You’re reminded every day of the rights that you have (especially if you’re an American). You have the right to vote, to free speech, to a fair trial, to consume, to vote, and on and on.

But that first Christmas is when rights died.

Jesus had the right to enter the world a heralded kind and hero, wealthy beyond the world’s imagination, loved by all, recognized by all–whether by choice or force. He had the right to call on 10,000 angels to deliver him from the suffering and death he was born to endure. 

But when the Son of God became Immanuel, those rights died.