The Second Sunday after Christmas
Micah 5:2-5a
There have been some people, who, the minute they were born, everyone knew that they were destined for greatness. In 1500 A.D. a baby boy was born that all expected great things from. His name was Charles, and his father was Duke Philip, the Duke of Burgundy, and Charles’ mother was Joanna, the Daughter of the famous king and queen Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. On top of all this, Charles belonged to the famous Hapsburg family, which was the family that ruled the German states. So when Charles was only a day old, he already was a powerful person, being the future ruler of part of France, much of Germany, some of Italy, and all of Spain. This Charles became Charles V, one of the most powerful rulers ever in Europe. But this didn’t surprise anyone, because ever since Charles’ royal birth, everyone expected him to become great.
But that’s more the exception than the norm. I mean, Abraham Lincoln’s parents never looked at little Abe when he was a newborn out on the frontier and think, "this baby is destined for greatness! He’s going to be president of the US." They couldn’t have thought that. Albert Einstein was so slow as a child that this parents were told by his teachers that he’d never amount to anything. And as we look at our 4-day-old daughter, we don’t know what the future will hold for her. It’s fun to look at her and imagine where she will be in 25-30 years from now, what she’ll be.
But there was another baby who was destined for greatness the moment he was born. When Jesus was born of Mary, not only did the world know that he was going to be great, but the world also knew many of the details of Jesus’ life. That’s because God caused these details to be recorded in the Old Testament as people looked ahead to this great baby that was born. So this morning, we will look at this baby Jesus, Our Newborn King.
Part I
Our text is one of these prophecies about Jesus, and the Prophet Micah gave many details about what this baby would be like. The first verse of our text reads, "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." You know, we are so used to hearing the name of Bethlehem. We have our hymns like "O Little Town of Bethlehem," we hear about this town during the Christmas readings, but 2,000 years ago, Bethlehem wasn’t a very well-known place. It was a pretty obscure little village, so obscure in fact that Micah has to tell us which Bethlehem he’s talking about. He says, "Bethlehem Ephrathah." In other words, he means the Bethlehem by Jerusalem.
Bethlehem did have one thing going for it. It was the birthplace of David, Israel’s second and greatest king. But even that didn’t cause Bethlehem to grow. It was still a pretty small town a few hundred years later when Micah wrote.
What if I told you that our next president would be from Chicago? That wouldn’t be too hard to believe, after all, it’s one of the larger cities in the US. But no, I don’t mean Chicago IL, I mean Chicago, WI, a tiny speck of a town in Northern Wisconsin. In the same way, Bethlehem Ephrathah wasn’t the place to look for the next king of Israel. And yet, the prophecy says, "though you are small, a ruler is going to come out of your humble little town." The origins of this ruler are from of old, from ancient times. Again, this reminds us of the connection between Jesus and his ancestor King David, but of course Christ’s roots go back even further, don’t they? Jesus has been king for all eternity.
Quite a lesson for us in humility, isn’t it? So often we are so interested in making sure that people treat us on the high level that we feel we deserve. We don’t take too kindly to being degraded. But Jesus wasn’t worried about that. Instead, Jesus shows his greatness by being more humble than we can possibly imagine. Not only did he have a humble birthplace, but God lowered himself to become a person, or, as we say in the Nicene Creed, "fully human."
Part II
Now you can probably remember stories from the Old Testament where God appeared to people as a person. In the Genesis we read about the Lord used to come down and walk around in the Garden of Eden. Later on we remember how God appeared as a traveling man to Abraham. So what was so unique about Jesus’ birth? Here it is: Jesus actually became a person. Unlike those O.T. stories, God didn’t just take on a human form, but in Jesus, God became a person. The fancy word that we use to describe this is the incarnation - or God becoming flesh. Listen to how verse 3 of our text describes the incarnation, "Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites."
You know, in one way, Nativity Scenes that you buy in the stores are wrong. What do they always have? Of course there’s always a Mary and Joseph looking in a manger at the baby Jesus, and that happened on Christmas night. Nativity scenes usually have animals looking on, which makes sense since Jesus was born in a barn. Nativity scenes always have shepherds who heard the angels and ran to find their Savior on Christmas night. But who else is in Nativity scenes? The Wise Men! But if you think about it, technically they should be in a Christmas Eve scene, since it would have taken them months, maybe even up to two years to travel to Canaan to see Jesus. So in one way Wise Men shouldn’t really be in our Nativity Scenes. Now before you go home and chuck all your Wise Men into the garbage, verse 3 of our text gives us a good reason to keep the Wise Men right where they are. Verse 3 says that Jesus became a human being so that Israelites and Gentiles alike could call Jesus their brother.
I know that siblings don’t always get along. But what if you had Jesus as your brother as you grew up? Oh, he’d be the perfect brother! He’d never get jealous of the things that you had. Jesus would never grab his toys away from you and say, "no! Mine!" Jesus would encourage your parents to place you ahead of him. Well, Jesus is your brother. He didn’t grow up in your household like you and your siblings, but he came to the very same earth, had the very same joys, experienced the very same sorrows, all so that he could die for you. You see, God can’t die. So God couldn’t die on the cross for your sins. But people can die. So a person, the God-Man Jesus died for your sins so that you would be his sister or brother for all eternity.
Part III
Jesus showed his humility in another way: by the kind of work he did. Now we all want the best for our children. We all want them to have bright, successful futures. Looking at our new baby Alethia, maybe she’ll become a surgeon, maybe she’ll be an attorney or judge. Maybe Ali will be a professor, a scientist. But I can tell you, Val and I haven’t exactly been dreaming, "wow, wouldn’t it be great if some day Ali became...a Shepherdess?" Not the most noble of occupations.
But Jesus chose to be a shepherd. Not a literal one, Jesus never raised sheep as far as we know, but he was a shepherd much like his ancestor David who had very humble beginnings as well. While David’s brothers were off fighting Philistines and earning for themselves military honors, young David was fighting different battles of his own. To protect helpless sheep, David risked his life, killing ferocious beasts like lions and bears.
And we, the helpless flock of God’s church, need Jesus to be a shepherd for us. For it would be a courageous but stupid sheep who said to his shepherd, "no thanks, I think I’ll take care of this bear on my own." And we would be pretty foolish if we thought that we could handle Satan’s attacks on our own. But you don’t have to. Jesus is not only your brother, but he’s your shepherd, the one looking around, and making sure that no harm comes to your soul. Micah prophesied this work of Jesus when he said, "He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord."
Part IV
Jesus is a ruler from humble beginnings, he is fully human, and he’s a shepherd. And Micah says that he’s also one other thing: a conqueror.
The end of verse 4 says, "and they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach the ends of the earth." There’s been a lot of talk about national security in the past few years. People want our government to do everything it can to protect its citizens from violent people. This security includes extra checks at the airports. There are some people suggesting that we station our military troops on our borders to give us more security from violent people illegally sneaking into our country. And while we all want our government to do everything possible it can, in human terms, we can never have perfect security. People make mistakes, people can’t possibly know everything that’s going on. People don’t have full knowledge on how our enemies think and plan.
That’s why it’s so great that our Newborn King brings us one other blessing: security. Because these things that prevent us from having total security from our enemies aren’t an issue with Jesus. Jesus is all-knowing. Jesus is all-powerful. Jesus is all-loving. Jesus is the perfect guardian for your body and soul. And his rule lasts forever.
Conclusion
Jesus was destined for greatness the minute he was born. The Bible said for centuries before his birth the astounding things he would do with his life. But Christ’s greatness doesn’t lie in him exalting himself, instead Jesus has shown his greatness by doing the unthinkable: by making wretched sinners like us heirs of heaven and co-rulings with him for all eternity. As you prepare to leave this Christmas Season behind for another year, remember what Christmas is all about: it’s about Jesus becoming nothing so that you would have everything. It’s about Jesus becoming a slave so that you would be a king or queen. Yes, Jesus, our Newborn King, is great because he makes us great. Amen.
