Christmas Like Us (Luke 2:1-20) (12/24/15)
INTRODUCTION
One of our favorite
Christmas passages. Have you ever
wondered where Luke, a gentile who probably grew up in Asia Minor got the
details of this story? After all,
Matthew a disciple, focuses on Joseph.
Mark doesn’t have Christmas story at all. John has these soaring words, “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Only Luke has the birth narrative and
we love to hear it. But where did he
get the details of the story?
Luke wasn’t an eye
witness. But then only Joseph, Mary and maybe
the Shepherds were.
The disciples weren’t there.
Paul, who wrote most of the
books in the New Testament wasn’t there.
Actually, did you know that Luke wrote more verses in the New Testament
than any other author, more verses, but where did he get this story? Where?
Or is the story made up of
whole cloth to give mystique to a man named Jesus? Let me quickly say, without equivocation,
that I believe these stories are true and I hope before we finish tonight that
you will believe them too.
But have you ever wondered,
wondered where these stories came from?
Luke tells us that he set
out to write an “orderly account” of the story of Christ. My hunch is that Luke was a bit of an
historian, maybe even a compulsive historian, and probably interested in these
kind of things from a young age.
Last Christmas Eve, I stood
here in costume as Elias, a 70 year old shepherd who told of a man named Luke
who had come out to the hillside to ask if anyone had been around 60 years
earlier when a special baby was born. My
hunch is that Luke sought out and asked as many eye-witnesses as he could find.
So if Luke had included in
the back of his book, author’s acknowledgements or faithfully footnoted all of
his sources, who would they be?
I think part of it can be
found right in the narrative, verse 19, “But Mary treasured all of these words
and pondered them in her heart.” Who but
Mary could tell these things? In the
story of Jesus in the Temple at 12, also in Luke, it concludes with “His mother
treasured all these things in her heart.”
Who but Mary could tell these things?
Mary, who on this first
Christmas night might have been 13, or 14 or 15. Let’s say 15 for round numbers, would have
been 45 when her baby boy was crucified.
Certain things are seared
into our memories aren’t they? Great joy
and great tragedy. There are some
synapses that are never broken.
Our boys were born 50 odd
years ago. You want to know the
details? Details, we have treasured
those things in our hearts.
You want to know came to
visit? When Rosemary was in labor with
our Jeff, my aunt, she could be known now as Rosemary’s Elizabeth, came to sit
with her in labor. We treasure those
things in our hearts. The details are
seared there forever.
And the journey? We didn’t have a flight into Egypt, but when
Jeff was a week old, a week old, we did begin a trip from South Dakota to
Michigan in a car in July with no air conditioning. We were on our way to what was to be our
first job out of college.
Now, Rosemary got to sit on
one of those foam rubber donuts. Mary,
Mary, I don’t imagine they had such a thing for donkeys, but I’ll bet it was
necessary. Baby Jesus, probably didn’t
have a problem on the journey. Mary
another story, a story seared in her memory.
We remember these things. We treasure these things and ponder them in
our hearts. Mary could have told you
all of them. And I think she did
through Luke.
Now, let’s think about the
Christmas 30 ad., the first Christmas, the first birthday anniversary that Mary
experienced after the cross, after she had lost her baby boy. Our children are
always our babies aren’t they?
O, for Mary there had been
excitement that year, the Resurrection, Pentecost, the stirrings of the early
church, but when we go through those anniversaries the first year of grief, the
memories are excruciating. Excruciating,
a word we get from the cross. You treasure and you ponder every detail of the
life of the one you lost. And on
birthdays your remember the birth.
Mary would have remembered
every detail of the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem; of the edict to register
in the home town, David’s town, David’s city.
Of arriving and finding even the houses of even Joseph’s relatives full,
no guest rooms, even the inadequate traveler’s inn full. Probably finding a cave in the hills on the
outskirts of town that was being used as a stable. On that first Christmas of grief, she
would have remembered the details.
Maybe by five years later,
35 ad, she was sharing the stories. She
was living in Jerusalem with John, Jesus youngest disciple, and she saw James
her other son and leader of the fledgling church frequently. Maybe they gathered with Mary on Jesus’
birthday and these things that she treasured and pondered in her heart she
shared with them. It was important to them,
because the impact of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus had been
incubating in them and they were coming to comprehend who this Jesus really
was. Every detail of his birth, his
life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his Spirit among them was
important. Mary was the well spring of
those stories.
It was in this timeframe
that the creeds of the early church were being developed, even hymns to be sung
in worship and in the understanding and comprehension of who Jesus was. One such hymn written then and written down much
later by Paul goes like this:
Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7 but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
One of the first creeds, first
hymns, first Christmas carols (and being born in human likeness) of the church.
By ad 45 the precursors of
the Gospels were coming together. But
even then, if you wanted to know the stories, you went to Mary. It was during this time that that along with Jews
came new Christians (there weren’t any old Christians) from all over the known
world to the festivals, Passover, Pentecost, others to Jerusalem. And do you suppose that it might have been
during this time that a young, new convert named Luke, a person driven to know
and write down the story, came to Jerusalem and found about Mary and talked to
her? Mary would have been 60 about that
time. Catholic tradition would have her living
about three more years. But what if Luke
came to Jerusalem in 45 ad and being a compulsive historian that he was, found
her and talked to her. Wouldn’t you have
liked to have been there when that took place?
GOD
He might have asked, “What
do you remember most Mary?”
She would have told all of
the details, of the angel, of Elizabeth, of the journey, of the shepherds. But of the infant narrative, I think she
would have told most vividly of the visit to the Temple, of the prophet Simeon
who would say to her, “and a sword will pierce your soul, too.”
Or how she understood the
humanity of Jesus as he entered his ministry and how one time went to try to
stop him, fearing him to be in danger.
But of course she might tell
of the amazing things that Jesus came to do.
She might tell of time she went to her niece’s wedding in Cana. What a shock it had been to her.
Jesus was also there with
his disciples. There were so many guests and the wine gave out. O how the bride and groom would be
embarrassed. She would say, I simply
said to my son, “They have no wine.” He
said, “Woman, what would you have me do?”
He said, “My hour has not yet come.”
And then I turned and told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you to
do.” I was amazed, everyone was. He turned water into wine, and his disciples
believed in him. I was coming to
understand him.
And there so many
things. On my trips to Capernaum, I
heard the story of him healing Peter’s mother-in-law, of casting the spirits
from Mary Magdalene, of the feeding of the people on the hillside.
But it was on each birthday
anniversary,
Christmas, that family and friends would gather around Mary, and I’ll bet just
as we do she told the story once again, of the angel Gabriel and her amazement,
of her hurried trip to see her cousin Elizabeth, of the joy the two felt, of
how during that time she created those words, “My soul magnifies the
Lord.” About the goodness of
Joseph. Of course she would tell to how
wonderful a father that Joseph was to Jesus during his short life, God rest his
soul. But then she would tell of the
painful and stressful journey to Bethlehem and being so alone during the
delivery of the baby. But then the
joy! Of course the visit of the
shepherds too and how they told her that the sky had been filled with angels
singing “Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and good will to those
he favors.” And the flight into
Egypt. All of this would be told as they
gathered to celebrate the very human birthday of Jesus, who would become
known as the Christ, the Messiah.
So, what would I like you to
come away with? I want you to believe this
story. No, I want you to not only
believe it, but to internalize it. And
not only internalize it, but let it change your life.
This is the story of God
becoming like us. Not visiting us. Not coming near to us. But of becoming like us. “Being born in human likeness, and finding
himself in human form…” Becoming one
of us.
Formed in his mother’s womb
just as we were. As a baby, just as each
one of us were. Held to the warmth of
our mother’s breast as each of us were.
He grew to adulthood, just
as we did. He experienced the pain of
life as we have. He grieved at loss as
we have. He eked out a living by the
work of his hands as we do.
He was rejected by those he
thought loved him as some of us have..
Yet He had told them, there
is no greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. And he did.
Christmas is the story of
the incarnation. Of God becoming flesh,
being born in human likeness. As Andy
Stanley says, “God in a bod.” The
incarnation.
Believe it, internalize it,
let it change your life.
CLOSE
There was a time in my life
when I believed in God, but didn’t think he had much to do with me.
Twenty-five years ago, our
son Curt had confronted me about this. A
few weeks later he climbed in his car and headed back to college. He had left a note for us. In it he had scolded his mother for some of
her vices, but he said to me, “I’m really worried about you Dad, because you
don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”
I took it to heart. I thought about it. I worked on it. It took a few weeks, a few months
actually. Suddenly it clicked into place,
it all made sense.
God exists. It takes a lot more faith not to believe than
to believe.
And it makes sense that if
God created this universe that he would want to reconcile it to himself.
And it made sense that he
would do so by becoming like us; and do so by the greatest act of love one can
do another, giving up his life for them.
And it makes sense that if
he would do that for me, that he is a very personal God indeed.
The Incarnation.
It wasn’t that God visited
us, or came near to us. It was that
he became like us, just like us. He
became one of us.
Mary knew that as she
carried him. Mary knew that as she gave
birth to him. Mary knew that as she
heard Simeon tell her that a sword would pierce her soul too. Mary knew that as she stood at the foot of
the cross and saw her son agonize in his humanity, agonize in his human
passion, agonize in his human sacrifice, demonstrating the greatest love that only
one human can do for another. Something
only an incarnate God can do.
It is love that came down at
Christmas.
A very personal kind of love
came down at Christmas.
An incarnate love came down
at Christmas.
A kind of love that will
change us, not just tonight or tomorrow but for a lifetime.
Merry Christmas! “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great
joy which is for all people. For unto is
born this night in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord,” the
incarnate Jesus. Merry Christmas! “And this will be sign for you, that you will
find the babe wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger,” the incarnate
Jesus. Merry Christmas! “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude
of the heavenly host, the sky was filled with angels, singing, “Glory to God in
the highest, and on earth, good will to all,” good will to you. Merry Christmas! The Incarnate Christ is born! Amen.
