This past Sunday, my pastor was preaching from Isaiah 53. In this chapter, Isaiah portrays Christ as
the slain Lamb of God. To some this may seem to be an unusual passage to preach from on the
Sunday before Christmas, but it was actually quite applicable.

Isaiah was called by God to prophecy to the people. He responded to this call with a cheerful
readiness although he knew from the start of his ministry that it would be one of fruitless warning and
exhortation. His message to God’s people was one of a suffering servant coming to earth to live and
die for mankind. Isaiah wanted the people to know that Jesus’ life would begin in a lowly manger
and it would end upon a lowly Roman cross.

As my pastor walked us through the words scripted by Isaiah in chapter 53, he repeated these two
lines, “The wood of the manger became the wood of the cross.” He went on to say, “Christmas
without the cross saves no one.” His words pierced my heart.

In years past, as Christmas has approached, my focus was on the manager and baby Jesus who came.
I spent very little time pondering that it was His manager, a wooden trough, that became the wood
of the cross on which He suffered and died for my sins, and the sins of all mankind.
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions; and he was crushed for our iniquities.”

He was born to bear our sorrows and to give His own life that we might have eternal life. Jesus,
God’s Son, the baby born to Mary and Joseph in a rustic stable became the Man of Sorrows, our
Atonement, and our Substitute. Without the manger there would be no cross, He was born to
die—for you and me.

This Christmas, let’s celebrate and remember that His birth created the pathway to His death, and
our pathway to forgiveness, righteousness, and a personal intimate relationship with Christ the King.

In the little village of Bethlehem
There lay a child one day
And the sky was bright
With a holy light
O’er the place where Jesus lay.
Alleluia
O how the angels sang!
Alleluia
How it rang!
And the sky was bright
With a holy light
‘Twas the birthday of a King.

‘Twas a humble birthplace
But O

How much God gave to us that day!
From the manger bed, what a path has led
What a perfect holy way.
Alleluia
O how the angels sang!
Alleluia
How it rang!
And the sky was bright
With a Holy light
‘Twas the birthday of a King.
By: William Harold Neidlinger

Merry Christmas and God’s richest blessings on each of you in the coming year!
Dianne