When Joseph decided that he should not proceed with his marriage to Mary, an angel appeared to let him know what was actually going on with his betrothed. She had not been unfaithful. Rather, she had been chosen to bear the promised redeemer. The angel instructed him that the child should be named Jesus, “for he will save his people from their sins.” Joseph yielded.
To save from sin Jesus had to make atonement, not for himself but for the sinners he came to rescue. This necessitated his dying. But how he died was important. The chosen means was crucifixion, a horrifyingly gruesome form of execution. This method accomplished several things. First, it was the result of a judicial sentence. He was tried and found guilty. This established him as a law breaker. Second, he received a curse under the Mosaic law, which declares anyone who dies upon a tree as a result of a judgment was cursed (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). And third, it was a death reserved for the despised and forgotten of society.
In every aspect of this humiliating death he was undeserving. It was all for our gain. We are the ones who stand guilty before God’s judgment seat. We are the ones deserving of the law’s curse. We are the ones who having exalted ourselves before the face of God deserve to be cast away, remembered no more. Instead of us, however, it was Jesus, who, despite his divine status, “stripped himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as mortal man. And, having become man, he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, even to the extent of dying, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal” (Philippians 2:6-8, J.B. Phillips translation).
This ignominious death is what awaited the child born in Bethlehem. He was marked from the very beginning, indeed, before the foundation of the world, to die a rebel’s death. In doing so, however, he turns fallen reality upside-down. The strong are shown to be impotent, the proud are brought low, the forgotten are remembered. True humanity is reinserted into creation and peace with God and peace with man is possible!
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
