A Baby That Changed Everything

Francis Bret Harte tells the story The Luck of Roaring Camp, a place not far from where I grew up. This mining town in the Sierra Mountains of California in the 1800s was a wild, lawless place where men worked hard and drank even harder at night. The alcohol brought out the worst in the men as they got drunk and fought. The strange thing about this town was it had all men and one woman named Cherokee Sal. She died giving birth to a baby. These mean, surely men suddenly found themselves with a tiny baby. They were at a loss as to how to take care of him. At first, they used some old rags to wrap him up and placed him in a box, but that didn’t seem right. They sent a man over the mountains to buy a hand-carved rosewood cradle. However, the baby still didn’t look right, so they sent another man to Sacramento, and he came back with a lacey silk blanket. Now there, the baby was in his lace blanket and beautiful cradle, but his surroundings were just too grimy. They started with cleaning the floor, now that was something they had never done before. It was a sight to behold, these big old men with their buckets of soapy water scrubbing the floors. But, the clean floors only made the walls look dirty, so they scrubbed the walls and the windows and even hung curtains.

They took the baby in his handcrafted cradle and his silk blanket to the entrance of the mineshaft when they went down to work. They left Stumpy, one of the men to watch him during the day, but everything looked too dreary at the entrance of the mineshaft. They put up an arbor and planted flowers and built a little bench. When they were down in the dark mine, they looked for stones to bring to the baby. But, it wasn’t long before they realized they were too dirty to be touching a beautiful little baby, so they washed their clothes. They went to the general store and bought soap, shampoo, razors, and cologne. The cursing language slowly disappeared and the fighting stopped. They got in line to hold the baby. The baby they called Luck had changed everything.

Luke tells us that when a baby was born in a stable in Bethlehem, it changed the entire world. No one thought much about a poor carpenter and his young wife looking for a room on a cold winter night, but God had ordained their arrival to the village on this very night. There was no room for them in the inn, so they stayed in the stable, and there, Luke tells us what happened: “While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:6-8).

That baby was the promised Messiah; angels announced his birth to poor shepherds keeping watch over their flocks near Bethlehem. Wise men were at that moment traveling from afar to see this newborn king. This baby grew to be the savior of the world. This child truly was the baby that changed the world.

The Coming Sunrise

Anticipation can be tough. People wait eight years for Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina to build an ice dam and break. How about anticipating something for thousands of years? Faithful Israelites waited millennium for the arrival of their Messiah. The darkest part of the night is just before sunrise, and so can it be with a spiritual sunrise. Many prophets like Isaiah predicted the savior’s birth—but the darkness persisted. How long would it be? Finally, after 400 years of silence and night, the word of Malachi was about to come true: “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings” (Mal 4:2).

Zechariah was the first prophet since Malachi to speak in 400 years, and he spoke of the sunrise he could see coming, “because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace” (Luke 1:78-79).

Zechariah’s prophetic song praised God for giving a horn of salvation and deliverance: “He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies” (Luke 1:69-70).

Whoever we are, whatever we have done, and no matter how terrible our sin, Jesus came to redeem us. He came to save sinners, those who have betrayed, lied or stolen, who have broken lives. Jesus is the "horn of salvation,” and he can save us completely.

Zechariah even goes further by saying that Jesus liberates us from our fears and frees us to serve God: “to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days” (Luke 1:74-75).

Zachariah said that light was coming with the sunrise. This sunrise would shine light in our darkness: “to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace" (Luke 1:79).

Zechariah was pointing to Jesus—his light would shine in a dark world, and for those who responded—they would find peace. It is as if a weary traveler has lost his way in the wilderness and is in a state of despair. Then comes the light. Peter’s words describe the scene: “…as to a light shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Pet 1:19).

Jesus brings redemption, he brings deliverance, and he brings hope. He leads us to a place of peace and frees us from our fears.

A Story of Redemption

The theme of the entire Bible is redemption—God redeeming us from our sin. The Old Testament gives us picture after picture of redemption. God killed an animal to cover the sin of Adam and Eve. But, in Genesis chapter 22, we find an even clearer picture of redemption. It is the story of when God commanded Abraham to go and sacrifice his son in the area of Mt. Moriah (what is today Jerusalem). How these words must have gripped Abraham’s heart: God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about” (Gen 22:2).

I used to wonder about this story of Abraham being asked by God to sacrifice his one and only son. The story didn’t make sense to me. How could God who is against human sacrifice ask Abraham to do this abominable thing? The story reveals that he only asks Abraham, who was willing to complete the task in amazing faith and obedience—but he stopped him a split second short of killing his son. However, in this story, we see what God did for us. He did what was not right—sacrificing his son for us. He never stopped short of killing his son. This story is a preview of Calvary two millenniums later.

Human sacrifice was not foreign to Abraham; he would have known of it in Ur and Canaan. The very idea of killing his son and then burning his body as an offering had to be impossible for his mind to grasp. Yet in spite of all the questions, Abraham did not doubt God. After three days’ journey, they were able to see the place where they needed to be in the distance. Abraham told his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship, and then we will come back to you” (Gen 22:4-5).

What completely amazes us is that Abraham believed they would come back, both he and Isaac. Even if he sacrificed Isaac, God would raise him because how else could God complete his promise to make a great nation through Abraham’s descendants.

I believe the heart of this story is in these words:

“Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, ‘On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided’” (Gen 22:13-14).

Abraham arranged the wood, tied Isaac (a willing sacrifice), and then took the knife in his hand to slay his son. A split second before he brought the knife down God stopped him. Then Abraham looked, and there was ram caught in a thicket, and he sacrificed the animal in Isaac’s place. It says instead of his son. Redemption on the scale of the universe is what God did for us when he sacrificed his son for us. God provided the ram for Abraham, and he provided his son for the sin of the world. There was no split-second stop when Jesus died on the same mountain almost 2000 years later. Here is a story that points to Calvary and the fact that God sacrificed his son instead of you and me.