December 13 Advent

Well, as promised, we are going to go back and look at that little passage again, where Jesus is actually born! After all, that’s what Christmas is all about right!? Well, you may not be so keen on us spending more time on this passage, once you hear what I have to say...

⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. (Luke 2:6-7)

There are a couple of details I can point out, such as the line that says “the time came for the baby to be born” which could imply that maybe the census was taking a very long time, and that they had already been in Bethlehem for several weeks prior to Mary giving birth! Interesting how we assume Mary was in labor on the donkey ride over. Maybe they arrived three weeks earlier (still last minute and couldn’t get a room) and had  been comfortably living in this stable barn for quite some time before Jesus was born. Maybe Mary actually got to do all her “nesting” in that barn before Jesus was born... Sometimes when we "read with life", the words of scripture, we can see our pre-conceived notions falling apart. It does say “While they were there” and not “on the journey to Bethlehem” right? So interesting how we sometimes overlook this...

I love how matter-of-fact Luke is about this whole moment of history. Christ’s birth gets a grand total of two verses in his book...that is it! Imagine if Mary had written the book, or if (heaven forbid) one of Mary’s parents had written it! I doubt we would read much else in the whole book right? It would go into great detail about how long Mary labored for, likely who attended to her (probably the wives of a few inn-keepers), whether or not Joseph was actually present for the birth (because that is very unlikely for the time period), who in the surrounding hotels heard the commotion and offered assistance/helped, whether or not the animals were moved to a different stable, if the stable had been cleaned when the inn-keeper realized this poor girl was in labor, whether or not anyone offered the poor girl their room in the inn to deliver the baby (or whether the Inn-keeper kept this from them for the sake of keeping his Inn clean)... There really are a lot of things about this whole huge part of the story that are missed!! Did God give Mary an incredibly easy delivery, or was it extremely difficult like everything else she seemed to be up against? And if Jesus was preemie from all that donkey riding, were there any complications, or was he perfectly healthy? Did people in Bethlehem know that Mary was baring a child that was not Josephs? Were there rumors surrounding Christ’s birth, or did God move them to Bethlehem so that  Mary would actually get some proper help by people who were not judging her for the immaculate conception? Who knows, right?

The only thing we know for sure, is that none of these details were important to Luke when he was writing his careful account. And the absence of ANY of this information really does tell us something!

Perhaps, Christmas is less about celebrating the physical event of the birth of Christ, and more about celebrating how God brought his glory down to earth through the many lives that were touched at the time of Jesus’s birth... 

I’ll say that again... Maybe it isn’t about the birth story so much as it is about God’s glory. We have  two whole chapters about how the glory of God is at work during the time of Christ’s birth, but only two verses about the physical event of the birth of Christ!

Sure, a nativity scene doesn’t include John, Zechariah and Elizabeth, but it DOES include the rest... shepherds, angels, wise men... It’s not just about the birth really. It is all about God’s glory coming to earth so that we can be close to Him. And that is the biggest part of the Christmas story, isn’t it? God touching the lives of the “least of these” with the coming of His Holy son Jesus. It’s not about the baby, it is about how that baby brought people in close communion with the Holy God whom NO ONE could even hear a message from, unless someone had been near that “Holy of Holies”... Now suddenly, a priest, a barren woman, an inn keeper, live animals, shepherds, wise men (likely not of jewish decent), a virgin girl, a newlywed carpenter...got to witness God in the flesh. Got to see angels and hear messages from God despite the fact that they hadn’t made the necessary preparations of cleanliness, made any sacrifices to prepare for an encounter with the most high God... The truth is, the Christmas story is about how we can connect with GOD through JESUS. It isn’t as much about remembering that physical birth, as much as it is about bringing glory to God as a result of that birth...

 

Words to ponder...

God, Thank you for the gift of your son, and a day to celebrate all that that means. Thank you that we even get a whole MONTH to prepare and glorify you!  You are so worthy of our glorification Lord, and we ask that you prepare our hearts even now. We know we can be close to you because of Christ. And it has nothing to do with us, but everything to do with Him. Thank you for choosing the humble to lead the proud... the least to lead the greatest. Thank you for how you demonstrate that in your son's birth encounter. Lord, please help us to be humble and realize how much we need you in our lives this Christmas. We love you Lord,

In Jesus Name,
Amen