The Christmas Story (December 24/25, 2011) It's supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year. And for some it is. Santa Claus and flying reindeer, Christmas trees and presents, kids and stockings, great food, football games, this year -opening day for the NBA. The myths and the traditions are fun... for most. And for those of us who are Christian it goes way deeper: we celebrate the day our God became one of us; the day our God... was born (go figure)! The problem is that we kind of mess up the real story of Christmas. We want it to be so special, so wondrous, so captivating, so sweet that we have kind of wrapped the story up with fantasy and myth, as if the birth of God isn't staggering enough! I suppose that most of the time the myths are harmless. "Silent night, holy night." Oh come on! It might have been a holy night, but it was anything but silent! "The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus no crying he makes." Really now! The problem is that sometimes there are so many myths attached to the true story, the whole thing begins to feel like a fairy tale. A sweet children's story, but only a story. But that is not what we Christians believe. We believe that 2000 years ago God really did become one of us, so that He might show us how to become one of His. The Christmas story tells us what really happened to real people. This is the Christmas story... Luke 1.26-38: The Bible says: God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, "Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!" Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. Don't be afraid, Mary," the angel told her, "for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!"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. It's strange that God chose a young girl from Nazareth. Nazareth was no Lexington, it wasn't even a Frankfort. Nazareth was their Bald Knob, or Bagdad, or Peaks Mill, or Stamping Ground. It was an insignificant little town in the hills of Galilee, probably with fewer than 2000 people. It was about 15 miles west of the Sea of Galilee, and 65 miles north of Jerusalem, where the temple was. But it is curious that the word Nazareth probably meant "branch," and they knew that the promised messiah would be a branch from the family of David. To this little town came Gabriel, the archangel. We only know the names of two angels in all the Bible: Gabriel and Michael. They are big ones. This same angel, Gabriel, had appeared to the great prophet Daniel hundreds of years before. But now he comes to a young girl, a virgin whose name was Mary, who was engaged to a kid named Joseph. We don't know anything about Mary's family, except that they could trace.their ancestry to David, the great king. But it seems that they didn't have a lot of money, or power, now a peasant family. We are not sure how old Mary was, but most girls would get engaged between the ages of 12 and 14, certainly no older than 16. Mary was probably about the age of one of my daughters that seems crazy to us. Her marriage had probably been arranged by her parents (I kind of like that part). In fact, she may have spent no time alone with her fiancé Joseph at all. It was a different world back then. Being engaged was serious business in the world of Jesus. A girl couldn't simply give the ring back if she decided she didn't love him. Breaking an engagement required an actual divorce. Joseph was already considered Mary's husband, even though they hadn't come together yet. And if Mary cheated on him, it would be considered adultery. They could kill girls for stuff like that.
Well, to this young virgin comes the great angel, Gabriel. We don't know how, we don't know where, but the Bible tells us that he appears to Mary and says: "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." Gabriel said: "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child (that means pregnant) and (you will) give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." Gabriel said, "You will be momma to the Messiah. Your child will be God's Son." I can imagine Mary's timid little voice shaking as she wonders out loud: But how? I've never slept with a man. Gabriel says: "God himself will create the child in your womb. God can do things like that." Gabriel says, "Nothing is too hard for God." Now Mary is in a tough spot. Can you imagine Mary's emotions once she realizes what has just happened? Gabriel tells her she is favored by God... and yet she is going to be unmarried and pregnant. That's not as little a thing as it is in our day. Can you imagine the conversation when she tells Joseph she is pregnant? That's not going to go well. Can you imagine Mary telling dad why she's pregnant? That conversation isn't going to go well. I wouldn't buy it, from my kid. For the rest of her life she will be thought of as an immoral woman, with an illegitimate child. Would it be worth the cost? What if Mary could have looked ahead and seen an arrest, and a flogging, and a cross? Would it be worth the cost? And yet, God had chosen her to bear his Son, her Savior, her King. Incredible! Mary understood how tough her life would be, and yet she told God, "I'm in, I'll do it." She was an amazing young girl. For the next piece of the Christmas story we jump over to the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew tells us about what happens when her fiancé, Joseph, learns about the pregnancy. Matthew 1:18-25: The Bible says: 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, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. "Joseph, son of David, " the angel said, "do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord's message through his prophet: "Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means 'God is with us." When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus. Mary was a peasant girl from a podunk town called Nazareth. It was equally strange that God would choose Joseph to be surrogate dad for his Son. We don't know much about Joseph. Like Mary, his family could trace their ancestry back to King David. Like Mary, it looked like he lived in the village of Nazareth. We don't know how old he was, although if this were his first marriage, he may have been 18 or 20. He didn't seem to have had a lot of money or power, but he did have an honorable trade, he was blue collar, a carpenter. He probably spent his time building furniture, or tools. Joseph had a problem, a serious problem: his fiancé was pregnant. And the one thing he knew for sure was that it was not his baby. What would you think if you were Joseph? What would you do? What would you say if your fiancé told you: "I swear to you, I didn't cheat on you; I've never slept with a man"? Would you believe her explanation that God put the baby there? No... none of us would. Joseph was a good man in a bad spot. He wanted to be a holy man, but he was engaged to a girl who seemed anything but holy. He couldn't simply overlook her sin. But he was also a kind man. He could have demanded the death penalty, but that's not who he was. He didn't even want her to suffer any terrible embarrassment, although I think a lot of us would have wanted her to suffer a bit for her sin. So it says he planned to divorce her
quietly. You see, back then it took more than just taking the ring back, it took a divorce. And then it happened. While Joseph is torn in two trying to figure out what to do, an angel comes along and says, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." That's wild! God did do it. And even though most people would never understand that, God told him stand by Mary's side, to be dad to this kid. God was giving him some orders. Would you do what God told you to do something this tough? What would their family and friends think? "If the baby is not yours, you need to divorce her. If the baby is yours, you have broken the rules." If Joseph marries her, it's going to look like he's guilty. Do you think Joseph would have been able to convince anybody that it was really God's baby? That they were just following God's will? Would you buy that from your kids? Don't you know that Joseph could imagine the pain his little family would endure when their friends and family watched Mary buy those stretchy pants? But Joseph agrees to do it -- he is an amazing guy, a man of God, the kind of man I want to me. And the Bible tells us that the words of Isaiah the prophet are fulfilled, when the prophet predicted: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" -- which means, "God with us." All that is preliminary the angels with Mary and Joseph. 9 months later, it was time. Here's what happened. Here's where most of the misconceptions come in. Luke 2.1-7: The Bible says: At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire... All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home traveled there from the village
of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, his fiance, who was now obviously pregnant. And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them. To be perfectly honest, we really don't know when Jesus was born. It probably wasn't December 25. This is just the day we picked a few hundred years after Jesus was born. And it certainly wasn't Year 0, or Year 1. In the 6th century, a monk named Dionysius was asked by the Pope to prepare a calendar which would count years using the birth of Jesus as the center point. Jesus was to be born in Year 1; everything before that was B.C. (before Christ); everything after that was A.D. Unfortunately, the monk miscalculated he got it wrong. We know that Herod the Great, who was the ruler in Judea when Jesus was born, died about 4 B.C. So Jesus had to be born before that. When we put all the clues together to figure out the real date of Jesus' birth, we figure he was born in or before 4 B.C. Kind of weird, isn't it? Jesus was born about 4 years before Christ! The story itself is really kind of weird. The way most people tell it Joseph and Mary go to this awful little village, a heartless place that virtually throws a young pregnant girl out onto the street; shepherds come to see the Christ child and praise God for him, but instead of taking Joseph and Mary and Jesus back home with them they leave them in a barn. And God, well first he imposes a staggeringly difficult task on these two kids and then when he could have opened a few doors for them at a time when they needed some help it looks like he leaves them hanging... he makes a pregnant girl walk 70 miles, then gives her a barn for the birth! The Bible tells us that Caesar Augustus, one of the greatest Roman Emperors, wanted a census, probably to make sure everyone was paying enough taxes. So everyone went to register in their home towns. Since Joseph and Mary were from the house of David, the great king, they went to register in the city of David, Bethlehem, a small town in the hills about 5 miles south of Jerusalem. The trip was about 70 miles from their home as a crow flies. So they probably traveled for several days pretty hard when
you may be riding a donkey, but more likely walking, 70 miles, at 9 months pregnant. That would be pretty tough, wouldn't it, ladies? We come to one of the most misunderstood parts of the Christmas story. We think that Joseph and Mary tried to rent a room at the local motel, but they found it full, so they had to find shelter in a nearby barn or so the myths tell us. Not likely. Most of the houses in the time of Jesus were quite simple, just one or two rooms. At one end of the house, usually a little lower than the rest, there would be a place for the animals at night. They'd bring their animals into their houses at night, for their warmth, and to keep them safe. There would be some kind of barrier to keep the animals from coming into the rest of the house where the family would be. The whole family would live in the same room, and sleep in the same room. At the end of the room near the "stable," they would dig out these holes where they would put hay where their animals could reach in and eat those were their mangers. Some of the homes would also have a guest room. It would either be attached to the end of the house, or sometimes up on the roof. Sometimes they called their guest room the "kataluma," which just means "a place to stay." What we think probably happened was something like this. Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem expecting to find a place to stay in the home of one of their family or friends. They probably weren't looking for a hotel. We really don't think they had any hotels, any inns; it was too small, and not near any main roads. So they went to house of a friend, but their kataluma, their guest room was already full. In fact that's the way the newest NIV translates it. It says, "She wrapped the baby in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them." The guest room was already full, so Mary and Joseph were invited into the family room with the rest of the family. When the time came for the baby to be born, the men would have been excused from the room, and Jesus... our God... was born. And Mary wrapped long strips of cloth around him to keep his limbs straight, and then probably laid him in one of the feeding bowls, carved into the floor, filled with straw, near the end of the house where the animals were kept.
Kind of messes up our Christmas cards and our Christmas songs, doesn't it? But does it really mess up the story? Guys, the power of the real Christmas story is not that Jesus was born in a barn. The power in the story is that the one who was bigger than the universe itself passed through the birth canal of a frightened teenage peasant girl. What blows our mind is that the one whose days are numberless drew his first breath; the one who could rattle the heavens with his finger flailed his arms as a young girl held him tightly; the one who spoke the universe into existence with a word babbled and cooed and cried as a baby. The absurdity of the scene is unbelievable: his human creatures going about their business in the streets and in their homes right next door unfazed baking their bread, sweeping their floors, bickering in the market, tending their gardens as their very creator nursed from the breast of a teenage virgin. The creator himself dependent on a child to keep him warm, to clean his wastes, to carry him from room to room, to swat away the insects, to protect him from the jabs of excited children. It is almost incomprehensible: a humble God, a courageous God, a God who was willing to show himself, not as a raging whirlwind or a devouring fire, but as an infant, a God who was willing to be thought of as Joseph and Mary's "mistake." We don't have time to unpack the rest of the story. I just want to hit the highlights of what comes next. We've messed up this story so badly... God picks the first guests to come see his child. He sends some angels to summon some shepherds. We don't have a clue. We get this picture of some gentle men, close to nature, compassionate guys who tend scratches on cute little sheep. In fact when they come to visit Jesus they probably had tired little lambs draped over the back of their necks. Did you know that in reality shepherds were kind of despised? They were thought of as dirty, and dishonest, and unclean -- lowlifes. At one time proper Jews lumped them together with the godless and restricted them to the outer courtyards of the temple. They couldn't enter with the good Jews. It's such a weird scene. These angels tell these lowlifes to go find messiah, God's messiah. And they tell them they'll find him in a feeding trough, in a manger. And when they get there they find the messiah being nursed by a
peasant teenager, tended by her carpenter husband. It's incredible! That's not the way anyone expected the Messiah to come. And then God invites some wise men. I think maybe they are the one of the strangest pieces of the scene. Not in our fairy tales. In our Christmas myths they fit right into the story. We think they are rich, and noble, and wise probably even royalty of some sort (the song says so three kings). Honorable men, powerful men, wise and pious men bending their knees before the Christ-child according to our fairy tales. Do you know what these "Wise Men" really were? Sometimes we call them "Magi," which comes right from the Greek word "magoi." You could translate it: magician; you could translate it: astrologer. They were probably pagan priests of some sort. There were bunches of these guys in the ancient world. They were the kind of guys the Bible warns us against. They were the kind of guys I'll warn you against. And these magi, these astrologers, these fortune tellers are guided by God to the Christ child, and they present him with gifts of gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. What are pagan astrologers doing at the birth of the Messiah? This is really strange to me, because, as a Christian, I have always laughed at astrologers and fortune tellers and psychics; and I have always laughed at people who take them seriously. Why in the world does God bring them to the Christ child?... And then, you get it. Then it starts to fit. He came for them too. A simple carpenter, a peasant girl pregnant before she's married, lowlife shepherds, and pagan astrologers, all bowing before the Christ child. God must be making a pretty powerful point, isn't he? Do you see it? And behind the scenes is Dad, God. This whole scene is painted by God, isn't it? He is such an amazing God! He handpicks a peasant girl to bear his son, and a young blue-collar carpenter to be his dad. He uses a Roman emperor to bring them to the City of David for the birth. He sends angels to invite shepherds to the celebration. He sends a star to bring the magi. He sends the magi to bring gifts. He sends the gifts to this poor little family so they can escape from Herod the King who wants to murder their child. This is not some absentee dad -- this is God, wooing us, dazzling us. Why?
Why did God do all this? Why did God become the baby of Bethlehem? The Bible says, (John 3.16-17) "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." The Bible says, "God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. " It is fitting that we close this service with the Lord's Supper. God didn't send his son to become a cute little baby in a manger. God sent his son to go to a cross, for us. God sent his son to be the greatest gift any of us could ever unwrap. If you are a Christian, you are invited to come to the Lord's Table. You are welcome to stay a while, and ponder, and when you are ready, please exit quietly. If you are not a Christian, we will be right here in front. We'd love to talk to you about becoming a Christian.