Sacrifice Accepted

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matt 1:21

There is certainty in the virgin birth, in the name assigned to the Christ-child, and there is certainty in the salvation of those who come to God through Christ, not with any personal credit, or works. His redeeming sacrifice alone makes us children of God. The Nativity teaches us is simple terms of goodness: humble beginnings, kindness, and humility. It speaks to us of what God became: little child, subject to authority, and . We must take comfort that Mary bore a son, that she called him SALVATION, and he saved his people by dying in their place.

Who gives this man to die?

The saved people – Christians – are not merely people who go to church, give to charitable and just causes, and talk intelligently about the glory of God. They perform justice. They free captives. They ease burdens. They keep a low profile. They stay connected with God. They have resigned their fate, temporal and infinite to the appointed saviour. All human giving gets dwarfed by this certain gift. He will save.

Saved people are not guessing what is next. There is no deeper or higher certainty. Mary was a thoughtful woman. It would not have eluded her that her baby was going to die. She had him for 33 years. If I might say so, there is no evidence that she ever stopped believing. The prophecy in the temple when she dedicated the Christ-child How could she – she who got pregnant without a man?
She kept holding these matters together, “rolling then together” (we might say) in her mind. Her thoughtfulness is clear from this witness.

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

Luke 2:19

As she watched him breathe his last on the cross, and hear him commit John to her she must have known that the world was about to change in accordance to all the words that she had been treasuring and pondering. Change it must, for everyone who comes to recognize that loving service is the sacrifice we can render with perfect confidence.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

The wise who find the Messiah will serve him wisely

Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Matt 24:44 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Matt 24:45 ​Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

Matt 24:46

Born to die

Apparently the first thing that the Christ-child experienced after the adoration of the Magi was a death threat. Herod, as we have seen launched an infant-hunt, delivering death to infants up to two years old. The prophecy stream confirmed that the Christ-child would face down death for others and give life to all, he is still the only one who can claim to take pleasure in being born to die.

Seeing salvation

And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed Luke 2:34 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” Luke 2:35

Dying for others remixed

Pharoah’s firstborn and all firstborn in Egypt died as God brought about the Exodus. The generation that escaped Egypt died in the desert. The high-priests did their work in the tabernacle under a hazard of death. Such is the terror of death and its function in our salvation. The saviour does not need to be saved. As firstborn of God and Mary he is set to die: no-one else is.

Dedication for the mission

After the Christ-child was circumcised, and was officially named “Jesus” (Luke 2:21),the time came for purification according to the Law of Moses. So they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (Luke 2:22). They meet a Spirit-filled man in the temple, named Simeon, described as a righteous and devout individual, who was among the Jewish people who were eagerly expecting the consolation of Israel (Luke 2:25).

And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Luke 2:26 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, Luke 2:27

• he took up the Christ-child in his arms and blessed God and said, Luke 2:28
  1. “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; Luke 2:29
  2. for my eyes have seen your salvation Luke 2:30

He saw salvation. He also saw what that salvation meant: CRASH[ing] and RESURRECTION

And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed Luke 2:34

Everyone dies with Christ. As we all die in Adam, we must come to life in Christ.

King in the Countryside

Breaking with human practice, the king of Israel and the Saviour of the world was born in lowly circumstances. We say that of all humans because we are born as strangers to God and proceed through grace to our destiny. The same can be said of the first couple. The hoopla about the newborn king vanished quickly enough and the shepherds who were the happy recipients of the good news of great joy (Luke 2:10) disappear from the Judea’s “trending now”. It comes as a shock to most of us that the king only visits Jerusalem just like any other faithful descendant of Abraham. Christ himself needs no testimony from humans, and he would have fared no better if he had moved to Jerusalem and built a palace.

Breaking with tradition

The break with tradition was clear from the start. Kingdom for the Jewish people was not a matter of a king in Jerusalem. It was not a matter of the end of the temple services, for that would have meant hat the people had stopped sinning.

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? Matt 11:7 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. Matt 11:8 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. Matt 11:9 This is he of whom it is written, “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ Matt 11:10 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Matt 11:11

One would expect John, with his seismic message and mission, to be in the big cities, enjoying the blessings of God’s favour on the people of Judea. He worked in the desert regions. He did not dress or eat according to the popular customs.

The kingdom is one of heart, of the splendour of God in Christ and in us. Christ does move from the countryside. When the Heavenly Father sees faith connecting properly with His Son, he authorizes the Holy Spirit to transition from being with us and around us to being in us. He moves as it were from the suburbs to downtown. In the heart, not the mouth or ear.

We can be distracted by trappings as the magi might have been if they looked for the royal marks in the manger and not in the babe. We have become accustomed to dressing up too for all kinds of reasons and we may find ourselves evaluating people with an inappropriate lens. It is a humble arrival, yet royally majestic even a week away from the end of his life.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zech 9:9

Hanging with the right crowd

It would have been incredibly lonely for the king to be in the world without a like-minded soul. The two greatest people who ever lived – and there will be none greater – met before they were born and they have not stopped shaking up the world since.

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, Luke 1:39 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth [her cousin]. Luke 1:40 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, Luke 1:41 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! Luke 1:42

King and cousin

Kingdom folk conduct kingdom business. The arrival of the Son of God in Bethlehem 2000 years ago as king was a loud invitation to partnership and constant companionship for the human race. No child of God will ever be without rod and staff. John was there in his magnificent strangeness for the Lord as cousins and as messengers from the highest. Great team work is in everyone’s file.

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, Matt 3:1; “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matt 3:2

A kingdom needs a king. There was no shortage of applicants, each wanting the praise of the people. Among them are the Herods, the Roman Emperor, high-priests, and countless humans (John 12:43, Luke 20:46, Rev. 13:12). The Persian king who had ordered and funded the return of the sons of Israel is a beacon that contrasts with the Judean attitude of separateness with only God as their true king. Yet, when the sky itself announced that the king had arrived they were blissfully unaware.

Apparently, God did not feel it was necessary to have the usual fanfare had the learned people been tracking the prophecies. The province of Judea was full of people whose one concern was, despite all the signs to the contrary, necessary to keep the ancient tradition alive and themselves pure from personal contact with strangers. That is the root of the blindness about the babe in the manger. As Saviour of the world his majesty is unique, and he is one of us, God-in-flesh. It is okay if people do not recognize us, at first. The crowd is usually not the real McCoy.

Just two witnesses

When John announced that his cousin from Bethlehem (birthplace) and Nazareth (current residence) was God’s answer to the human sin problem (John 1:29) he shook the world and the we are still shaking today. Teamwork shifted into high gear when John’s cousin began to call himself “Bread from heaven”, “Light of the World”, “Beautiful Shepherd”, and “The Way”.

We are strange when God is our Father. Just imagine the heaven-slide when we embrace the voice of God as it comes to us, even from the womb, the very lap and bosom of humans just like us. It only takes two individuals in perfect agreement to bring about the will of God from day to day. It only takes two individuals who know that the king has arrived to conduct life and die as an unbeatable team.

For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. Matt 21:32

Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. Matt 21:24 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ Matt 21:25 But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” Matt 21:26

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Mark 1:9

Son in a Strange Land

God picked Egypt and Nazareth for Christ. Who wants to live in either Egypt of Nazareth? Or who would choose to begin public life in a desert? We will find the young saviour doing all of that and hanging out with the right crowd and growing up with grace.

Familiar with the strange

The flight to Egypt was only the beginning of peculiar or unusual things. Jewish people are familiar with peculiar and strange, and definitely with foreign. Their very existence began not in Canaan but in Egypt, and the proof, as requested by Abraham, that there would be a Jewish people, was the 400 year bondage in Egypt (Gen. 15:8-13)

• But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day. Deut 4:20

• “He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Deut. 32:10

Exile and Return

God exiled the sons of Israel for 70 years, and on their return they were diligent to re-institute the Mosaic economy. The Jewish people were the first unwitting “globetrotters” and the Christ-child is destined to purposefully be in every nation, every home, touching every family by the end of the age.

In Nazareth of Galilee, the young Christ would have seen Gentiles living in their own skin. The prophet calls Galilee “of the Nations”, in other words, Gentile Galilee (Isaiah 9:1-2). Christ’s contemporaries figured that nothing good could come from this place. One of the first disciples asked out loud, “… Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” John 1:46

It was there in this despised place that the bright light from heaven shone and there the Son was given.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isa 9:6

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Matt 2:13

A considerable period separates the magi’s visit and Herod’s rampage from Joseph’s dream. Matthew uses the term pai-DI-on (paidion, paidivon) for all of the stories of the Christ-child including the return form Egypt. It is the common word for child or young person. Luke however, a bit more precisely describes the unborn child in the womb and the manger as a BREfos, brevfw” ( 1:41, 1:44, 2:12, & 2:16). The Christ-child is no longer a baby.

The escape journey to Egypt is not happenstance. The writer ties the saviour’s residence in Africa to a prophecy from Hosea 11:1. The instructive dream and the intervention of angels are not new phenomena. They continue as part of the heritage of believers. The Lord promised (Joel 2:28ff) to give dreams to his people and a host of experiences of the people God interacts are introduced by angels.

The Christ child quickly became a refugee. Mary got to move her family, while the mothers of the Bethlehem region would would see their treasures cruelly destroyed. The megalomaniac king Herod gave orders for every boy-child under two years old to be killed. It was a high price to pay for the saviour’s safety, but it shows that with all of heaven’s resources available the subjects of God’s regard do not always stand to fight and confront the threats.

The villages of the region became one mass of murder, mourning, and burial. Bethlehem and its surrounding villages and towns may have had a few dozen babies under 2 years old, but the deliberate murder of babies is also the topic of prophecy. Jeremiah records weeping in Rama for children by someone named Rachel. Putting the Hosea and Jeremiah prophecies together we get Rachel representing the mothers and Israel representing the Son of God, as is to say the nation laments the loss of children.

It may be that the word spread quickly and other male babes were saved, but the Christ-child was not to stick around. There might even have been people who would later remember the disappearance of Mary’s family coinciding with the death of Bethlehem’s babies.

The visit of the magi and the escape to stay in Egypt fill out the cosmopolitan environment in which Christ-child began life and set the pattern for association with the Saviour of the world and the cost of being a disciple. The pilgrim mold is cast even before he is unveiled at the Jordan by John the Baptist. Having such a turbulent beginning and living in different cultural settings prepares the Saviour for his mission. Salvation is free and its very nature yanks us out of our comfort zone and thrusts us into the life of a pilgrim whether or not we recognize the price paid by others for our seeking the king.

We have come close one more time to the end of the year and the frenzy or merriment and giving seems to take over the planet. We know that hearts are not usually going through any radical change because by January the giving stops as if there were no people to love. The king whose story we assume feeds the myth of the jolly elf and his magical assistants is everybody’s king all year round. My hope for all of us is that soon we will find and follow him.   We hope these essays will spark our thirst for life

It is a full-bodied picture that emerges of the Son of God when we read of his arrival and infancy. The Christ-child was more like many of us than we can imagine. We know with certainty that Christ was born into trouble, a king for sure, and sought by all, once his identity is affirmed. It is still an exciting venture, to make one’s mind up and go find the king. It is not as if there are no stars in our sky to tell us that the king has arrived, was born, and that it is not a secret where to look for him, and we should go find him.

God-with-us and God-like-us

Sometimes we hear the objection that heroes in the Bible are unrealistic but the Chris-child is more like us in the 21st century than we would like to believe.

He had family like ours, with one notable exception. The man and the woman were uniquely molded, she for childlike faith that she would have a baby with no male contribution, and he for keeping the family secret. “My soul magnifies the Lord … so let it be to me” was Mary’s song and prayer, and Joseph loved her and refused to expose her to public scrutiny. We would not go looking for a king if we learned that he was not the child of his mother’s husband.

The unveiling of the just. A man and a young girl

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

Matt 1:18

The two served God with mercy and sensitivity.

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

Matt 1:19

King in trouble from birth

Here comes trouble:

Having heard about the king Herod and all Jerusalem was troubled.

Matt 2:3

If the monarch is troubled when a new king is born should not the whole population also quake? The king himself – baby Yeshua – is destined for unimaginable trouble and conflict, and especially at the conclusion of his visit.

“WHERE IS HE” BECOMES THE OPERATIVE QUESTION

The pressing demand for each one to whom this news comes – these tidings of a king’s birth – is WHERE IS HE? We have to come into contact with the king. Find him and worship. It must have been difficult for these first-comers to drag themselves away from the king, both as newborn and as declared Lamb of God. When the first disciples asked the adult Christ for his address he had been to Egypt and Nazareth, two places of no distinction for a Jew. If they could have seen the total residence history of the king it would include and finally on the road, and practically homeless.

And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Matthew 2:23

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, John 1:35; and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” John 1:36; The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. John 1:37; Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” John 1:38; He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. John 1:39; One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. John 1:40;

WHERE IS HE? DO WE NOT WANT TO KNOW?

… the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. James 1:20

Angry people -sow chaos. Insatiable persons thrive on endless complaints. A deprived family finds comfort in hostility and competition. A warring tribe traffics in death.

Righteousness ( greatness) cannot be these two

1. getting the things we want or need
2. giving in love

But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them. Psalms 106:14-16

A lost race – a saviour awaits

If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? John 7:23

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Colossians 3:15