Tonight we pick up our study of Luke’s gospel with the story of Jesus’ birth as it’s found in Luke chapter 2. That can be found on page 857 in the Bibles located in the pew in front of you. Luke chapter 2.
I’m not sure that we like this story as much as we think we do. This is one of the most familiar passages in the Bible. This is the Christmas story. It ranks right up there alongside of Noah and the ark and David and Goliath and Jonah and the big fish. This is one of the most recognized and one of the most favorite stories in the whole Bible, and there is a sense of sentimentality and nostalgia that comes along with Luke chapter 2, that comes along with the baby in the manger and the shepherds on the hillside tending to their flock. Luke chapter 2 seems innocent enough to be included in Charlie Brown’s Christmas and probably in a couple of Hallmark movies. And yet it’s not. It’s not innocent at all. Luke chapter 2 is radical. It’s countercultural. It’s subversive even, because the story of Jesus’ birth tells the story of the upside-down kingdom of God, the upside-down nature of God’s kingdom. It’s about sacrifice. It’s about humiliation. It’s about weakness. That, “Thou who wast rich beyond all splendor, all for love’s sake becamest poor.” That goes against everything that the world values. And if we are honest, that goes against everything we oftentimes value and pursue in our lives. And this chapter unsettles that; it disrupts that way of thinking. It disrupts that way of living, and yet this is the story of salvation. This is the story of God’s kingdom. This is the story of a kingdom of power and of glory. It’s a story of a kingdom that is not of this world. It’s the story of Jesus on the throne of an eternal kingdom. And yet how does it begin? It begins in a manger in the little town of Bethlehem.
So let’s read God’s Word together. Before we look at it, let’s pray and ask God’s help.
Our Father, we come before You tonight, we come before Your Word, and we come with our pride and with our egos and with our desires and our longings for greatness and for glory and we ask that You would cut it all away. Take it away from us that we would come before Your Word tonight and say, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give the glory.” Would You help us to see the glory of Christ and the glory of His kingdom and of His promises and of His blessings? Give us Your Spirit, we ask, that You would open Your Word to us and that we would live as citizens of Your kingdom and not as citizens of this earth. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Luke chapter 2, verses 1 to 20:
“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.’ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever.
Well you have probably noticed by now as we have been working our way through the gospel of Luke that the gospel of Luke begins with a series of announcements. First, there was the angel, Gabriel, and his announcement to Zechariah that he and his wife, Elizabeth, would bear a child, that they would have a son named John. He would prepare the way of the Lord. And then there was the second announcement and it came to Mary. Again, it was Gabriel who said to her that she would bear a song, that He would be great; He would be the son of the Most High and that the Lord would give Him the throne of His father, David. That He would reign over the house of Jacob. That His kingdom would know no end.
And then we come to another announcement. It’s in verse 9. There is another message from God. It’s this – “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” This is good news. The word we find here is the word from which we get the English word, “evangelism.” This is a message that is to be told, it is to be proclaimed, it is to be shared with others. And we are just a few weeks away from the Winter Olympics. Maybe some of you are big Winter Olympics fans; you have that on your calendar looking forward to it. And really, we have to be honest, being from Jackson, Mississippi, any sport, any event that takes place on snow and ice is really strange and unfamiliar to us. But then there are some others that we really have a hard time getting an understanding of. Things like curling and the biathlon. There’s all the sliding and the sweeping and the skiing and the shooting and we really don’t know what’s going on most of the time.
Well I heard recently about some other unusual events that have taken place in the Olympics in years past. One of them was in ancient Greek and it was the heralding competition. Now the heralding competition was a gathering of those people who were professional heralds. They were the ones who went from town to town to deliver the news. They were the ones who went to give reports of victory in battle. And they came together at the Olympics and they would compete and the one who spoke the clearest and the loudest, he would be crowned the champion herald. I’m not sure that I would call that a sport; it’s probably the only chance a preacher could get to getting a gold! But you can get a sense in this heralding competition, the ancient Olympics, something of the significance of their role and the significance of what they had to say as they would herald the news, as they would herald good news. They were not to be ignored.
That’s the same thing with the angels in Luke chapter 2. The angels in Luke’s gospel are heralds of good news. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” What they are saying is that Christ had been born, that Christ had come, today, as this angel speaks to the shepherds. That is the good news. I think we can make a case that that is the theme verse of the entire gospel of Luke and really we could include the book of Acts in there as well – that, “Unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” This is the heart of Luke’s message. This is the good news. This is the Gospel. It’s that Jesus is the Christ. And go look at the other gospels. Go look and see what you find there. Matthew starts his gospel the very same way – “This is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.” Mark says the same thing. “This is the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” The center and the turning point of Mark’s gospel in Mark chapter 8 is Peter’s profession that Jesus is the Christ. John does the same thing. He’s recording all of these different signs throughout the gospel, and at the very end of the gospel of John in chapter 20 verse 31, he says, “These things were written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”
You see what the Gospel writers are doing? You see what Luke is doing? They are making it clear, they are being careful to make it clear that the good news about Jesus is that His miraculous birth and His authoritative teaching, His power to work wonders, His suffering and His death and ultimately His resurrection and His ascension are all about demonstrations and validation that Jesus is the Christ. That’s the good news. That’s the good news that we are to receive and to believe and to share, to tell others, and even to give our lives over that good news.
And yet I wonder, is it still good news? Is that still good news to us? I wonder how many Christians, how many people who call themselves, who identify themselves as a Christian, who call themselves after the name of Christ – What is a Christian? It is literally, “little Christ.” And yet how many Christians could actually say what Christ means? What does that word mean? Is it just another name to call Jesus? Is it just a nickname for Jesus? Well what is the significance of it? What is the momentousness of the angels’ message that are saying that this is good news, that Jesus is the Christ? Do we recognize that as good news?
Here’s what they are saying. Christ, or Christos, is the Greek word for the Messiah. And that still may not mean a whole lot to you unless you come from a Jewish background. But the hope of the Messiah is a big deal and it has a long history; it has a prominent place among the Hebrew people. Christ, or Messiah, means literally, “the Anointed One.” This is the One who is anointed, who is holy, who is set apart, who is uniquely gifted to accomplish the mission that God has given Him to do. And the Christ was anticipated all throughout Scripture. He was the anticipated one. He was the long expected Savior who would be a son of David, who would reestablish the throne of David, who would scatter their enemies and give peace and restore the fortunes to the people of Israel. The Christ was going to bring about all of the promises of the Old Testament scriptures. And we could include in those promises the things that we have read that were announced to Zechariah and to Mary and the prophecy that came from Zechariah in the last chapter. Things about the throne of David and an eternal kingdom and salvation and the forgiveness of sins and peace.
But more than all of that, Christ is to bring God to the people and the people to God. That they would be His people and He would be their God and to make that true and lasting and eternal. That is the real blessing that the Christ is coming to bring. That is the hope and the expectation that all the prophets and all these announcements are bringing about. All of it is centered on one individual figure. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” That’s the good news of great joy. That is God’s faithfulness to His Word. It’s His faithfulness to His people. And this is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes this good news.
And yet, here’s what else the angel says. “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” Do you hear it? Do you hear the surprise there? Do you hear the unexpected turn that the message makes? It’s that Christ is born, yes, but He is not born in a place of affluence and power, but He is born in a place of poverty and weakness. He came not to prominence and to privilege, but He came to utter obscurity. And it’s not that there were no indications that that would be the case. In fact, the prophets had foretold that. Micah knew it. Here’s what Micah said in chapter 5 verse 2: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” And Isaiah knew it as well too. Isaiah said in chapter 7, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” He said in chapter 11, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse; a branch from his root shall bear fruit.” What does he say in Isaiah chapter 53? “He grew up like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”
This was God’s plan all along, and yet it’s still surprising to us, isn’t it? It’s surprising when we read that Mary travels with Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem and that “The time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger.” Everything about the story so far, everything about the city of David and the house and the lineage of David, everything going back to the glory days of Israel going back to the reign of David, even going back to God’s covenant promise that He established with David in 2 Samuel chapter 7, everything would make us to think Jerusalem – Jerusalem, right? Jerusalem was called the city of David in the Old Testament. Jerusalem was the place with the palace and the throne and the king. Jerusalem was the heart and the soul of the kingdom of Israel. But Jesus wasn’t born in Jerusalem. He’s born in little old Bethlehem and He’s wrapped up in these plain, regular swaddling cloths and He’s placed in a manger and His birth, this momentous event, this historic event, the historic event is announced to lowly, unnamed, anonymous shepherds.
It may be that it happened in a way that we are not used to thinking about it. We know what a manger is, right? A manger, of course, is a feeding trough. But this didn’t necessarily take place in a stable or a cave. According to some scholars, the typical peasant home in a village like Bethlehem was a two-room structure. And one of those rooms was a guest room; it was reserved for guests. The other room was the main room. It was one large room, and in that large room was where the family cooked and they ate and they slept and they carried on all of their day to day activities. And at the end of that room, close to the door, there was a space that was either lower than the rest of the main room or it was separated by some beams of wood. And it was in that space that the animals could be brought into the house during the night. And where were they fed? Their food was placed in a manger, and that manger could either be carved out of the rock floor of the home or it could be a little wooden box that was kept among the animals. It very well may have been that this was the type of home Jesus was born into. And it’s not necessarily because there was no room for them in the inn, because the word translated “inn” may be better translated as “guest room.” It’s used that way later on in Luke’s gospel. And so when he says there was no room in the inn, it was that there was no room in the guest room, the other room of the house, and that’s why Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus were in the main room where the animals were and He was placed in a manger. One commentator translates it, verse 7, like this – “She gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a feeding trough because there was no place for them in the guest room.”
Now I know that messes up our manger scenes, doesn’t it, but the point is basically the same. And it’s this – it’s that “Jesus’ humiliation consisted in being born, and that in a low condition,” as the Shorter Catechism says, number 27. He’s born in a low condition in the village of Bethlehem and He is placed in a manger. That was a long way from Jerusalem, wasn’t it? Not literally, of course. Bethlehem is actually only 5 or 6 miles south of Jerusalem. You can pull up directions on Google Maps to go from Bethlehem to Jerusalem and it’s a pretty easy trip. It’s a straight shot up Old Hebron Road. And the only real obstacle in the road from Bethlehem into the heart of Jerusalem is a roundabout that you have to go around, so that could be a little bit confusing. And if you look at the maps, if you look at Google Maps of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, it’s a little bit surreal. And you see the places, the names of places like “Mount Zion” and “City of David” and “Gethsemane” and “KFC” – and you don’t expect to see that! It doesn’t seem to fit. And there is a line that goes through between Bethlehem and Jerusalem and it’s the 1949 Armistice Agreement Line. And you know, some of that, it seems out of place as you look at a map of Bethlehem and Jerusalem. And yet don’t we need to remember that? That Jesus was born into our world and He was born into a world of conflict and He was born into a world where people ate the everyday, normal, regular food of everyday people. Jesus came into those humble circumstances. He came into that low condition, into the village of Bethlehem, into a manger. But it’s only a 25 mile drive today from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. It wouldn’t have been that long of a walk in that day.
And yet figuratively speaking, the two places are worlds apart. And it’s almost like this passage is presenting to us a tale of two cities. As we read it about the city of David and the house and line of David, we are thinking Jerusalem, and yet what does Luke tell us? It was Bethlehem. And in telling us a tale of two cities, it’s actually a tale of two Davids, isn’t it? Because there was David in Jerusalem and he was the king. He was on the throne. He had power and he had fame. That sounds good, doesn’t it? That sounds impressive. But there was another David, wasn’t there? There was the David before he was king. There was David in Bethlehem. He was the youngest and overlooked son of Jesse. He was a shepherd boy. And that’s the scene that is presented to us here. Surely Christ would come in greatness. Surely Christ would come among royalty. But He doesn’t. He doesn’t do that. He is great and He is on the throne. He has all power, and yet He first comes in absolute weakness.
And we need to remember that. We need to remember that weakness is the way of God’s kingdom. “Blessed are those who are poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who are meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Because we are drawn to power, aren’t we? And so many of our problems stem from a struggle for power. That’s the struggle, the conflict in our homes, between husband and wife, between parents and children. It’s a struggle to insist on our own rights and to demand respect and love and to try to get our own way most of the time. It’s a struggle for power. And that’s the trouble that we find at work too, as well. Oftentimes our struggle for power at work is a struggle for recognition or promotion, for advancement, for recognition. Molly worked at a bank before our children were born and one of the tellers there forged a check to try to take money from the bank. And the name that she put on that check was “Inita Rayas.” Inita Rayas – “I need a raise!” She may or may not have needed a raise, but what was she saying? “I demand a raise. I deserve a raise.” And isn’t that oftentimes the way we are? We deserve a better situation. We deserve something better than what we are getting at work and so there is a power struggle. And it comes with frustration and disappointment and discontentment.
It happens in the church as well. We like things, oftentimes, to be polished and slick. To look like that we have this covered; we’ve got this under control. There was one historian that says oftentimes those in power seek to impose order in order to have a feeling of being in control that things make sense. That’s what power does. Power seeks control. It seeks to eliminate all sorts of risks. We want to feel like we are in control and that’s why we don’t like change. We don’t like change among us. We don’t like for someone sometimes to be different from us because it’s unsettling. It makes us feel like our power is at risk.
And what about politics? What’s the deal with politics? It’s power. It’s a struggle for power. And in politics it’s all about the loudest voice and the strongest force or strength in numbers and we can get so pulled into that game of struggling and fighting and grasping for power and not wanting to give it up and not want our way of life threatened.
But what about weakness? What about Luke chapter 2? What about the weakness of Christ and His kingdom? What about the way Christ came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for others? What about loving like Christ loved that He loved for the benefit of the other person even at His own personal expense? What about valuing and pursuing and including the marginalized and those with special needs? What about turning the other cheek? What about praying for those who have done you harm and extending forgiveness to them? What about loving our enemy and those who are different from us? That’s weakness, isn’t it? That’s weakness. And that’s hard. And it’s countercultural. But that is the way to blessing in Christ’s kingdom. “Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek.” That’s the way of blessing. It’s the way of weakness. Weakness is the way in God’s kingdom.
And then there’s one other thing. One last thing before we close. Some of us here are going through heavy, heavy trials. And you’ve noticed that we have experienced grief and loss in our congregation over the last few weeks. There are some of you dealing with sickness and death and loneliness and broken relationships, maybe even abuse. You know all too acutely a place of weakness and brokenness and shame, of walking with a limp and of real pain and hurt. Well here’s the good news of this passage. It’s that Jesus sympathizes with your weakness. “He is not a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but He was made in every way like us, yet without sin.” And He intercedes for you in your weakness, in your place of pain, at the right hand of God. And here’s the thing; here’s the other thing. Let’s face it, if Jesus had come to Jerusalem, let’s say Jesus had come to the place of the palace and He had come among royalty and He had come with all of the pomp and the circumstances of His day, you know that still would have been an unbelievable and an incredible humiliation for Him because He would have been coming from the glory and majesty of heaven into even the best that this earth can offer is nothing compared to the glory that He had from all of eternity. But He didn’t do that, did He? He came, He gave up His power and His glory to come and take on humiliation, to take on human flesh as a baby in Bethlehem and be laid in a manger.
And yet that wasn’t it. Even that wasn’t as far as He would go. He would go further than that, wouldn’t He, in His humiliation? And Luke tells us at the end of his gospel that, “He humbled Himself to the point of death.” And His body was wrapped not this time in swaddling cloths but in linen cloths and He was laid not in a carved out manger but He was laid in a carved out tomb. You see, Jesus went from the manger to the tomb. That’s how low He went in His humiliation. And yet it was at that very place in His lowest humiliation, in His greatest place of weakness, that is where Jesus displayed His greatest glory and His greatest power because He overcame sin and He overcame death by being raised from the dead. He gave victory over the grave, victory over sin. He gives victory in life to all those who trust in Him because He gives resurrection life to all those who trust in him. His greatest weakness wasn’t the place of His greatest glory displayed. And that can be true for us as well – that in our places of weakness, in our places of brokenness, that’s where we can display not our glory but His glory. That’s where we can display the glory of Christ more than anywhere else. That’s what Paul says, isn’t it? That, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” And he prayed multiple times to be delivered from the thorn of the flesh, but what was the message to him? “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Let that be the message of Luke chapter 2 tonight for you this week. In your weakness, in your trials, there is One who knows your trials and who knows your suffering and your weakness and He has overcome sin and death and the grave so that we might overcome it and display His glory for all of eternity. Let’s pray.
Father, we praise You and we marvel as the angels did, as the shepherds did. And so we ask that You would, as we consider Your weakness turned into power, Your power and Your weakness and Your glory and Your majesty, we ask that You would turn us into wonder and awe to praise and glory, both now and in the week to come in all that we do, that we would magnify and praise Your name. And we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.