From the crib to the cross

"The angel said to them : Do not be afraid, for behold, I tell you good news, a great subject of joy, which will be for all the people. Today in the city of David you were born Savior, who is Christ, the Lord. "Luke 2: 10-11

 
The incarnation of the Son of God (the taking of a physical body) was only for our salvation : "The Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). But the incarnation is not the whole story of the Gospel, it is the first step in the path of salvation, for the work of redemption ends at the cross when Jesus says : "It is accomplished ".
Everything in the life of the Son of man, between his incarnation and his crucifixion, is subject to astonishment and wonder.
- After swaddling it, Mary sleeps her firstborn son in a manger. This is how God appears on earth, in the person of a helpless baby born in a stable. The Creator of the universe enters human history, not as a conqueror, but as a little child. The first to contemplate the glory of the Lord are shepherds, poor and despised men.
- Jesus begins his life, not at Jerusalem, the capital, but at Bethlehem, a small town of Judah (Mich.5.2) ; He pursues it until thirty years in Nazareth, a despised city, and completes it three and a half years later in Jerusalem, the proud city that "kills the prophets and stonest those who are sent to it." ).
- Throughout his earthly career, Jesus lives in poverty. He has no house to rest ; Women provide for its maintenance; He must borrow a boat to speak to the crowds and a colt to enter Jerusalem ... "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ : for you, he who was rich lived in poverty, that through his poverty you might be enriched" (2 Cor 8: 9).
- The Lord Jesus comes out of this world, crucified between two brigands. The last to accompany the Lord are two rich notables, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. They wrap the body of Jesus in a sheet of pure linen and lay it in a new sepulcher : "He was with the rich in his death ... because there was no fraud in his mouth" (Is 53 9).
The life and work of Jesus mark the victory of obedience over disobedience, of love over hatred.
 
Source (Please the Lord)