Galatians 4:4 – The Time Came
(With a healthy dose of help from John Eldredge.)
“In the beginning.” It might just as well say, “Once upon a time.” It’s a wonderful phrase, full of legend and myth, promise and mystery. And it’s a sort of invitation, too. “Come here, let me show you something…”
Everybody loves a good story. Once upon a time there were a good king and queen who were very sad because they had no children. Once upon a time there was a beautiful maiden who lived with her wicked step-sisters. Once upon a time a heroic knight named Beowulf set off to avenge his brothers by slaying the troll Grendel. Once upon a time the gladiator Maximus fought hand to hand against the evil emperor Commodus. (Once upon a time an ogre and a donkey set off to find a beautiful princess trapped in a high tower.) Long long ago, in a galaxy far, far away. All of the really good stories start off that way.
I guess mankind loves an epic. We long for a grand sweeping story of heroism and courage, of sacrifice and compassion, of valor in the face of danger, and victory in spite of the odds stacked against the champion.
And the Bible is no different. The Bible is a sweeping epic of grand proportions. The Bible tells of something hidden in the ancient past. It tells of something dangerous and wicked now unfolding. It tells of something in the future for us to discover. And it tells of some crucial role for us to play.
Christianity, undistorted by its well-meaning followers, tells of the Author, one who is true and good, and is the source of all things true and good. Christianity tells of the constant danger of this good being perverted by the master Villain. And it tells of the Story which will provide meaning for our lives.
Frederick Buechner writes of this story called Christianity: “It is a world of magic and mystery, of seep darkness and flickering starlight. It is a world where terrible things happen and wonderful things too. It is a world where goodness is pitted against evil, love against hate, order against chaos, in a great struggle where often it is hard to be sure who belongs to which side because appearances are endlessly deceptive. Yet for all its confusion and wildness, it is a world where the battle goes ultimately to the good, who live happily ever after, and where in the long run everybody, good and evil alike, becomes known by his true name… That is the fairy tale of the Gospel with, of course, one crucial difference from all other fairy tales, which is that the claim made for it is that it is true, that it not only happened once upon a time but has kept happening ever since and is happening still.”
We know this story to varying degrees, varying both in knowledge and in experience. And we also know that every story has a setting, a time and place where it happened. We know less about those details. Over the next several weeks, I would like to look at the setting of the Christmas story. What was happening when this epic we call the Gospel took a turn for the better, when Jesus Christ was brought into the world? What was the backdrop? What were the conditions? What was the timing of it all? Turn with me to Galatians 4 as we look at several verses but focus on one in particular. Galatians 4:1-5.
In this passage, Paul is describing the difference between the old and the new. He compares the way things were under the law to being slaves. We worked for God’s blessing. Pleasing God was through faith, but it was also through following the Law. It was as if we were in the family as His children, but we still worked for a wage like a servant or slave.
But that changed when Christ came. Trusting in His works are all the works we need. Being good isn’t as important as admitting we need Him. And just as a child is an heir to all that the father has in store for him, but he or she is not entitled to it until they reach the right age, so too, at just the right time, followers of God were transformed from slaves to children. At just the right time, when the fullness of time came, when the time was perfect, God sent His Son Jesus to bring a better way of pleasing the Father, a way of faith, simply accepting His offer.
Today I would like to show you how the culture was ready to receive the message. God sent His Son Jesus at a time when the time was right culturally speaking. We need to look at the setting of the civilization that Jesus was born into.
First, we need a bit of a history lesson. Let’s go back to the year 930BC. Before then, the nation of Israel was one nation. But in that year, tribal jealousies formed, rivals took up arms, and the nation was divided into 2 kingdoms: the northern kingdom, made of 10 tribes, and called Israel, and the southern kingdom, made of 2 tribes, called Judah.
This situation of rivalries within a divided nation continued for about 200 years. In 722BC, the northern kingdom, called Israel, made of 10 tribes, fell to the Assyrians, a rather brilliant regime that invented such things as first postal system, the first use of iron, the first magnifying glasses, the first libraries, the first plumbing and flush toilets, the first electric batteries, the first guitars, and the first aqueducts. The Assyrian empire collapsed in 612BC, just over 100 years later.
In 586BC, it was the southern kingdom’s turn to fall. The Babylonians captured them and took them to their capital, trying to breed the Jews and their own people. That may have worked if God had not intervened. In 539BC, 47 years later, God raised up a man named Cyrus, king of the Medes and the Persians, to defeat the Babylonian king and overthrow the empire. Cyrus had already defeated the Assyrians, the empire that had captured the northern tribes, so he became ruler of all 12 tribes. He issued a proclamation of freedom, for all the exiles to return home. However, only the southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin, responded. The other 10 tribes got lost in history.
The Jewish homeland remained part of the Persian empire until 330BC, when Alexander the Great carried his Macedonian armies into Asia. Alexander’s father, Philip, had already conquered Greece, and adopted the Greek language as the primary one. And Alexander was certainly no slouch, either; his rule extended from Europe, through North Africa, all the way to India. The Greek influence became the dominant one, and most of the world spoke one common tongue.
Eventually, by the year 146BC, the Macedonian kingdom was shattered at the hands of the Romans. All the previous nations under the Macedonians became Roman provinces, including the nation of Israel. Which is where we see Jesus being born into the world. Under Roman rule, but under Greek influence.
So, why does this matter? Why does it matter if the nation of Israel was a Greek-speaking nation? Because it was about to be blessed by the power of a common language. You know how hard it is to speak to someone who doesn’t speak English. You’ve had the frustration of tele-marketers who came from another country. It’s what made the Tower of Babel so effective: you can’t get your message across to someone who doesn’t understand what you are saying.
But, if most of the known world at least understands one of the languages you know, there’s a bridge. God’s plan, fueled by His impeccable sense of timing, is that His followers would be able to tell everyone about the gift of His Son, Jesus. Everywhere they went, to the very ends of the earth, each person would get the point. From the educated to the un-educated alike, every person could understand God’s love for them. God’s desire is that every single person on earth would know that He loves them. Every person is important. Every person matters. There are no lost causes. There are no helpless cases. There are no expendables. That’s the blessing of Christmas. That’s the power of a common language.
This is where we come into this epic, this sweeping saga of redemption. You and I are each called to tell the message of God’s love, the message of Christmas. God deliberately made the message simple. Yes, there are things that can be debated for hours by theologians, and that’s OK. There’s a place for that.
But if the basics ever get ignored, that’s different. If for the sake of being theologically correct in all areas that we forget to be civil, we forget the message of Christmas. If for the sake of truth we stomp on people’s feelings, we forget the message of Christmas. If we neglect the last, the least and the lost, we forget the message of Christmas. If we spend so much time running around doing things for people instead of being with people, we forget the message of Christmas. You see? Even though the message is simple, able to be understood by anyone, we complicate it so easily. Even at Christmas.
There are so many things we can do to make the Christmas message understandable to people around us. We can listen to people who hurt. We can not add to the stress that cashiers face this time of year, by smiling and not complaining. We can remember that Christmas is not about giving or getting; it’s about Jesus. We can take time to feed ourselves by reading something spiritual about the season. We can read the Christmas story in Matthew 2 and Luke 1-2. We can remember not to get caught up with buying things for people out of duty, but out of love and compassion. We can write thank-you cards to people who have blessed us. We can tip well if we eat out at a restaurant. We can make time to hang out with our kids or make time to call relatives.
You see, evangelism, sharing God’s love, is as simple as giving the gift of ourselves. That’s what Jesus did. He gave Himself. John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. How can the world see God in the flesh in you today? How can you make God real to people around you this season? How can you make the message understandable? How can you make the epic story make sense to others? Sharing His love will bring far more satisfaction to your season than any gift you get or give. Our passage today tells us that god gave His best just at the right time. This season might just be the right time for you to give the very best thing you can offer: God’s love through you.
SOURCES: Epic, by John Eldredge.
http://www.aina.org/aol/peter/brief.htm
http://www.san.beck.org/EC6-Assyria.html
http://www.historyofmacedonia.org/ConciseMacedonia/timeline.html
