BRANCHES December 2015

PASTOR’S NOTE
What Child Is This?
There is some mystery and excitement around
the birth of any baby. Boy or Girl? What will
the parents name the child? How will the
child’s life go as he grows up? Whom will the
child look like and act like? It is such a special
day—and that new life is so special—that we
celebrate the birthday every year for perhaps
even 100 years.
But we are still celebrating today the birth
of one child over 2,000 years ago. In fact,
in a variety of unique ways, his birth will be
celebrated around the world once again this
year. In many ways it’s fair to say that his birth
and life altered the course of world history—
as both those who follow him and those who
don’t have acknowledged.
In light of these realities, the question asked by
the traditional carol seems quite appropriate:
“What Child Is This?” What did the parents
name the child? More significantly, what is it
that makes this child so special? That’s what
we want to take some time to ask during our
sermon series this December. We want to look
at the identity of Jesus and see what God’s
Word proclaims about this unique child.
In particular, we’ll use Isaiah’s prophecy as our
launching point—where Isaiah famously writes
of the promised child to come, “To us a child is
born, to us a son is given; and the government
shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall
be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah
9:6). We’ll look at each of those four titles and
ask what they tell us about the child born that
first Christmas and how we see those titles
expressed in the life of Jesus as he grows up.
If there is another question more important
than “Who is Jesus?”, however, it may be
“Who is Jesus to me?”. I don’t mean by that
question that each of us gets to define Jesus
in our own terms and make him whoever we
would like him to be; that would be more
ridiculous than each of us getting to have
our own name for any other baby! We don’t
unilaterally decide his identity and make him
whatever we want him to be.
We do, however, have to decide how we
personally respond to who Jesus is. That’s
what I mean by the question “Who is Jesus
to me?”. It’s the difference between merely
identifying someone as a great chef and
actually tasting and savoring the food he has
cooked. It’s the difference between merely
identifying Jesus as the Prince of Peace and
actually experiencing him as one who brings
peace in your heart and life.
I hope you’ll join us for this exciting study of the
identity of the baby in the manger. More than
that, I hope you’ll consider as we go what the
identity of Jesus means in your own life. There
are no more important questions to answer.
Will Spink
Associate Pastor
If you would like to contact
Will, use the following:
will.spink@southwood.org
@WillSpink
I’m really excited about this time together
because I love Christmas in general, because
I’ve always loved Handel’s Messiah and having
these names of Jesus ring in my ears, and
particularly because I’m not sure there’s any
more important question for us to ask and
answer than the question of the identity of
Jesus—“What Child Is This?”. For thousands
of years, individuals and world religions have
offered different answers to that question, and
it is one well worth our time to consider.
DECEMBER 2015 | SOUTHWOOD.ORG 3