12/24/06 Tradition and Truth
This being Christmas eve,
we are going to spend our few minutes together this morning
looking at some things I’ve noticed recently
in the account of the birth of Christ given to us in Scripture.
That may sound rather straight forward,
but the truth is
there may be no section of God’s communication to us
in which we have more trouble separating tradition from truth
than in the historical account of the Jesus’ birth.
The problem, of course,
is that certain events
and certain assumptions
have become so deeply imbedded in our cultural and religious traditions
that, even when we read the texts in the Bible,
we don’t see what’s being said.
We “hear” our assumptions.
Most of this stuff doesn’t really bother me,
but I do find in fascinating
when I see the degree to which our traditions have overpowered the truth.
I’ll give you just a few examples of what I mean.
We are all familiar with that part of the Christmas account
in which the angels appeared to those shepherds the night Christ was born.
It’s recorded for us in Luke 2:8-20.
We know that initially just one angel appeared,
and that he delivered his remarkable message to those men,
and that, then, he was joined by what is described as “a multitude of the heavenly host”.
And if you ask nearly anyone what happened next,
they will tell you that the entire multitude burst into song,
singing praises to God.
In our minds we even think
it might have been something very much like The Hallelujah Chorus.
But the truth is they did not.
They didn’t sing,
they spoke.
In fact, there is no record of any angel ever singing.
In fact, as far as we know,
the ability to sing,
to compose music and then express it,
is a creative ability that God has given exclusively to the human race.
Those angels did indeed glorify God,
but they did it with words, not with music.
No harps,
no guitars,
no orchestra...
And how about those wise men from the east.
If you were to ask nearly anyone in our nation,
or in our world,
who showed up at the manger
to give honor to Jesus the night of His birth,
almost without exception
there will be three wise men included in the list.
Some folks will even include a little drummer boy,
wherever he came from.
It is simply assumed that there were wise men from the east
at the manger the night of the birth of Christ.
The truth is, there were not.
And we also assume that the star they followed,
appeared that night as well,
and stood over the manger.
But the truth is,
it did not.
There were no wise men at the manger,
and there was no star above the stable.
Those wise men did not make their appearance
until Jesus was about two years old.
Soon after Jesus’ birth,
Joseph and Mary left Bethlehem in the south of Israel
and returned to their home in Nazareth with their infant son.
Then sometime during the early months of Jesus’ life
Joseph and Mary packed up their few possessions
and made what, at the time, they certainly viewed
as a permanent move back to Bethlehem.
We’re not told why they made the move,
but there are some reasons hinted at in Scripture.
First of all, Joseph must have owned property in Bethlehem,
probably through inheritance because we know the family had very little money,
and very likely it was a house that had been rented out at the time of Jesus’ birth,
making it necessary for them to look for temporary lodgings,
first at the Inn,
and then finally in the stable the night of Jesus’ birth.
We know Joseph owned property in the Bethlehem
because under the rules of the taxation that caused them to go to Bethlehem in the first place,
only land owners were required to travel to the place of their land holdings.
That property gave them a strong incentive for the move from Nazareth back to Bethlehem.
And it is likely that an even stronger incentive came
from the damage their reputations must have suffered in the community
as a result of Mary’s pregnancy.
In this strong Jewish culture,
in a small, rural community,
pregnancy before marriage would shatter a young lady’s reputation forever.
And it wouldn’t have helped Joseph either.
Marrying her in her condition
was equivalent to public confession of his own sin.
A fresh start
in a place in which their past was not known
must have seemed like a very good thing.
But, no matter what the reasons,
following that first brief visit to Bethlehem during which Jesus was born,
the family returned briefly to the north,
then made a permanent move back to Bethlehem
and took up residence in a house in the town.
And it was in that house,
probably when Jesus was about two years old,
that those visitors from the East showed up.
It was to that house, not the stable,
that the star led them.
MAT 2:9-11 ... and the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And we know Jesus’ approximate age at the time
because Matthew tells us,
MAT 2:16 ...when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its environs, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the magi.
When the Luke describes the shepherds’ arrival
we are told that LUK 2:16 ... they came in haste and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger.
They found the baby.
The word used is one that specifically designates either an unborn or new born infant.
But when the visitors from the East came,
the found the child in the house.
And it’s a completely different word,
one meaning one who is past infancy
but not yet into adolescence.
Nor do we know how many were in that caravan from the East.
Even though our Christmas traditions tell us that there were three,
all Scripture tells us
is that there was more than one.
But never does it tell us there were three.
And does any of this really matter?
Does it matter whether or not we think the wise men were at the stable?
Or whether we think the star was there that night?
Or whether we think the angels sang their message?
Does it matter if we think there were three wise men
or if we think Jesus was two hours old rather than two years old when they came?
Well, maybe not,
and yet maybe it does.
I certainly don’t care whether or not
we have stars above our stables,
or wise men kneeling before our imagined mangers.
But what I do care very much about
is whether or not
we listen closely to our Lord
when He talks to us about why that child came.
And Jesus Himself said it so well
in that passage we were looking at a few weeks ago.
JOH 3:17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.
And in a remarkable way
the why is imbedded in the how.
I mean,
if we look carefully at how God brought His Son into the world
we will see in that how
what He wants us to know
about the way He loves us.
Take, for example, the people God selected
to tell about the birth of Christ.
There were not many,
and those who were chosen
were chosen for very important reasons.
Mary and Joseph, of course,
needed to know.
They needed a careful, exact explanation
of everything that was happening and why.
And those wise men from the east
also served an important role.
They were not Jewish, you know.
They were Gentiles... non-Jews,
people whom Paul would have described as being ‟... excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”
That’s most of us.
Most of us do not have the blood of Abraham in our veins.
It was not to us
that God made so many of those promises concerning the Messiah.
And yet, in their own powerful way
those wise men illustrated for the entire human race
the great promise of God
that all those who seek truth,
no matter what their race,
or their culture,
or their background,
or their human heritage,
if they pursue that truth
no matter what the cost or inconvenience to themselves,
that pursuit will ultimately lead them
to the person of Jesus Christ.
But remarkably,
apart from the magi from the east,
and Joseph, and Mary,
and Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth,
who was pregnant with the Prophet John at the time,
the only other ones God told about the birth of Jesus Christ
were those shepherds.
Why them?
What was it about them
that caused God to include them
in this otherwise secret event?
In those shepherds
I see the Lord sharing two huge principles
about His communication of the truth about Himself to the world.
First of all
I think God chose the shepherds
because there was no human reason
why He should have.
These were men who had no social standing,
men who had no social prominence whatsoever.
There was nothing about who they were,
or what they did
that qualified them for honor
from a human point of view.
When people of importance in the community held a dinner party
these men were never invited.
They weren’t even considered.
Apart from their families,
not many even knew they existed.
You know how it is, don’t you?
If you’re in school
you know there are some kids in the class who are important.
Maybe they are really smart,
or maybe they are good at sports,
or maybe they’re really funny,
or maybe they’re involved in student government.
But everybody knows them.
The teachers know them,
even the principle knows who they are.
And then there are those students
that no one seems to notice.
They don’t say much.
They don’t do things that get them noticed.
They don’t speak unless someone speaks to them.
And most of the kids
don’t even remember their names.
Those are the shepherds.
Do you know who these shepherds are?
They are all those people
that our world never notices,
people who will never be famous,
never be glamorous,
never be rich,
never even be noticed by the normal rules of society.
And when God chose these shepherds,
and only these shepherds,
and gave them His personal invitation
to the most important birthday party in the world,
it was His way of telling us first of all
that even if no one else in the world knows our name,
He does,
and He not only knows our name,
He knows all about us,
every minute of every day of our lives.
He even knows
when we are all alone out on the hillside at night.
And even more than that,
when He chose the shepherds
He wanted it clearly understood
that we are never invited into the presence of His Son
on the basis of our social standing,
and we are never excluded from that invitation
because we lack it.
When God arranged for there to be
both Kings
and shepherds kneeling before Christ
He was telling us that there is no such thing as social standing in the presence of God.
Our value to Him,
and His delight in our presence with Him
has nothing whatsoever to do
with who we are in the eyes of society,
it has everything to do
with who we are in His eyes,
and in His eyes
each of us is valued beyond measure.
When God chose the shepherds,
He wanted us to know
that our position in the human social structure
never has had and never will have
even the slightest influence over our value to Him,
or His love for us.
And there is one other thing I see God saying to us through these shepherds as well.
I see Him telling us that
if our hearts are open to Him
He will take the initiative
to bring us the knowledge of Himself.
If we would have been asked
where we thought this incredible display of angelic glory
and splendor should have taken place,
I think most of us would have felt that
the center of Jerusalem
might have made more sense - some place where there were lots of people,
and the news could have spread quickly.
But God wasn’t interested in lots of people.
He was interested in open hearts,
and when He found those hearts in the shepherds,
He went to them.
And in that I hear God telling us
that He is actively seeking out
those hearts that are open to Him,
and when He finds them
He will find a way to communicate Himself and His truth.
A number of years ago, now,
I became involved in an interesting correspondence
with a fellow named Joseph
who lives in Ghana, West Africa.
Somehow a copy of The Grace Exchange
made it’s way into a floating book store that visited Ghana,
and Joseph bought a copy.
He wrote me a letter
and I wrote back.
When I wrote back I asked him a number of questions about himself.
How did he become a Christian?
Are his parents Christians?
Does he have brothers and sisters who know the Lord?
He wrote back and told me
that his father was what he called, “an occult man”,
and that he has three brothers and 4 sisters, none of whom were Christians until recently.
Then, in response to my question about how he became a Christian Joseph said this,
‟I’m 28 years of age, not yet married. I became a Christian when I was 21 years of age - 1993 through a divine dream that I had.”
Do you know what that is?
That is those shepherds on that deserted hill outside Bethlehem
being visited by the angels.
That is God’s response to a heart hungry for Him.
And that is the other great message I see imbedded in those shepherds
in the account of the birth of Christ -
it is our God saying to us,
“I know that you live your life surrounded in darkness.
I know there is no way that on your own
you could ever find your way to Me.
But do not be afraid.
If your heart is open,
I will find My way to you,
I will reveal myself to you clearly,
and I will show you the way to my Son.”
Does it matter whether or not we get all the details correct
in our cultural celebrations of the birth of Christ?
No, probably not.
Does it matter whether or not
we hear correctly what our God is saying to us
through the kind of entrance into this world
that He selected for Jesus?
Yes, it matters very much indeed
because most of all He wants us to know
that no one is ever excluded from the gift He is giving us,
the gift of the offer of salvation through Christ,
and He both can and will find just the right way
to reveal Himself
to every heart that’s open to Him.
Merry Christmas!