many is why would God become a man.

Is it not amazing why God would choose to be equal to a man? The best explanation to the philosophically challenging question was provided by one of the greatest Philosophers in history. Saul of Tarsus, a native of Bethlehem and a renowned scholar gave an explicit analogy of what actually happened in Bethlehem. In his letter to the Philippians, he wrote ” think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, becoming human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death- and the worst kind of death at that- a crucifixion.” (Phil.2:5-8 MSB).

Two things stood out in this epistle- selfless and obedient life. Jesus is God, not because He is the Son of God (having God as surname), but because that is who He is. He is the Deity. However, because of His love for our redemption, He came to the world to give us salvation. When He came, he lived a life of selflessness and obedience as an example of what He, the Almighty God expects of us. This can be seen as a leader who chooses to lead by example. He wants us to Obey him and also be selfless in our relationship with others. So he demonstrated this lifestyle so that we can live as such. The birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem is being celebrated globally today to remind us of that time when God came to show us an example of how we should live our lives. Indeed, it is a call to selflessness and obedience to the will of God.