God’s Messy Plan for Christmas
Luke 2:1-7
Charlie Brown stopped at Lucy’s psychology booth for some advice about life.
She said, “Life is like a deck chair, Charlie Brown. On the cruise ship of life, some people place their deck chair at the rear of the ship so they can see where they’ve been. Others place their deck chairs at the front of the ship so they can see where they’re going.” And then she asked, “Which way is your deck chair facing?”
Without hesitating Charlie replies, “I can’t even get my deck chair unfolded.”
Trouble doesn’t take a holiday even at Christmas. In fact, Christmas kind of emphasizes all the messy stuff we’ve been trying to hide.
If we were truly honest with ourselves we would realize that the messiness of life surrounds us. We live in a mess. Our world is not as neat and tidy as most of us would like to think.
We’ve got some real problems. We’ve got some real messes in our lives. Now some of us try to hide the mess. We think that if we don’t see the mess then the mess doesn’t exist. We think that by not talking about the mess that the mess isn’t real. But that’s like someone refusing to watch the news and then say that wars, poverty, and evil don’t exist. Or it’s like a teenager who throws their dirty laundry in the closet and says that they’ve cleaned the room.
But with all the wars, death, poverty, environmental and economic problems it’s hard NOT to see that our world is in a mess. And the mess isn’t just in other people’s lives; it extends to every one of our lives.
All our lives are messy. There are just things that are not quite right. There are things still left undone, or things that we wish we never had done. There are relationships that are broken and in need of repair, especially our relationship with God.
But no matter how hard we try to hide it, not talk about it, God still knows every detail of our messy messed up lives. But still He came.
You see Jesus came to a messy world to get messy with us so that our lives could be less messy. It was to fulfill what the Lord spoke through the prophet Isaiah so long ago,
“‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool’” (Isaiah 1:18 NIV)
Despite knowing how messy our world has gotten and how messy it would get; despite knowing how messy our lives are, Jesus came and entered into our mess to make it right; to make us right. Right not only with one another, but right with God. And sin is the great messer upper. It messes up our relationship with God and others.
What I find is amazing is that here we are trying to make our Christmas perfect, and in the process, we’ve messed it up. Because Jesus came into a messy world, not the sterile one we promote with all our Christmas decorations.
You know what I am talking about. With Christmas lights and beautiful bulbs hanging from the tree. With our manger scenes all nice and neat, looking serene and calm. What I find interesting is just how wrong we’ve got it. The first Christmas wasn’t with a beautiful Christmas tree all decorated up, with the smells of pumpkin pie and turkey slow roasting. It wasn’t serene and calm. It was filled with the smells of animal dung. It was filled with the sounds of a woman giving birth, of a baby crying, and animals that were doing more than merely lowing.
And there were all these unscrupulous people involved in the story of Jesus’s birth. First there were shepherds, whom most people equated with the lowest of the low, and then there were the pagan philosophers, those who look to the stars and other gods, rather than the Lord God.
Let’s take a moment and read the account: Read Luke 2:1-7
The Lord put into motion that night what He had ordained from the very foundations of the universe, which was His plan to save humanity from itself.
Now, this wasn’t a plan that any of us would have or could have ever thought up, not even in our wildest dreams. And the reason is because it was a really messy plan. It was a plan where God’s Son, Jesus, would come down to the earth that He had created, and get all messed up in the process.
Think about that for a moment. The Lord God of all creation’s plan for humanity’s salvation involved sending His Son, Jesus Christ to this messed-up, sin-ladened planet.
So, where does the God of the universe send His Son? I mean, where does God make reservations for His Son to be born. He didn’t send Him to a clean and sterile environment like a hospital or doctor’s office. He didn’t send Him to the local inn.
Instead, God made the reservation right behind the Bethlehem Inn. It was a stable. But it wasn’t made of wood as you see in our modern nativity sets. Instead, it was a small, cold, dark and dank cave, filled with animal sounds and animal smells.
That’s right, God sent His own Son to a place that houses animals. A stable housed sheep, goats, donkeys, cattle, and horses, not to mention mice, rats, and all manner of insects. And with all of these animals and vermin you would have what they would leave behind, which is an assault against the senses; namely manure and feces. These are smells that even Febreze or Lysol couldn’t sanitize.
But not only was Jesus born in such a messy place, He was laid in a manger. Now, again, a manger in those days wasn’t like what we see in nativity sets. Rather it was a big hollowed-out stone where the animals came over to eat from. While they probably took out all the old chewed up food and laid fresh straw in its place, they never sanitized it. There on the bottom was probably several years of old dried out animal saliva, not to mention some more recent wet stuff.
Jesus wasn’t laid in a nice clean bassinet with a cute little mobile going round and round over His head. He was laid in a place where the animals ate.
Even the clothes that He was wrapped in shows just how messy His birth really was. The Bible calls them swaddling clothes. What are swaddling clothes? Are they baby clothes from Wal-Mart with cute little pictures of ducks or penguins? Nope! Instead, they were pieces of cloth tied together in strips and wrapped around the child to restrict their movements.
One would expect that the King of Kings would be wrapped in the finest linens, or the finest silks, but instead He was wrapped in common rags. You might say that Jesus came wrapped in a plain brown wrapper.
And so, God sent Jesus, His only begotten Son, to a messy place. It was a dirty, gritty, grimy, and filthy place. A place fit for animals, not for humans, and definitely not a place where one would expect to find a king. But then Jesus was no ordinary King. His kingdom was not of this world.
He was then laid in a saliva filled feeding trough wrapped in nothing but rags. But this was God’s plan, and it was a messy plan. But why would God do it like that? Why would God make such a messy plan?
This is something that has baffled critics and scoffers for some time. And truthfully, I can’t tell you the exact reason, because God’s ways and thoughts aren’t exactly mine, or any of ours for that matter.
But God did have a purpose, and maybe the reason God made such a messy plan is tied up in the purpose for the Messiah. The prophet Isaiah tells us of that purpose.
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6 NKJV)
Right before this, Isaiah said that He, the coming Messiah, was wounded for our sins, bruised for our iniquities, and the punishment for our sins was laid upon Him so that we can have peace with God. And by the stripes He would receive on our behalf, He would bring us the healing we so desperately need.
“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5 NKJV)
Yes, Jesus did come to a messy place, a stable, but more than that, Jesus came to a messy world. To the world and human race that He created, but who had rejected Him, not just once, but time and time again. He came to a messy world and to a messed-up people ladened with sin and filled with every kind of evil.
But why? Well, I believe that is all tied up in what Isaiah was talking about, and what Isaiah described Him as being, and that is a shepherd. In fact, Jesus said this very thing.
He said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” (John 10:11 NKJV)
Jesus came as the great Shepherd in search for His lost sheep, that is, you and me. You see, we are all like sheep that have gone astray, and God sent His Son, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, to prepare the way for us to go home.
You see that is what a shepherd does. A shepherd doesn’t live in a house or a palace. Instead, he lives where the sheep are. When the angels came to announce the coming of the Christ, they found the shepherds exactly where the shepherds were supposed to be, tending and keeping their flocks, even at night.
You see, a shepherd lives where the sheep live. A shepherd sleeps where the sheep sleep. A shepherd eats where the sheep eat. And this is what Jesus did. The Great Shepherd came to where you and I live. He came to gather up and tend to His sheep.
Jesus is our Great Shepherd and He got down and dirty with us, He got messy.
God’s messy plan was for Jesus to go into the mess and get messy Himself in order to pull us out of the muck and mire of our sins.
Now, please understand. While I’m saying Jesus entered into our mess to get messy, I am not saying that He sinned in any way.
Of Jesus the writer of Hebrews says, “For we do not have a High Priest (Jesus) who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15 NKJV)
In one of the most notable stories found in the Gospels, Jesus befriends Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector in the city of Jericho, and actually stayed at his house. This is something that no religious leader would ever do in those days. It would defile them. But Jesus went in and pulled Zacchaeus out.
Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:9-10 NKJV)
Jesus understood what we are going through, because He Himself was tempted in all these same areas, yet He had no sin, He did not succumb to temptation. But that doesn’t mean that He looks down upon us saying, “Hey, what’s wrong with you guys? I was tempted with that very thing, but I didn’t succumb.” No, instead it says of Jesus
“But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.” (Mt. 9:36 NKJV)
The word that is used for “compassion” is very telling and instructive. While it’s the word for having pity or feeling sympathy, it goes much deeper. It comes from within the very bowels of a person, often referred to as the seat of emotions.
Jesus felt the pain and anguish of all those people way down in His gut.
Jesus saw the suffering of humanity because of their sin, because like sheep they all went astray because they had no one to lead them out. And so out of His compassion, Jesus felt their pain at gut level, and as that Great Shepherd, He led the way, the way of the cross, so that all who follow Him, all who believe in Him, would be restored, and renewed with Heaven and an eternity with Him to look forward too.
And so, Jesus followed God’s messy plan for a messed-up world. And that plan called for Him to come to a messy world and to a messy place. That very first Christmas Jesus was born in a dirty and filthy stable. Laid in a manger, a feeding trough, a place where the animals ate. And He was wrapped in strips of rags to keep Him warm.
Jesus was following God’s messy plan, which led Him to die upon the cross, a very painful and messy death. But we can thank God that He did, because without it, think of the mess we’d all be in today.
The Bible says that all have sinned, that there is no one who is righteous, that everyone has broken God’s holy and righteous standards for life, His holy and righteous law, and therefore none can enter heaven on their own (Romans 2:10-12, 23).
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one … for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:10-12, 23 NKJV)
And it goes on to say, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 NKJV).
And that gift of eternal life is there for everyone to open today. All that is required is belief in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Belief in God’s messy plan for this messed up world.
Jesus chose to visit our messy world. He chose to live in our messy world to do the Father’s will because He loves all of us.
Jesus came to be the solution for our mess. In fact, He is the only guaranteed solution for our mess. All the other solutions, all the other ways and religions that mankind has propagated upon humanity are only a cover up. They only cover up the problem. They try only to cover up the mess. But they can’t.
All of humanity’s solutions may make life pleasant for a while. It may hang up nice lights and sing nice songs, but it doesn’t take care of the mess. Instead, what all these other false solutions accomplish is to prevent those who follow them from entering into and receiving the inheritance that Jesus came to bring.
“For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people.” (Titus 2:11,14 NLT)
Jesus wants to help us out of the messes that we have made of our lives. He wants to help restore our relationship with the Father, and then with each other. Jesus came into this mess to help remove the effects of the mess from our lives so that we can receive the promise of not only an abundant life right here and now, but also an eternal life with Him in heaven.
And so how messed up is your life? Be honest, because God already knows. And so, let Jesus come into your mess and allow Him to begin to clean it out, because even though your life may be a mess, with Jesus living inside, God sees it as clean and righteous.
And so, invite Jesus into your mess this morning, and let Him do His work inside of you.
