I want to begin by having you listen to the beginning of a song by Rich Mullins. It is a song that talks about Jesus’ humanity, comparing it to the humanity that we live with each and every day.
You was a baby like I was once, You was cryin’ in the early mornin’
You was born in a stable Lord, Reid Memorial is where I was born
They wrapped ;you in swaddling clothes, me they dressed in baby blue
I was twelve years old in the meeting house, listening to the old men pray
I was tryin’ hard to figure out what it was that they was tryin’ to say
There you were in the temple, they said You weren’t old enough
To know the things You knew
Did you grow up hungry, did you grow up fast?
Did the little girls giggle when you walked past?
Did you wonder what it was that made them laugh?
Did they tell you stories about the saints of old? Stories about their faith?
They say stories like that make a boy grow bold,
stories like that make a man walk straight
You was a boy like I was once, but was you a boy like me
I grew up around Indiana, You grew up around Galilee
And if I ever really do grow up, Lord I want to grow up and be just like You
It’s kinda hard to imagine that the God we serve spent time here on this earth, living the same life that we live. It’s easy to let the time and culture get in the way of the fact that Jesus grew up in much the same way that we grew up. He experienced the things that we experience. All the mundane things that we take for granted, that make this life special… Jesus experienced these things. As the song asks, “what did Jesus do when he scraped his knee?”
I. Horror and Terror
I’m sorry I have to say this, I’m sorry to ruin your day, but Christmas is not yet over. I know you’re sick of the music and the trees cannot handle it much longer, but Christmas has just begun. Yes, the store are tearing down their Christmas decorations as we speak and massively discounting their Christmas merchandise. The radio stations have thrown out all their Christmas music until next Thanksgiving. But Christmas is not over. Christmas is the beginning of the celebration of God with us. It is the beginning of the celebration of the Divine becoming human. It is the celebration of the incarnation. And that incarnation began with Jesus as a baby, but it continued with Jesus growing, living as a child, working as a carpenter, and then beginning a life of ministry at about age 30. The incarnation doesn’t end there, but we see God work very actively in the world as Jesus tells stories and brings healing to those around him, as Jesus teaches and shares God’s truth with his disciples. And the incarnation is seen at its greatest and most humble when Jesus offers up his life on the cross for the sins of the world. So Christmas, the celebration of the incarnation, is not yet over… it has just begun. But that doesn’t mean that the joy of Christmastime, as we celebrate together and open presents and spend time with family will constantly be there. For the Christmas story is not only filled with joy and love, it also finds hatred and pain in it.
One of the most joyful events in the Bible, the birth of Christ, is followed by one of the most horrible, one which we tend to ignore and gloss over. Jesus is born, God becomes man, and the sinful world just cannot handle it. And so we find ourselves with a horrible event at Jesus’ birth as children around Bethlehem are all slaughtered by Herod to keep a baby from becoming a king. What a horrible thing to see happen at the birth of the Christ. Now legend says that 1000 boys were killed by Herod at this time, but we know that it was probably much less. But Herod is known for killing even his own children to protect his place as king, so however many were killed, Herod was willing.
No matter how many were killed, though, we know it was a horrible event. And one that I believe shows how evil our world can be. It shows that good is repaid in this world by evil. It shows that power and greed again and again fight against love and peace.
This is the very kind of thing that feeds that part of each of us, and of me personally, that likes to be a cynic. It meets our lowered expectations. Of course, the earthly ruler is going to feel threatened by our heavenly king. Of course, the good of Jesus’ birth is going to be followed by the bad of the death of children throughout the countryside. This is what we’ve come to expect. Let’s face it, it’s what we deserve.
But that is not the case. And don’t let your inner cynic have too much control here. For cynicism is what made the Pharisees and Sadducees and temple leaders into what they were. They came to expect the worst from people and therefore didn’t open up to sinners. They assumed that evil would constantly contaminate the good, so they avoided everyone who they feared might be evil. They avoided being contaminated. They didn’t rely on God to deliver them from evil, they felt they needed to do it themselves.
They understood sin and evil much the same way that we do. They avoided it because they were afraid that it might contaminate them. They stayed away from sinners because they were afraid that the sinners might make them into sinners. But Jesus knew something that they didn’t know. Yes, evil is contagious. It spreads in a horrible way… but good is contagious also. And so, in Jesus’ ministry he was not afraid of evil because he knew that the good that came from God would contaminate the evil. And so we have prostitutes who give up their lives of prostitution and follow him. We have tax collectors who give up their thieving ways and follow him. We have sick people who are freed from their sickness and know health once again. Instead of being afraid of catching what the sick have, Jesus gives them a chance to catch what it is that he has. Evil cannot contaminate good the same way that good contaminates evil. Good can come in and take a horrible situation and make it glorious. And you don’t need to worry about evil getting the best of you because God protects his own. God protected Jesus. God protected Joseph and Mary. God made sure that they got out of there before harm came to them.
II. Into Egypt
And so, Jesus at the youngest age, is forced to live the life of exile. Joseph and Mary take him down to Egypt so that they can be safe from Herod. And he continues his life the way he began it, as a refugee. Not an auspicious way to begin life for our Savior.
But we have to realize that this all happened for a reason, not just to fulfill a quote from the Old Testament that isn’t really talking about the Messiah at all but rather is commenting on Israel’s past as slaves in Egypt. I think there are a couple things that come from Jesus’ journey to Egypt.
First, this time in Egypt meant that Jesus, in his earliest years, was raised around gentiles. Prejudices that his fellow Israelites grew up with would be foreign to him because he had to live surrounded by people who weren’t the same as him. And therefore, Jesus learned in a practical way that God’s love is for everyone, Jew and Gentile. It’s one thing to say that, it’s another thing to live it. God’s love is for everyone. God’s love is for the lovable and the unlovable. It is for those that we think deserve it and those we don’t think deserve it. It is for the terrorist and child molester as well as the church-goer and saint. It is for everyone. Even for those who have done horrible things. Even, in Jesus’ case, for the nation that once held your people captive as slaves.
The second thing this trip to Egypt did for Jesus was that it put him in the place of his people. Jesus lived out a piece of what his people had gone through: coming out of Egypt and entering Israel as God’s people. Jesus came out of Egypt and entered Nazareth as God’s son. Jesus lived out a part of what God’s people went through and therefore was better able to understand what it was they were going through. This is so much what the incarnation is about. It is about God living in human flesh. It is about God experiencing the things that we experience; God understanding the things that we understand. By coming out of Egypt, Jesus learned a piece of what all of Israel learned when they came out of Egypt during the Exodus. By growing up as a boy in Nazareth, Jesus learned what it meant to grow up as a child, what childhood and growing were all about. By working as a carpenter, Jesus knew what it meant to hold down a job and make the ends meet. Jesus experienced life. He experienced the same life that we experience. Oh, there are definite differences in the life he had and the lives we have, but they are more minor than you would think.
But why would God want to experience the things that we experience? Why would God want to put himself through the pains and joys that we deal with on a daily basis? There’s really a simple answer to this… Love! My wife, Lisa, when we were dating, would sit down and read some of my comic books when I got them. At first I was confused, because I thought she liked comic books. But then it became clear. She was learning about me by learning about my interests. She was willing to do things that I wanted to do, and participate in the things that are important to me because she wanted to know me better. And she wanted to know me better because, crazy woman that she is, she loved me.
God loves us and he wants to know us better. And so he gave us Jesus, allowing him to experience the things that we experience. Jesus identified with the people of Israel. Jesus identifies with us. He knows what it is that we go through. He knows the joys and fears that we face. He has been one of us. He has dealt with the things that each of us have dealt with.
We don’t serve a distant God. We don’t worship a God who watches from afar. Our God is close. He is personal. He became one of us. He knows us intimately.
What a message we have to share. God became man. The Creator allowed himself to become a part of his creation. O what wondrous love.
As Christians we are called to share the Gospel. Usually we take this to mean that we are to remind the world that they are all sinners and they need to repent. This is part of the Gospel, but it is only a part of it. And unfortunately it is usually all anyone hears. Gospel means good news. There is good news to share with the world around us.
Now I’m not saying to water down the gospel and pretend there is nothing about repenting. But we need to treat the Gospel like the good news that it is. We need to speak it in a language that those around us will hear. We need to let everyone know that God loves them. He loves them for who they are, even in the mist of their world; sins and all. He loves them so much that he allowed himself to become human, to incarnate into the midst of the world that they are in. He allowed himself to experience the same pains and problems that they experience. And he experienced pain to the greatest when he went to the cross, not out of spite but out of love. Don’t you want to get to know this God who loves you so much that he has gotten to know you. Oh yes, once you get to know this God, you will find that your life will change. He will change it. But his goal isn’t to take away all your fun. It isn’t to take all the joy out of your life. No, he wants to present a richer and fuller life to you, and one that won’t end here on earth but will continue throughout all eternity.
This is the good news. This is the Gospel. It is a different way to frame the important message that we share, but it is the same message. Let us share this message with those around us. We can do so in words, we can do so in actions, we can do so with our lives. Let us reach out to the world that needs to hear this important message and let us tell them that God loves them too. Amen.
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