Have you ever heard stories on the news that made you go huh?
Stories of people doing strange and somewhat peculiar, if not downright stupid, things?
Those things that make you think maybe Darwin wasn’t totally wrong, but that there are members of society evolving in the opposite direction?
People can try and rationalize the behavior.
Maybe they were tired.
Maybe they were distracted.
Maybe they didn’t think things through.
Maybe they were more than a little under the influence.
Now, and please don’t raise your hands, how many of you have ever done something or said something that would not be considered your proudest moment of mental clarity?
This morning I’d like to start by sharing a few stories I found on the internet and these are not urban legends but were taken from actual police reports.
Redondo Beach, California - After a short chase, officer Joseph Fonteno charged the driver of a white Mazda with DUI. The car had been driving down Pacific Coast Highway with the upper half of a traffic light pole laying across its hood. When Fonteno asked the drunk driver about the pole, he responded: "It came with the car when I bought it."
Boynton, Florida - For their attempt to raise money to attend the police academy, Michael Harrison and Kevin Carter were arrested and charged with armed robbery and murder.
Mount Shasta, California - Joy Glassman, the 60-year-old mother of a firefighter, was charged with five counts of arson. She allegedly set the fires to help her son’s career.
St. Peters, Missouri - A gunman robbed a 711 store, but returned the money minutes later because his car wouldn’t start. Amazingly, the store clerks came out to the parking lot and gave the robber’s car a jump start. Police Officer David Kuppler commented: "We have a very friendly town out here."
But as I think about the story of the nativity.
The story that author C.S. Lewis called the “true myth”.
The story that others have called a true tall tale.
I can’t help but think to myself what was God thinking?
Why did he choose to use an unmarried teenage girl who was a virgin, instead of a seasoned veteran?
Someone with some experience, who knew how to take care of a child.
And why choose a poor carpenter as her husband instead of someone with a little more social standing?
Why not someone who made more money and could provide more easily for his family?
And why in the world have the savior come as what many would consider to be an "illegitimate" child instead of just adopting a child to be his own?
Maybe pick the best behaved one and have them be the messiah.
Why the little town of Bethlehem instead of the mighty city of Jerusalem?
Jerusalem would’ve made it easier to find accommodations than tiny Bethlehem.
And a manger, wouldn’t even a simple house have sufficed?
Even a makeshift tent, a pop-up camper, anything other than a barn with the animals.
Why make the announcement to shepherds in the field instead of in the middle of the town square?
Who’s going to believe a bunch of guys who spend all their days with sheep.
Why no fanfare whatsoever?
No tickertape parade, baby shower or even bubblegum cigars for the savior of the world?
But God knew the fanfare didn’t matter.
He knew that
I. The relationship between God and his people was broken.
The life his children were living was so far from what he’d wanted for them.
There was so much sorrow and hopelessness in the world.
It was a far cry from the Garden of Eden.
Laws had been put in place by Moses and others, but now the old laws there were meant to help people live obediently towards God were doing more harm than good.
All the rules had done was help give the temple leaders and wealthy more reason to look down on those in need.
A reason to call them unclean or sinners or worse.
A reason not to help them.
So God knew that
A. More rules and laws weren’t the answer.
But what’s a Father to do?
If it were up to me I would’ve scrapped the whole project and started over.
I hear Mars is nice this time of year.
But remember what God told Noah in Genesis 9:11 after the flood:
“I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."
God had promised no more destruction.
No more scrapping the project and starting over.
B. It was time for a different plan.
So God did the unexpected.
He knew the world needed saving but how?
Should God send a great leader like Moses?
Or maybe a great warrior like Joshua.
How about a mighty king like David?
Or a wise man like Solomon?
God knew what the world needed.
The prophet Isaiah had already predicted his coming.
And many around him would have considered him to be a great leader, or warrior, or mighty king or even a wise man.
II. God sent a savior
But he was nothing like the leaders of old.
There was no armor.
There was no sword in his hand.
No throne to sit on.
No gold crown upon his head.
He didn’t win any popularity contests.
He wasn’t loud and boisterous.
Israel had never seen anyone like him.
Or had they?
Jesus was an approachable savior.
He was like everyone else.
Before he began his ministry at the age of 30 you probably could have passed him on the road and not noticed him.
He probably didn’t stand out in the crowd.
No distinguishing features or fancy clothes.
But I’m sure there was something different about him when you got close.
When you really looked in his eyes you could see something extraordinary.
You could see the love, the caring, the concern that he had for others.
You could just tell there was something more there than met the eyes.
But when he touched you, now that’s when you really knew.
Remember the woman in Mark 5:25-30 who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years?
Scripture tells us that:
“She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
12 years she’d lived with her disease.
The doctors couldn’t cure her.
Her money was gone.
And she was getting worse.
She had lost hope.
Until the day she met Jesus.
Jesus came for people like her.
A. Jesus came to give hope to the hopeless.
The hopeless now had something to look forward too.
Starting over was now an individual matter.
The hopeless could erase their past and begin again.
The best example we have of this is the woman at the well.
Do you remember her?
A woman who had had five husbands and wasn’t married to the man she was living with.
She probably wasn’t regarded very highly in her village.
But Jesus already knew this when he began talking to her.
He knew that she’d had a rough life and a checkered past.
And she needed hope.
She was touched by her encounter with Jesus that afterward she returned to her village and told everyone what had happened.
She then invited them to come and meet the Messiah.
And because of her many people from her town believed in Jesus.
But I like what she tells everyone in John 4:39:
“Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, "He told me everything I ever did."
Jesus knew her past and didn’t hold it against her.
He didn’t treat her differently.
He knew she needed hope too.
But it was for people like her that Jesus came.
B. Jesus came not for the elite, but for the depleted
Jesus came for those that the world had written off.
Those who the world treated as second class citizens.
God knew that Jesus had to come to earth.
He had to come so that he could be the one to
Touch the untouchable.
Love the unloveable.
Forgive the unforgiveable.
The world and even the religious leaders had turned their backs on these people.
But in Jesus eyes, nothing mattered but their faith.
Jesus could see past the exterior and into their hearts.
He knew what was on the inside.
He could see past the fakes and the frauds.
He knew their past mistakes and was ready to forgive.
And no matter how unclean the world said they were, he was ready to reach past all of that to touch them where it mattered most…their hearts.
Jesus knew what it was like.
He came as one of them.
God knew that in order for Jesus to reach the people, he had to come as one of them.
Isaiah 53:2-3 told us:
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
The people weren’t drawn to Jesus by his appearance, his wealth or social standing.
And because of this he was despised by most of the religious leaders of the day.
To them he was just a poor carpenter from Nazareth.
And they never let him touch them.
I often wonder if the nativity were to have happened today, how welcome Jesus and his family would be in many of our churches.
Would we turn them away because they didn’t “fit in”?
Would we look down on them because they were poor?
Would we stare because they weren’t dressed the right way, their clothes were dirty or their hair was too long?
But God’s plan for Jesus doesn’t stop with him sharing in our experiences and situation.
Isaiah 53:4-5 goes on to say that:
“Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows…
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.”
Christ came to this earth and endured the pain of the cross for us in order to heal our broken relationship with God.
IV. Now we must allow Jesus to touch us.
In Isaiah 53:5 we read:
“the punishment that brought us peace was upon him…”
Do you feel that peace this morning?
Jesus has already paid the price for us.
There is nothing more to give.
All we have to do is allow him to touch us.
To come into our hearts and give us peace.
Matthew 11:28-30 tells us:
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
What burdens do you carry this morning?
Maybe it simply the busyness of the holiday season weighing upon you.
Maybe it concern for loved ones who are hurting and in need or loved ones who don’t know Christ.
Maybe it shame about your own lifestyle and the direction your life is heading.
Regardless of what it is, remember this Christmas that you are not alone.
The term “Emmanuel” means “God is with us”.
Jesus came to earth to be with us and he’s here with us this morning.
He waits to take our burdens from us and bring us peace.
I want to encourage you to come and meet Jesus here.
Come and give the weariness and burdens you carry to him.
Come lay them down at the foot of the cross where
“the punishment that brought us peace was upon him…”
Come this morning and find peace and rest.
