Never in history has the birth of a baby made such an impact. Over 2,000 years since he was laid in a manger in Bethlehem, the world still stops and celebrates the moment.
What is so different about Jesus? Why do millions of people trust and serve him? What makes his followers give their time and money, even their lives, to reach out in compassion and care to people across the world whose needs are greater than their own?
And why do so many governments across the world still persecute people who simply trust and worship Jesus? What is it about Jesus that makes us commemorate his birth every year?
The man of history
At the start of the New Testament, Jesus bursts onto the scene. Matthew’s Gospel begins with Jesus’s ancestry. It goes back through King David to Abraham. The list of names may appear boring, but it shows that Jesus is a man of history. He is not some fictional hero: his line could be traced through generations. Luke’s Gospel follows his genealogy from Mary right back to Adam. Jesus lived!
