The Christmas story is so familiar to us that we tend to view it through rose colored glasses. We tend to sanitize the scene to make it seem beautiful, pristine. Our nativities represent a postcard picture of Jesus in a pristine creche as he lies in a manger on a bed of hay or straw. It is serene, and peaceful, but probably not quite as perfect as we imagine it. Let’s take a moment to consider the realities of the story of Jesus’ birth.
Joseph and Mary had to leave the security of their home and family because the Emperor, Caesar Augustus, wanted to take a census of the people. They had to travel several days with Mary being almost nine months pregnant. Her contractions may have already began on the trip. They arrived at a bustling town of Bethlehem, normally a small quiet village, but packed out because of the census. As you can imagine, Mary was worn out, completely exhausted from the trip. So they began looking for a place to stay the night, but because there were so many people there was no place for them to stay, not even any guest rooms in the Inn. All they could manage to find was a stable (which was probably more like a cave than the cr¨¨ches we have today in our nativity scenes). Imagine the smell of livestock and manure, as they laid down to sleep.
Mary’s contractions became closer and closer together, she was going into labor, the child was coming that night, no midwife, no family members to help. For all we know, only Joseph was there to help Mary. Joseph, the carpenter, whose rough hands more accustomed to handling wood and stone than delivering a baby. I can imagine Joseph was a nervous wreck, it was all on his shoulders to deliver the Son of God. How many carpenters are used to delivering babies? Joseph wasn’t even trained in Lemans classes, he didn’t have any experience in delivering babies. The baby came that night. From what I am told (since we don’t have any children), giving birth is kind of messy thing. Fluids and blood, not pretty. After he was born they wrapped baby Jesus in strips of cloth (a common practice), and laid him in a feeding trough because there was no basinet or crib available. It was hardly ideal conditions, hardly the way any child should be born into this world let alone the Son of God.
Why would God choose to bring his Son into the world like this?
I believe God was demonstrating to us that He was willing to come down to our messiness; our messy lives, our brokenness, to experience life like us in its humblest form to save us all from it. Another way I could say it is this:
God, out of love for us, was willing to allow his Son to experience our worst so that every person, even in the worst situations can experience God’s best.
God’s Son came in the humblest conditions. We see this in the couple God chose to raise his child, Mary and Joseph, who were people of great faith, but they were poor, and from an insignificant small village called Nazareth. When Jesus’ future disciple Philip told another future disciple Nathanael that Jesus was from Nazareth his response was, "Nazareth, can anything good come from there (John 1:45)?" We also see this in God’s choice of location for Jesus’ birth, born in a messy stable, placed in a feeding trough. God came in the humblest conditions to experience our worst so every person might experience God’s best.
God Sent Jesus Out of Love So All People Could Know Him
We even see this in the visitors God chose to be present at the birth of His Son. God chose specific people to demonstrate how much he loved all people and sent his Son so that all people could receive this Good News of great joy.
1. The Shepherds
The first group of people in the Biblical account to show up at the birth of Christ were the shepherds. An angel of the Lord appeared to them to give them the Good News that the long awaited Messiah had been born in Bethlehem and they could find the baby in a manger. The shepherds responded to this news by going to seek out this Christ child in a manger, wherever he may be. I wonder how many stables they had to investigate before they found the right one?
Why did God pick the shepherds? The shepherds after all had one of the least glamorous jobs of their time. They were responsible for keeping watch over sheep that weren’t even their own. In fact shepherds were some of the poorest people. Their job was lonely, they didn’t get to see their families very often (if they had one) since they had to watch the sheep 24/7. It required them to be gone for long stretches at a time, particularly through the dry season as they searched out pasture for their sheep. Being a shepherd required being outside all of the time even at night or in bad weather (notice the shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks at night).
Why would God invite the shepherds first? Listen again to what the angels said to the shepherds, "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." I think God was trying to demonstrate exactly what the angels told the shepherds. God chose the shepherds for the same reason he chose Mary and Joseph to be the Jesus’ parents. God was demonstrating that this child was good news of great joy because he would be a savior to all, to every person even the lowliest or poor. Even if society looked down upon and overlooked the shepherds because of their profession, God did not. God does not overlook anyone, no matter what their status in society. He cares about everyone.
2. The Magi - Wise Gentiles
Then there was this second group of visitors to worship and offer gifts to the Christ child. The wise men, or the magi. Although they were not directly invited by God like the shepherds, they responded to the sign which God provided, a star in the sky. These magi followed the star, traveling hundreds of miles, over many months until they arrived at the place where the star rested over Bethlehem. They worshipped the King of the Jews, and offered him precious gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
These visitors are special because they are the least likely characters we expect to visit the Christ child. They probably weren¡¯t Jewish. They came from a different nation and therefore were of different nationality and ethnicity than Jews. They probably didn’t share the religion of the Jews either. They were Magi, which the Greek historian Herodutus, writing in the 5th century, tells us were a priestly caste from Persia specializing in astrology, interpretation of dreams, and magic. They were important, educated people from another nation who knew how to read the stars and the meaning of those stars. This should shock us because astrology and magic were strictly forbidden by God (Lev. 19:26). Magic was even punishable by death (Ex. 22:18). God wanted His people to seek Him for guidance and strength, not the stars or magic. And yet God cared so much about these magi that he sent them a message in a language which they understood, the stars.
Somehow these Magi clearly understood God’s message, that a Jewish Savior had been born. Why should a group of non-Jewish Magi care about a Jewish Messiah to travel a very long ways from the East to visit the Christ child? Perhaps they somehow realized this child was more than just the king of the Jews. He was would be a king of the Gentiles too. He would be the Savior of the world.
Whatever the reason for their coming, they felt they needed to make the long trip to worship the Messiah, and they responded to God’s celestial invitation. God brought the magi right to the place where the baby Jesus lived.
Again God’s choice of the Magi demonstrate the words of the angels that the good news of great joy wasn’t just for the Jews, Jesus was the savior for all people whether shepherd or magi, poor or wealthy, uneducated or wise, Jew or non-Jew, slave or free person, woman or man, sinner or saint.
Jesus was God’s gift of Good News to every person on the earth¡including you and me. The Son of God entered into the humblest of condition, and reached out to unlikely people like the shepherds and Magi to let us know all can receive this gift of Good News from God. God reaches out to us whoever we are, whatever conditions we are in, to lift us up to experience his best if we are willing to respond to God’s invitation, and receive his gift.
God’s Word tells us we receive his gift by receiving his Son Jesus. He has come to lift us out of the poverty of our sins which separate us from God and to experience his best. The best he gives us is freedom from our sin by forgiving us, he give us peace with God, and fills us with His Spirit and give us joy, hope, and love, and allow us to live eternally with Him rather than reap the consequence for our sin which the Bible tells us is eternal separation from God in Hell. God¡¯s best is a gift which we cannot earn by doing good things, but simply receive as a free gift by believing in Jesus and turning from our sin. This is indeed good news for all people!
What is your response to God’s gift of Good News? Have you received the gift God offers through Jesus Christ? Are you experiencing God’s best?
[Option to lead through the sinners prayer]
As the shepherds reminds us, this good news is too great to be contained. We should not keep it to ourselves. The shepherds couldn’t contain their joy, they had to share it with others. In Luke 2:17 it reads,
"When they had seen him [Christ child], they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,"
Not only does God want to see us receive his gift. God desires for all to be saved, his love extends to all people, everywhere. If God can reach out to poor, rough around the edge shepherds and Gentile magician-astrologers, he is still seeking people who we may think are too far gone. God wants everyone to receive his best. God never gives up on anyone and he uses whatever means he can to help lead them to Christ.
Are there people we have written off as unworthy of God’s grace and mercy because of how they live their life or what they have done in the past? I was recently reading in the Bible where God told his people, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion (Ex. 33:19)." It is not for us to judge. Is there someone who came into your mind? We need to realize God loves them just as much as he loves you and me, and he has not given up on them, and neither should we. Keep that individual in your mind because in a moment I want you to pray for that person.
Or perhaps there someone you know who is far from God who has been running from the Lord and you wonder if they will ever come back? Christ came for them too. Perhaps you have child or grandchild, parent, sister or brother, niece or nephew who have turned from the Lord or have never received Christ into their hearts.
Over the next week you are going to be with your families, perhaps work parties, etc. You’re going to be with some of these people who have not received the gift of Good News for extended periods of time. I know some of you may not be looking forward to being with them for that reason, but remember we are a light, a witness to them of good news by how we live our life, and how we care for them. I want to encourage you to remember God may be placing you in those situations to be the messenger of good news to them this Christmas season.
Let us pray that God would help give us openings to share the love of Christ with them, and that God would impress upon them their need to receive the greatest gift of all this Christmas.
Let us pray,
Lord God, first of all we thank you for loving us and giving us the greatest gift of your Son Jesus Christ to save us from our sin, and death, to give us new life in You. We know your love extends to every person on earth. In our hearts we lift before you those people whom you have laid on our hearts during this message. People whom we have either thought are too far gone, or those lost sheep who have wandered away from your love and care to follow their own ways. We lift them up to you now in our hearts. [Pause]
Lord, speak to their heart. Place a burden on their hearts for you. Help them to see the truth, that you are the only one who can fill their deepest need. Draw them with your ever loving care. Help give us the words to share the Good News of the joy of Christ with them this Christmas season. We ask in Jesus name, Amen.
