The Labor Pains of Christmas
Matthew 1:18-25
December 12, 2010
When a woman gives natural birth to a child there is immense pain. Comedian Carol Burnett said the pain was like imagining what we would feel if someone pulled your eye lid back over your head. But ultimately out of the pain of labor comes the new life that is loved and cherished.
This morning I don’t want to talk about Mary’s labor pains; but Joseph. Joseph endured spiritual labor pains about the birth of Jesus. The pains and he went through are pains we experience if we believe in God and believe that God interacts with us.
Read Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25
Joseph’s spiritual labor pains begin when God speaks to Joseph in a dream. Joseph’s fiancée, Mary is already pregnant, but she is suppose to be a virgin. Virgin births aren’t suppose to happen. In the Old Testament there are stories of old women like Sarah late in life having a child by her husband Abraham. There are stories about married women like Hannah who was married but barren and then miraculously became pregnant with the a child who would become Samuel the prophet. But never is there a story of a virgin, a woman who had no sexual relations with a man having a child.
The Bible tells us Joseph was a righteous man. Respected men like Joseph weren’t suppose to marry a woman who had broken the religious laws about sexual purity. For Joseph the dream must have been bordering on becoming a nightmare. His struggle and his pain would occur as God gives him instructions that seem to go against what is reasonable and acceptable.
The first labor pain that caused Joseph to take a deep breath was fear - Verse 20 tells us that the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him not to be afraid to take Mary has his wife. That is something to consider. God will ask us to do things that cause fear. The very signal that God is getting close to us, getting ready to clear His throat and whisper to us there is something He wants us to do may cause us fear. Fear is very often the emotion we avoid. We try and extinguish fear. Companies spend millions advertising products we can buy so we don’t fear. We’re offered cell phones so we don’t have to fear being out of touch, GPS devices so we don’t have to fear being lost, safer vehicles, home security systems, and there is even website service now advertised on television where you can do background checks on anyone you want to so you can be sure the people you’re in contact with are safe. We’ll do anything to avoid fear be it positive thinking, pill, perks of pleasure you name it.
Fear must have its purpose because God was okay with Joseph feeling fear as God began to speak to Joseph in a dream. Has there been anything brought to your awareness and it scared you, threaten you? Could that fear be God’s leading and will at work in your life? Now many things may be frightening and are not God’s way of speaking to us. But the birth story of Jesus, reminds us God’s closeness to us, stronger presence, moving in our lives could get us anxious, nervous, fearful - it did Joseph.
What if the fear we felt might be something to help us to let us know God is near. God wanted Joseph to change his decision even though it caused Joseph fear.
What if the very Christmas present God wanted to give you this year was an experience of fear, but holy fear, fear that awakens us somehow to God’s presence and purpose in our lives and our church?
The second labor pain for Joseph was to be invited to be a part of God’s plans. - Verse 21 tells us that the Lord speaks to Joseph in a dream that Mary will give birth, the name of the child will be Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. One thing v.21 tells us is that the fear we experience is somehow connected to God’s plans. The fear was connected to God’s plan of this miraculous birth. God wanted Joseph to know it was okay to trust, it was okay to move forward because God’s plan was behind the birth of this special child. What counts is that God’s will and purpose is behind the events that will unfold. The birth of Jesus is about more than God is just with us, He is with us to do something and that something is to accomplish the rescue of people from a life of sin, misdirection. If God is the architect of all life then the issue for us is not to get God’s blessing on what I want; but to discover our role in His plans.
But there is something deeper here that makes this a spiritual labor pain for Joseph and it is how we experience spiritual labor pains if we take God seriously. The no brain-er part of the story is that God says I have shocker of a plan to save the people from their sins - Jesus. But where this becomes painful for Joseph is look who is inviting him to be a part of the plan. God is the one calling. God is the one who picked Joseph to carry out this plan. How do you tell the creator of the world you’re busy you cannot get involved? If God is real, how do you say no if God is the one laying something on your heart because He wants to include you?
Illustration: Many folks this time of the year will be invited to go to office parties, family gatherings, other church events, get together with friends. There will be some of those invitations that will be easy to get out of for a variety of reason and you know the excuses you’ll use. But there will be some who will invite you and you know that you need to be there, or if you cannot, you better be real careful how you tell parents, the in-laws, the boss or whomever you can’t make it.
We go through labor pains like Joseph when we sense God is calling and doing the inviting. Because if God is doing the inviting, God the creator of all that is, God that gave a virgin a child but more importantly raised her dead son from grave is calling you and me - it matters how we answer. Especially in the church when we sense something needs to be prepared, planned and accomplished because God is prompting us, don’t be surprised if there are labor pains in our hearts until we follow Him.
The labor of fulfillment - His will; not ours)
Verse 22 the Bible says that all of this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the prophets. Hundreds of years before there were holy men of God who were inspired by God to tell God’s people, God would do a great work among them. Jesus was the fulfillment of that promise. Here something about the Christmas story that can cause us spiritual labor pains. The birth of Jesus fulfilled God’s plan. The birth of Jesus was not for the personal fulfillment of Joseph or Mary. His birth was to accomplish what God desired. Our greatest fear and most challenging plans are bearable when we truly believe we are accomplishing want God wants done. But we also have labor pains when the call or invitation is for God’s will but it really isn’t going to be totally what we prefer to do or experience. Matter of fact we often give up on the things we see as no longer fulfilling to us. We struggle and do not commit to something when we believe it will not be meaningful to us. But when God is at work it is not about just us; it is about accomplishing his plan. Any of us can struggle when we know God is seeking to use us in situations and circumstances and what is most important is not what we want but what He wants.
Illustration: When I was sitting with Marlene at the hospital last week, Dr. Phil was on television. He was counseling a man who would not commit to marriage of a girl he claimed he loved and was in a three year relationship. Dr. Phil began to probe around and explore the reason why the man would not commit. He revealed that it wasn’t because the man didn’t know why he was afraid to commit to marriage; it was because he did. The man’s first marriage failed and he feared being burned again. Even though he said his girl friend was completely different than his ex-wife, he was making a decision solely based on personal fulfillment and the pain of his past. He wasn’t considering her fulfillment; just his own.
I don’t know if we always keep this spiritual fulfillment thing clear. Many times we can confuse our fulfillment with God’s. Many people are on board with God until there are difficulties and setbacks and then if we aren’t getting the payoff we desire we stop. But one thing that is a biblical perspective that can be different from our modern attitude is the biblical view says the fulfillment that counts the most is that God’s plan is fulfilled. The modern view is personal satisfaction.
But Jesus said in Matthew 20:26-28, the greatest will serve the least, and whoever wishes to be first must be a slave to others. Words like that remind us there are no guarantees for immediate personal rewards and fulfillment in God‘s planning.
Illustration: At my seminary graduation, Dr. Richard Hamm preached and said to us new ministers many things and one thing he said was, the church can be a lousy parent. Don’t expect and depend on the church to take care of you. You take care of your self. You take care of your families. But there was something even deeper what he was trying to say. He was trying to communicate if you are going into the ministry solely for the personal reward and fulfillment, you are going to be disappointed and tempted to give up. Serve as minister because God has called you to fulfill his plans; not just yours. In some ways his warning was uncomfortable and painful to hear but it really applies to all of us.
Maybe there is a labor pain you’re feeling because God is calling and you know the rewards and perks aren’t the greatest, welcome to Joseph’s world.
Right before a woman gives birth there are those final pushes those final pains.
Obedience is essential labor pain.
Verse 24 tells us Joseph wakes up from his dream and he does exactly as he was commanded. Joseph didn’t cut corners, he didn’t defy God; he obeyed. Obedience might be the final spiritual labor pain that leads to our experience of God moving in our lives. Obedience separates the crowd from the committed, the fan of Jesus from a follower, the admirer of Jesus from a disciples and a servant from a volunteer. 1 Peter 1:14 states we are to be like obedient children, not to be conformed to the ways of this world but god’s will. Good intentions are just that. One of these days types of attitudes is a disguise for refusal. Obedience gives birth to God changing who we are and changing the circumstances that need God‘s will.
The other morning I was reading in the 28th chapter of Matthew’s gospel. And I am reading the passage where Jesus has been resurrected from the dead, and he meets his disciples in Galilee and verse 17 says “when they saw him they worshipped him but some doubted.” Isn’t that incredible that there would still be doubt. But the next verses, Jesus responds to their worship and their doubt by saying all power was given him so they are to go! He tells the disciples to go get busy making disciples, baptizing people in his name teaching the new believers to obey everything he commanded.
The only cure for their doubt when they stood in front of the resurrected Jesus was not another miracle for him to perform it was for doubters and worshippers to take a step of faith and obediently do what Jesus instructed. The cure for doubt was obedience. The true response to their worship of him was for them to be obedient.
Look, the Gospel of Matthew begins with Joseph being obedient to God’s instruction and it ends with Jesus telling his disciples to obey and teach others to obey him.
Joseph had his apprehension about the birth of Jesus and some who stood in front of the resurrected Jesus had their doubts but only obedience would push them through that pain see the reality of God at work.
Regardless what our spiritual questions challenges and hang-ups might be this morning, whether it concerns grief, burnout, doubt, apprehension, temptation or anything else. This part of the Christmas story reminds us, God still speaks in those circumstances like he did with Joseph, and if we are obedient like Joseph, we’ll see God’s presence and power taking life among us.
