News story of the ages

Don’t get so wrapped up in the gift-buying and parties that you overlook the biggest news of the season, writes Phil Weaver

Phil Weaver

Did you know that the world’s first flight in a powered aeroplane lasted just twelve seconds and that it only covered 36 metres? Of course, it was the Wright Brothers, Wilber and Orville, who we can thank for this incredible innovation.

The story is told that on that December day in 1903, after the Wright brothers succeeded in getting their ‘flying machine’ off the ground, they telegraphed a message to their sister Katherine. “We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas.”

Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper and showed him the message. He glanced at it and said, “How nice, the boys will be home for Christmas – enjoy your family time!”

How on earth could the editor have so completely missed the point, you might well think. Whatever the reason, he totally missed what the big news was. It wasn’t about the boys arriving home for Christmas, the big news was simply this – for the very first time, man had got a powered aeroplane off the ground and flown! Something that proved to be nothing short of a monumental breakthrough for the whole of mankind.

Now, isn’t this particularly reminiscent of the Christmas season? People get so involved in buying gifts and putting up decorations, preparing food, attending parties, meeting up with family, watching Christmas TV and films and a host of other things that they simply fail to see the big news! The big news being that God became flesh to dwell among us.

Frankly, it was no different in those first-century times when Jesus was born. Public disenchantment of the way the Roman authorities ruled was big news. The economy was big news. Taxation was big news. There were several things that people considered to be the big news of the day.

Yet, the real big news went virtually unnoticed – the long-awaited, promised Messiah had arrived.

Christ’s birth was ‘the’ news story of the ages. Yet people then missed it, and people today still miss it. The big news of Christmas is that Christ the Saviour is born. The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.

John 1:14 is indeed a pivotal verse. In one short, pithy statement, the Apostle John reveals the truth of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Almighty God took on human flesh. This is the infinite, omnipotent, holy, all-wise, Creator and eternal God totally identifying with us by fully taking on human form, yet without our sinful nature as he was born of a virgin and conceived by the Holy Spirit.

The deity and humanity of Jesus in the Bible are never fused. This was no hybrid, a sort of half-God, half-man type of character. He is both – fully God and fully man – and he came to dwell among us and abide with us.

Philippians 2:5-11 elaborates on John 1:14 by telling us that Jesus took on human form for us to experience salvation through his sacrificial death.

You see, God absolutely understands the sin and brokenness of this world and yet loves us enough to send his Son to take on flesh so that we may all experience his favour and his glorious presence forever.

Now, that really was the big news. Not only then, but also now and throughout the ages. May we never allow it to become lost amongst a myriad of other minor stories. Let’s keep it what it is – Headline News!

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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