Today we celebrate an event of cosmic proportions: when the long-prophesied once-and-forever King of Israel finally arrived in the world. The King was called the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ. The secret kept by the creator of the universe himself was that he would come to earth as this long-prophesied Christ, incarnate in human flesh, to be raised by humble and poor parents. Later, he would reveal himself, at first by signs and wonders and at last by words, that he was indeed both the King of Israel and Son of God. But the worldly leaders of the Israelites, with few exceptions, rejected both claims and, by putting him to death, made their king “the Lamb of God.” He died and rose again, as only the Incarnate God could do, for all of our sins. He rose again on the third day and instructed his disciples to preach to the entire world, not just their fellow Jews, the good news that God came to earth in human flesh to heal us all from the deadly effects of our own sins. Praise God!