Never in the history of man has Someone’s birth been so intimately tied with His death. You can’t think on Jesus’ birth without Jesus’ death. He was born to die for others.

³³ “And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour^.34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ³⁵ And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” ³⁶ And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” ³⁷ And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. ³⁸ And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. ³⁹ And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”” (Mark 15:33-39, ESV)

After seeing how Jesus died, a Roman centurion comes to the realization that Jesus is the Son of God. God’s plan is taking form, and He is drawing people to Himself through Jesus. How was the man able to see Jesus when Jesus was rejected by even His own people? It is by God’s grace that the blind can see. This centurion who was probably worshipping faux gods or goddesses is acknowledging both God, and Jesus – His Son. The Old Testament stories of Gentiles coming to know God by God’s grace, even in the most dire circumstances, come to mind. There’s the story of the widow of Sidon with a son who was ready to die from lack of food, but lives because Elijah multiplies ingredients for bread. (1 Kings 17). Another is the one of Naaman the Syrian, who is cleansed of leprosy by Elisha’s command to wash in the Jordan. (2 Kings 5). What each did to live and not die was see and believe the prophet sent by God. The widow recognized Elijah as a man of God and listened to him, while Naaman recognized Elisha as a man of God and listened to him. Through the prophets, those who were far from the true living God, came to believe in Him. In the face of Jesus, on the cross, the centurion recognizes the ultimate Man of God and Prophet, the ultimate life Giver and Healer – the very Son of God. You can hear the awe as the centurion exclaims who Jesus is.

And through this story, I felt awe too. It struck me that’s what Christmas is about. To recognize who Jesus is and to rejoice that the ultimate Man of God came into this world to give eternal life and heal our darkness.

God gave us the Bible so that we can exclaim with the centurion “Truly this man was the Son of God.” Apostle John, when describing many of the miraculous signs Jesus did during His lifetime, including multiplying bread, resurrecting the dead, and healing lepers, said “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹ but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30, ESV).

Christmas has passed, but I don’t want to lose that sense of awe in who Jesus is. Charles Spurgeon suggested that Christmas can be celebrated every day since “in a spiritual sense he is born every day of every year in some men’s hearts.”

As the New Year approaches, I want to see Jesus with the awe I first felt when He was born in my heart. It’s not enough to note with our heads the true fact that Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, was born in Bethlehem. That fact must come alive in our hearts.