[Is. 62:1-5; Acts 13:16-7, 22-5; Mt. 1:1-25]
Paul Harvey tells the story about a family on Christmas
Eve. Mother and children went to the Christmas Eve service, and the Father
stayed home. Suddenly, he heard tapping on the window. It was a bird flying
against the glass of his window trying to get out of the snow into the warmth
of his home. The man had compassion on the bird, and he went outside, hoping to bring it in.
As he approached the bird, the bird just flew against the
window even harder. Pretty soon, the bird flew into the bushes below the window,
half frozen, yet too afraid to be caught by this huge man. The more he tried to
reach for the bird, the more the bird flew frantically into the snow and thorns
of the bushes.
After a few minutes in the cold and seeing the bird
continue to injure itself, the man yelled out in frustration, "Stupid
bird, can't you understand that I'm trying to help?" The man paused and
thought, "If only you understood you wouldn't fly away … if only … if only
I could become a bird, and get you to understand."
God's Son came in human form that we might understand God's
plan for us, that we might understand from where we have come, that we might
understand how we could be restored to God.
Today we meet God in his humanity. The Angel announced to
the shepherds that you will see a baby." "A baby." That's all
the Greek says. The word means "an infant" or a "newborn
child." It is a totally ordinary word used to describe the birth of a
child. This tells us that
Christ came into the world just as we all do. This is the central truth of
Christianity. God has entered
human history in order to provide for our salvation.
Today we meet God in his
helplessness. The Angel informed the shepherds that "you will see a
baby wrapped in cloths." In those days newborn babies were wrapped
in strips of cloth to protect them from the harsh weather. Looking at the baby
this way, no one can say he came only for the rich and powerful. And no one can
say that he used his heavenly prerogatives to make an easy entrance into the
world. He came not for the faith of a few but to be the Savior of all. He was
bound that we might be set free.
Today we meet God in his
humility. The angel gave a sign to the shepherds that "you will see
a baby lying in a manger." The word itself means something like a
stable or perhaps a feeding-trough. In the first century, stables were
often nothing more than a circle of stones around a hollowed-out cave in the
side of a hill. Nothing about the baby Jesus appeared supernatural. There were
no halos, no angels visible, and no choirs singing. Nothing about the outward
circumstances pointed to God.
We know the story of
Christmas. We know about Mary and the angel Gabriel. We know about the
dangerous journey to Bethlehem. We know about Caesar's decree. We know about
Herod's insane jealousy. We know about the inn with a "No Vacancy"
sign. We know about the angels and the shepherds. We know about the mysterious
Wise Men from the east. We know about the flight into Egypt. All of these
stories are so well known to us. But we do not recall the time that God has
taken to prepare man to accept God in a humble helpless child.
From the very beginning of
time God promised to send His Son. Going all the way back to the Garden of
Eden, God promised that one day the Seed of the Woman would crush the head of
the Serpent, who is Satan (Genesis 3:15). Adam and Eve didn't know and couldn't
have known but that phrase "Seed of the Woman" was a direct
prediction of the coming of Christ. Centuries later God promised Abraham that
he would have a son and that through his son and his descendants all the earth
would be blessed. Several generations later the promise was made more specific,
that a scepter would arise in Judah, meaning that Christ would be born of the
tribe of Judah. Hundreds of years later God promised David that one day he
would have a son to sit on his throne whose reign would be everlasting. Thus,
the promise narrows from Adam to Abraham to the tribe of Judah to the house of
David. Still later the prophet Micah declared that Messiah would be born in the
little village of Bethlehem . Finally, Daniel was given divine insight into the
exact time frame when Christ would come to the earth. All of that was written
in the Old Testament, and The Jews knew this, and it created within them a
great desire, a hope and dream that one day the Messiah would come.
The Old Testament comes to an
end with the prophet Malachi who lived approximately 433 years before the
coming of Christ. We call the period following his ministry the "400
Silent Years." We call them "silent years" because no prophet
arose to speak for God and no Scripture was being written. The heavens became
silent almost as if God had forgotten his promises.
But this time had had its
silent preparation. It was a time of International Peace. The great Roman
Peace was in force which meant that the whole Mediterranean world was united
under one government.
It was a time of religious
ferment. Across Roman empire the mystery religions were in decline. And Judaism
was ripe for the Messiah to come. During those 400 "silent years" the
Jews had migrated to every corner of the ancient world. Judaism flourished as
the Jews built synagogues wherever they went. By the time Jesus was born there
were Jews at every level of society in the Roman Empire. And many Gentiles knew
of the God of Israel.
It was an era of moral
decline. Athens was in the late afternoon of its glory. The gods of Greece and
Rome no longer could command the blind allegiance of the masses. Education,
philosophy and great art created
desires they could not fill. In the end the verdict was clear. Athens could
produce great philosophers like Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides, and
Aristophanes. Rome could produced great Statesmen like Seneca, Cicero, Juvenal,
Tacitus, Suetonius, and Julius Caesar. But the best man could do was not
enough. Nothing could fill the
"God-shaped vacuum" inside the human heart. Historians tell us that in the
centuries preceding the coming of Christ there was a feeling of unrest, and an
undefined expectation of something about to happen.
Into this world God sent his
son silently.
In his carol "O Little
Town of Bethlehem," Phillips Brooks has a stanza that is a delight at this
point:
How silently, how silently
the wondrous gift is given;
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of his heaven!
No ear may hear his coming,
but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still
the dear Christ enters in.
the wondrous gift is given;
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of his heaven!
No ear may hear his coming,
but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still
the dear Christ enters in.
May that be our experience
this Christmas season.
When Pope Julius I authorized December 25 to be celebrated
as the birthday of Jesus in A.D. 353, no one would have ever thought that
it would become what it is today. When Professor Charles Follen lit
candles on the first Christmas tree in America in 1832, No one would have
ever thought that the decorations would become as elaborate as they are
today. Today Christmas has crossed all oceans and reached all continents.
It cost Mary and Joseph the
comforts of home during a long period of exile in Egypt to protect the little
babe. It cost mothers, in and around Bethlehem, the massacre of their babies by
the cruel order of Herod. It cost the shepherds the complacency of their
shepherd's life, with the call to the manger and to tell the good news. It cost
the wise men a long journey and expensive gifts and changed lives. It cost the
early Apostles and the early church persecution and sometimes death. It cost
missionaries of Christ untold suffering and privation to spread the Good News.
It cost Christian martyrs in all ages their lives for Christ's sake. More than
all this, it cost God the Father His own Son. He sent Him to the earth to save
men. It cost Jesus a life of sacrifice and service, a death cruel and unmatched
in history.
So our Christmas gifts should go beyond the usual things.
Mend a quarrel. Dismiss suspicion. Forgive someone who has treated you
wrong. Turn away wrath. Visit someone who is suffering. Apologize
if you were wrong. Be kind to those with whom you work. Give as God
gave to you in Christ, without obligation, or announcement,
or reservation, or hypocrisy.
Wish you all the peace of Infant Jesus.
Satish