Christmas: Cast of Characters (1)
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 12/2/2012
Each December as Christmas gets closer and closer the story of Jesus’ birth is told many times and many ways. Maybe you enjoy reading the story from the Bible with your family on Christmas Eve, or attending a Christmas Cantata, or a living Nativity scene. One of my favorite retellings of Jesus birth is the movie, The Nativity Story. I think it captures the feel of the ancient world and brings the cast of characters to life.
The story of Christmas is wrapped around people—real life people. Servants, shepherds and sages. Common people whose stories are marked by scandal, stumble, and spectacle. And in the midst of them all… hovering over them all… is the hero of it all. God. Shaper. Sovereign. Savoir of sinking hearts. God. Passing out high callings, second chances, and moral compasses to all comers and takers. These were common people in the hands of an uncommon God. If we look closely enough at this cast of characters, we find our story in theirs. We find our hope where they found their hope—in the hands of an infant God laying in a manger.
Over the next few weeks, leading up to Christmas, I’d like to pull back the curtain of your imaginations and introduce you to the cast of characters filling out the greatest stage in history. And, of course, as God was passing out parts in his Nativity story, he gave the female lead to a young girl, named Mary. Mary’s importance in the story of Christmas can hardly be overstated.
In fact, I heard recently about a small boy that was writing a letter to God about the Christmas presents he badly wanted. “I’ve been good for six months now,” he wrote. But after a moment’s reflection he crossed out “six months” and wrote “three.” After another pause he crossed that out and put “two weeks.” There was another pause and he crossed that out too. Then he got up from the table and went over to the little nativity scene that had the figures of Mary and Joseph. He picked up the figure of Mary and went back to his writing and started again: “Dear God, if ever you want to see your mother again…!”
As the mother of Jesus, Mary is better known than any other woman in world history and has held a place of highest honor since those days of the manger in Bethlehem. But what was her life like? Who was she really? And how can we find our story in hers? Let’s start this morning by considering Mary’s situation.
• MARY’S SITUATION
In the first chapter of the book of Luke, the Bible says, “God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary” (Luke 1:26-27 NIV).
Although this is all the background information we’re given about this young woman, we can learn quite a bit from it. The fact that Mary lived in Nazareth means that she came from humble beginnings. Nazareth wasn’t known for much. It was a small, insignificant town on the outskirts of a Roman garrison. It boasted a few bars and a red light district that offered a little weekend entertainment to imperial soldiers. Needless to say, Nazareth wasn’t the brightest star in the ancient Near East.
Mary was pledged to be married and still a virgin, which means she was probably no more than 15 year old and she came from a godly family. Mary was living a simple, small-town, secluded life when suddenly everything changed. She was shoved from the shadows to center-stage when an angel appeared to her and said, “Don’t be afraid, Mary; God has shown you his grace. Listen! You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:30-32 NCV).
Suddenly God had pulled the rug out from under Mary’s quiet little life. Was this good news? Absolutely. Was this terrible news? Absolutely. How was she going to explain this to her folks? To Joseph? Who would believe it? Joseph didn’t. He was ready to write her a certificate of divorce and send her packing. Her parents actually did pack her bags and sent her to her cousin Elizabeth’s house for three months. 15 years old, pregnant, and unmarried—can you imagine what it must have been like for her showing up to church on Saturday morning?
While none of us have ever been in Mary’s shoes, I’m sure some of us can relate. You’ve been in difficult situations. Maybe you’ve found yourself in situations that resulted in broken relationships or lost reputation. Maybe there have been times when you had a story no one would believe or when you were ashamed to show your face in church. Or maybe you can relate to Mary’s fear and anxiety. We’ve all been in over our heads before. Maybe you’ve felt overwhelmed by the hand God has dealt you.
I know of a photographer who knows all about that.
A photographer for a national magazine was assigned to get photos of a great forest fire. So he was told to hurry to a nearby airport, where the plane would be waiting. When he arrived at the airport, a plane was warming up near the runway. He jumped in with his equipment and yelled, “Let’s go! Let’s go!” The pilot swung the plane into the wind and they soon were in the air. “Fly over the north side of the fire,” yelled the photographer, “and make three or four low level passes.” “Why?” asked the pilot. “Because I’m going to take pictures,” cried the photographer. “I’m a photographer and photographers take pictures!” After a pause the pilot said, “You mean you’re not the flight instructor?” Talk about in over your head!
But, you know, despite all the potential problems Mary handled everything with grace and maturity. She didn’t see this as God’s curse, but God’s blessing—as evidenced by Mary’s song.
• MARY’S SONG
Mary accepted everything the angel told her and then she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth in the hill country of Judea. Elizabeth and her husband, Zechariah, were also expecting a baby whom God had promised them would prepare the people for the coming of Christ. Elizabeth’s pregnancy was no less miraculous than Mary’s because Elizabeth had been unable to have kids her whole life and now she was an old woman.
Who better to talk to about her situation than someone who was going through something very similar? As soon Mary walks through the door, Elizabeth throws her arms open wide and loves on her, saying, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” (Luke 1:42 NIV). Then Elizabeth tells her, “You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said” (Luke 1:45 NLT).
We could all use an Elizabeth in our lives, couldn’t we? Someone to come along side us during the difficult times, to throw their arms open wide for us. Someone to remind us that we are blessed and that God has plan for us. Those three months must have been priceless for Mary. And while she was there she wrote a song of praise and shared it with Elizabeth. This is what she sang:
“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me.”
(Luke 1:46-49 NLT)
Despite the hardships and judgments it might bring, Mary not only accepted, but embraced the script that God had written for her life. She surrenders herself entirely to Him. She allowed God to set the schedule, to make the plans, to write her story.
You know, God has taken notice of you, too. He has a plan for your life just as he had a plan for Mary. When life takes a left turn and it looks like it’s headed for disaster, it might be good to remember the promise God made to his people: “I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope” (Jeremiah 29:11 GWT).
When Mary surrendered her situation to God, she sang about a future filled with hope—a living hope that was personified in Mary’s Son.
• MARY’S SON
The final chapter in Mary’s saga centers on the arrival of her Son.
Luke sums up the first Noel like this: “While they were in Bethlehem, the time came for Mary to have the baby, and she gave birth to her first son. Because there were no rooms left in the inn, she wrapped the baby with pieces of cloth and laid him in a feeding trough” (Luke 2:6-7 NCV).
Can you imagine what it was like that first Christmas morning?
The stable stinks like all stables do. The stench of urine, dung, and sheep reeks pungently in the air. The ground is hard, the hay scarce. Cobwebs cling to the ceiling and a mouse scurries across the dirt floor. A lowlier place of birth could not exist. Yet, it was in these humble circumstances that God entered our world.
Mary’s head rests on the soft leather of Joseph’s saddle, the pain of child birth eclipsed by wonder. She looks into the face of her baby. Her son. Her Lord. His Majesty. At this point in history, the human being who best understands who God is and what he is doing in the world is a teenage girl in a smelly stable.
Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Who would have expected to find divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter?
Paul Harvey tells about a similar surprise. Charlie was ten years old. School was out for Christmas, and the family had chosen to spend the holidays in the country. As his mom snaked the car down the twisty road, heavy snow began to fall. Visibility lessened. As she took a curve the car started to slide and didn’t stop until it was in a snow-covered ditch. They were stuck and needed help. So they hiked a mile up the road and Charlie knocked on the door of a house. A woman invited them in, offered them tea and cookies and urged them to stay until help arrived. She’s never forgotten that day. She’s retold the story a thousand times. And who could blame her? The two travelers stranded by the winter weather we none other than Queen Elizabeth and her son, Prince Charles.
It’s not often that royalty appears on your porch.
But something far grander has happened in our world. Royalty has walked our streets. Heaven’s prince has knocked on our door. Jesus has been known to show up in the most unexpected places at the most unexpected times.
He showed up at wedding in Cana and provided the bride and groom with a story of their own to retell a thousand times. He showed up at Matthew’s going-away party, mixing and mingling with both sinners and saints. He showed up in the midst of a storm on Lake Galilee, giving his disciples the shock of their lives. In carpenter’s shops, in wildernesses, at funerals and weddings, on empty streets and in lonely hearts. Jesus has a knack for showing up in unexpected places—places you might never expect to spot God.
He still does. There is no place he won’t go. No heart he won’t touch.
Conclusion:
The message of Mary’s story is this: you may at times find yourself in difficult situations, but if you will surrender yourself to him and willing allow God to write the script for your story, then Jesus will show up in miraculous ways. In ordinary places, in stormy places, in unpredictable places—Jesus will step into your life and change it for the better, just like he did for Mary.
But the story isn’t over because the end of the Nativity story is really just the beginning of the greatest story ever told. And it’s a story that God has personally invited you to be a part of.
Invitation:
As you prepare for Christmas this month and you celebrate the birth of Jesus with your loved ones, please remember that God wants more than for you to simply see the Christmas story or even to share it; he longs for you to experience it and to be forever changed by it. He invites you to be a part of his cast of characters! If there’s anyway I can help you with that please let me know as we stand and sing.
