Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #9: The Incarnation of God: "After viewing 'The Nativity Story', analyzing your chosen Christmas carol, and reading Philippians 2:1-7, reflect on the meaning of Christma..."
Joy to the World
Verse 1:
Joy to the world! the Lord is come;Let earth receive her King;Let every heart prepare him room,And heaven and nature sing,And heaven and nature sing,And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.
Jesus is described as the savior in this world according to the song called, “Joy to the World!”. The part that emphasizes Jesus’ birth is line 1-3. It said to glorify the coming of the real king who will save this sinful world. From heaven and earth, they glorify the new born King. Interestingly, according the passage, Jesus is also described as the Savior to this world. That it is him who’s capable of washing our sins by dying on the cross because he’s the son of God. The Scriptures, songs, and stories say that Jesus Christ is the new born king who’s the Savior to this world. He will save us, people, by dying on the cross for our sins. This way, we don’t have to kill any animals to sacrifice for washing our sins away. Then, we could go to heaven. To talk about the characters in this story, first of all, Mary is necessary to this story because obviously she’s the mother of the new born king, Jesus Christ, the son of God. Joseph is necessary because he’s the husband of Mary and took the long journey to Bethlehem. He led the journey and he’s the father of the Jesus Christ. The shepherds are important because they were the first one to see Jesus Christ. Their social class is low however, but contributes significantly to the birth of Jesus Christ. Lastly, the 3 Persian astrologers are important to the story because they were the ones who found the location where Jesus was born by discovering a special star. They told the king and the news spread. Also, they gave Jesus three gifts which were perfume (frankincense), gold, and myrrh. I think the type of God that comes to earth as a baby will be the one who’s humble to be in the baby form. Our God, Jesus Christ, is definitely humble and lowers himself by being born in the manger. So, I think God chose this method of coming to his creation. He doesn’t want to show off that he’s the “God”, but tells that he’s humble and knows how to lower himself. He maybe wanted to show equality between people.
