Photo by Gareth Harper on Unsplash
There’s a running joke in the adult Sunday School class that my wife and I lead. It seems, more often than not, that the senior pastor and I tend to teach similar things from the same passages each Sunday.
And what’s funnier is that it didn’t start about six months ago when Rob Tims came to Beech Haven for the first time. Even before his tenure began, I would be in the middle of teaching and one of those bizarre people who actually woke up to go to a 9am church service would start laughing and ask, “Have you been to the service yet?” And I’d immediately know why they were laughing.
Admittedly, this occurrence does seem to have increased in the previous months since Pastor Tims has joined us. I’m going to say it’s because he and I are both geniuses. There can be no other cause.
So this morning, when we were in the worship service, a friend of mine leaned over and nudged me when this week’s highlighted passage was mentioned: Matthew 2:1-12.
Now the joke here is that there are really only two places in the Bible that recount the events of Jesus’ birth, and I hit on both of them, so obviously there was about a 95 percent chance that Pastor Tims was going to pull from a passage I also talked about.
But what got even crazier is that we both ended up talking about much the same thing. Yes, the birth of Jesus. Again, that’s obvious. But even more so, our themes were nearly identical.
So again, I say he and I are both geniuses.
I bring that up because I want to talk a little bit about what we looked at in my class this morning and I want any of my fellow BHBC people to know that I am not (directly) plagiarizing our pastor. Just an FYI.
What amazes me about the birth of Jesus is just how perfectly it summarizes the eventual ministry of Jesus. Starting with Mary and Joseph, the people God entrusted His Son to, we see so many of the qualities that Jesus brought to the world through His ministry.
Mary is often honored for her faithfulness in Scripture, as well she should be. There are so many figures in the Bible who receive a message from God or an angel or some other spirit who look at God and respond with doubt or fear or worry.
Mary, on the other hand, looks to the Lord and responds with simple faithfulness.
Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. For the word of God will never fail.”
Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
Luke 1:34-38 (NLT)
Later in that same chapter, Mary’s relative Elizabeth says to her, “You are blessed because you believed the Lord would do what He said.” (Luke 1:45 - NLT)
There are so many great words you could use to describe Mary, but the one I always gravitate towards is faithfulness.
While we don’t really learn as much about Joseph, Mary’s eventual husband, we learn at least one pretty crucial aspect of his personality.
This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.
Matthew 1:18-19 (NLT)
Do you see it there? Joseph decided to break off the engagement quietly. Other translations will use the phrase, “put her away quietly.” Do you know why this is so significant? Joseph’s other option is to have her killed at the city gates.
While that sounds horrible to us, this was the punishment for a woman who was given in marriage who was said to be a virgin, but was later proven not to be. Joseph could have pushed for the letter of the law, but instead he chose mercy. Obviously it ended up not being an issue when Joseph found out what exactly was going on, but you get the point.
Faithfulness and mercy. These are two of the hallmarks of Jesus and His earthly ministry. Especially in the way He brought mercy from the law that people could not follow perfectly.
“Mary, did you know…that the vocabulary of your average cow is pretty poor?” (Photo by Quaritsch Photography on Unsplash)
Another aspect of Jesus’ birth that amazes me, though, is who all was involved in the birth of Jesus. You know some of the usual cast of characters if you’ve ever seen a Nativity or listened to a Christmas song before. There were Mary and Joseph, of course. There was an innkeeper given the thankless task of turning away the parents of the Messiah. There were a lot of animals, none of whom talked, despite what you may have seen in animated movies or children’s plays.
Then we have the shepherds and the wise men. These two groups could not be more different. Let’s start with the wise men, shall we?
Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”
King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem. He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”
“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote:
‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah,
are not least among the ruling cities of Judah,
for a ruler will come from you
who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’”Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!”
After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Matthew 2:1-12 (NLT)
So these wise guys are clearly intellectual, wealthy academics who studied the skies and who brought expensive gifts to put before Jesus. They probably had a decent amount of social clout.
But they weren’t Jews. They were “pagans” from a far away land who wanted to see Jesus. That’s incredible!
Oddly enough, the prominent Jews we read about here didn’t seem to care for Jesus very much. At least not in a positive manner, but we’ll get to that.
Then there’s the next group of people, the lowly shepherds.
That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”
Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.
Luke 2:8-20 (NLT)
These guys were Jews, true, but they weren’t exactly respected. They were the stinky, smelly ones who lived on the outskirts of society doing the job nobody else wanted to do. They were necessary, but nobody wanted them around.
And yet these are the people the angels came to.
“I really don’t understand why we aren’t more popular. We’re a bla-a-a-a-a-st at parties.” (Photo by Patrick Schneider on Unsplash)
(I’m sorry about that joke, by the way. Sorta.)
On top of that, we see that even nature and the cosmos were worshiping Jesus. We see the star that the wise men followed, we see the angels singing and shouting triumphantly. The birth of Jesus was the single most important event that had occurred on the Earth since its creation! Of course the world itself celebrated.
And when we look at the responses of the wise men and the shepherds, we see that they fully understood the significance of what was going on. The wise men laid down exquisite treasures in His presence and they went away worshiping Jesus. The shepherds went away singing and worshiping, telling everyone about Jesus and what they’d seen.
And then there’s Herod. His response to Jesus wasn’t so great, was it?
The first thing we see in Matthew 2 is that Herod was afraid. Or, as the translation I use put it, he was “deeply disturbed” at the news of this Messiah.
Now you could put forth a lot of theories as to why Herod was disturbed at this news. Rumors of a new king could cause political upheaval, for instance. It could cause increased attention from Rome, which was never good for anyone.
Or you could just say that he believed it to be true. Which he most certainly did.
After all, when Herod heard what the wise men said, he immediately gathered together the priests who knew the Scripture and asked them where the Messiah would be born. Why would Herod do this if he didn’t actually believe that this child they were coming to see was the one true Messiah?
If the child weren’t the true Messiah, then this child could have been born anywhere. But no. Herod believed.
This is where we get into the idea of responding appropriately to Jesus.
You see, everyone is responsible for how they respond to the message of Jesus Christ. We all have to make that choice. The wise men and the shepherds responded appropriately to seeing the creator of the universe born in a humble manger, laying down His greatness and power so He could complete the plan of salvation for our forgiveness. The wise men responded with gifts and worship, the shepherds responded with rejoicing and by gladly spreading the word about Jesus.
Herod responded by killing a bunch of children so he could try to hold on to his power.
After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”
Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance. Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
“A cry was heard in Ramah—
weeping and great mourning.
Rachel weeps for her children,
refusing to be comforted,
for they are dead.”
Matthew 2:13-18 (NLT)
“I’ve got a brilliant plan. What if we just…go this way instead? He’ll never see it coming!” (Photo by Tamas Tuzes-Katai on Unsplash)
It’s worth pointing out that Herod clearly wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed because, when the Bible says the wise men “outwitted him,” they literally just went home by a different route. If that’s all it takes to outwit you, then I’ve got some bad news for you.
But Herod murdered a bunch of young children because he was afraid of losing his power.
I doubt most of us will respond to Jesus this poorly, but I’m sure we’ve all had moments where we were afraid of giving in to Jesus for fear of losing control. We didn’t want to give up our perceived power over our own lives.
There is no such thing as a neutral response when you are faced with the person of Jesus Christ. You will either fall in worship and adoration, or you will fall in pride and fear of what following Jesus might mean for you.
The beauty of the birth of Jesus is that we get this choice at all. While you spend time with loved ones celebrating Christmas this year, take time to consider how you are responding to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His love, mercy, and faithfulness are the greatest gifts you could ever hope to receive this Christmas.
(And, just for the record, I didn’t get that last line from Pastor Tims, either.)