MOTIVATE

I have a like/dislike view of nativity scenes.

• Little figurines in our home… are they decorations or idols?
• Church nativities are often inaccurate with wisemen present (they didn’t show up until 1-2 years after Jesus’ birth).
• Nativities are often unrealistic with perfect arrangements, but can’t you imagine the chaos? Mary looks remarkably unexhausted to someone who just gave birth. The animals look surprisingly unbothered at being kept from their feeding trough with an infant baby in it. Joseph looking stellar rather than embarrassed or angry for not having a place for his new wife to give birth. And of course, the new born babe not crying[1] or needing changed (“all is calm, all is bright”) is nothing short of a Christmas miracle!

While nativities may not always be realistic, they can be relevant opportunities to discuss the historic events that have changed and engaged the world. Nativity displays interrupt our normal schedules and sights to provoke us to wonder what this season – and all of life – is really about.

• The Nativity is a historical setting to reminds us the Bible contains truth and accurate facts. This happened and we must all deal with the person of Jesus; either receiving or rejecting Him as Lord & Savior.
• The baby alive reflects the value of life in a society that does not always value babies or children.
• The baby with a family is counter-cultural in a society that devalues marriage, dismisses the beauty of motherhood, and degrades the significance of fatherhood.
• The presence of smelly and lowly shepherds before the newborn king is an open invitation for all to encounter Jesus.
• God uses the meager in mighty ways.
  • Bethlehem: A small city, not the capital of Israel, was birthplace of the world’s Savior.
  • Manger with swaddling cloths communicated this couple living underprivileged life in unsanitary conditions
  • Poor teenage couple doing their best.
• Angelic hosts pointing to spiritual power & presence of the divine among individuals & families.
  • We are often too rushed in the commercialism and consumerism of Christmas. Many dismiss or obscure Christ from Christmas through sophisticated and secular messages. So, nativity scenes cause us to pause, to glimpse and gaze at the mystery and majesty of Christmas. Our culture may view Christmas merely through the lens of economy, but the historicity of events and presence of nativity scenes remind us that Christmas is also about an encounter with the divine. 

While nativities may not always be realistic, they can be relevant opportunities to discuss the historic events that have changed and engaged the world. Nativity displays interrupt our normal schedules and sights to provoke us to wonder what this season – and all of life – is really about.

So, how should we view this inescapable interruption of Jesus Christ? Let us read Matthew 1:18-25 to better understand the meaning of Christmas.

EXAMINE               Christmas Interruption

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
¹⁹ And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰ But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ²³ “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
²⁴ When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, ²⁵ but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Christmas interrupts our family paradigm (Mt 1:1-18).

It is significant that when God seeks to change the world He starts with a family. The Gospel of Matthew opens with a genealogy of forty-nine people, some of whom were noteworthy due to the promises of Israel with Abraham (Gen 12:1-3) and kingship with David (2Sam 7:12); while those same people, among many others were suspect and shady characters (Abraham was a liar; David was an adulterer and murderer; Ahaz offered child sacrifices; all were sinners!), and not to mention five women (Tamar who seduced father inlaw; Rahab the harlot; Ruth the Gentile; Bathsheba wife of Uriah and complicit in adultery with David; and Mary a teen girl with doubts and fears). Listing women in a Jewish genealogy was uncommon due to the culture providing few legal rights during its time. Overall, “if one searched the Old Testament for a more unlikely group of candidates for a messianic lineage, it is doubtful one could come up with a more questionable group.”[2]

And yet, it was the unlikely and the outcaste that Jesus came to serve and save.

Significantly, Jesus was born into a family with a mother and father. While we know Mary was essential, God’s plan included Joseph for a unique role in Jesus’ growth in manhood and faith (cf. Luke 2:52). Joseph was betrothed to Mary.

Betrothal was a legally binding agreement between families for the marriage of a son and daughter. The wedding occasion for the Eastern world was unique.[3] The groom sends a friend of the bridegroom to conduct negotiations with the woman’s parents to establish a dowry for purchase. The reason for a dowry was the family would miss out on the workforce efficiency and required assistance for its loss (cf. Gen 29:18; 1Sam 18:25).
So, the man pays for the wedding – – – which, as a father of four daughters I am herby instituting a policy #DowryForDadsOfDaughters!

After a dowry was agreed upon the wedding couple would enter a betrothal period; stronger than the modern version of being engaged. In fact, to separate from a betrothal agreement would have required a divorce (Mt 1:18; Dt 20:7). During the betrothal time the groom would ensure the woman’s purity and wait for intimacy, and would also go prepare a place for his bride with the assurance that he would return to take her to himself (cf. Jn 14:2-3). On the night of the wedding procession, both parties would dress as elegantly as they could afford (Rev 21:2). The groom would come to the house of the bride and together they’d march through the neighborhood celebrating with music and dancing and joy. Friends would come along to help light the path at night (cf. Mt 25:1-13).
The wedding feast would last an entire week with guests coming and going. Again, the groom was financially responsible to host a huge feast of food and wine for the community (Mt 22:1-13). In return, the community dressed in wedding garments brought gifts to help offset the costs and to help the new couple get started establishing their family.

HOWEVER… this couple would experience tension and interruption to their family plans. Joseph received news that Mary was with child. And Joseph had the same thoughts running through your mind if you received this news.

• Nope. I’m done.
• Get her away from me.
• Why would she do this?

But Joseph was known as a righteous man. We need to understand that who we are and what we believe is cultivated way before life challenges like these. Our character is revealed in life troubles not made in them. Joseph’s righteousness likely took place from the training of his parents, the teaching of his synagogue/church, and his personal faith investments.

We need to understand that who we are and what we believe is cultivated way before life challenges like these. Our character is revealed in life troubles not made in them.

So, Joseph was unwilling to put Mary to shame but resolved to divorce her quietly (Mat 1:18-19). However, God persuaded Joseph that Mary was also upright and pure, and that he and Mary were to parent a son birthed by the Holy Spirit (1:20-21). Joseph remained when many others would have renounced the woman and child.

So, what’s the paradigm interruption that Jesus brings to our families?

• Grace. If there’s one take away from Matthew 1 – or any Gospels/NT – it is that God’s grace is available to families. For Joseph, it was grace to trust. But the good news is that God can break through family dysfunction to bring healing & changed direction.
  – Whatever past incidents that have occurred that don’t seem like you can move forward;
  – Whatever your family is facing;
  There is forgiving grace and empowering strength to discern a next step. That doesn’t mean everything will resolve & everyone will immediately reconcile. But the grace of Jesus helps you to take a step, and then another, and then another.
  Php 3:13 “Beloved, I do not consider that I [am perfect]. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what lies ahead to the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

• Grit. Baby Jesus showing up didn’t solve Mary and Joseph’s problems. It was harder to stay than to walk away. God’s work in their life grounded them to know they could get through the external noise and internal awkwardness and survive as a family.
  Likewise, some of your marriages and families are being pressured and pulled apart. The weight of it all is tempting you to walk away, but God is saying, “Give me the weight… cast your anxieties and burdens on Christ, because He cares and will sustain you” (Ps 55:22; 1Pet 5:7).

Family life is the fertile soil that God uses to mature our character and magnify His redemption.

Christmas interrupts our human logic (Mt 1:18-20).

Matthew emphasizes the virgin birth at least 7x in the opening chapter

• v.16 “Mary, of whom Jesus was born” not Joseph being the Father of Jesus / Joe did not begat Jesus 🙂
• v.18 “before they came together”
• v. 18 “she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit”
• v.19 “Joseph was unwilling to put her to shame”
• v.20 Angel to Joseph “that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit”
• v.23 fulfillment of Isaiah “Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son”
• v.25 “Joseph knew her not until she had given birth to a son”

The Christ child was not born naturally but supernaturally. It is important to note that the virgin birth does not require Mary’s “immaculate conception” (The idea of Mary protected from original sin and therefore being sinless to become the mother of God). The Bible only speaks to Jesus’ birth, not Mary’s (Matt 1:18, 20). Anything else is speculation.
Besides two additional replies: 1) If Mary was virgin born or sinless, what about her mother… and her mother… etc.? The removal of sin’s stain would have to go back endlessly, resulting in no need of a Savior (cf. Lk 1:47 Mary says Jesus is her Savior; she needed saving from her sin!). 2) God is capable and competent enough to create a sinless birth without having to alter Mary’s sin nature. This support’s Mary’s own testimony when she questions, “How will this be, since I am a virgin” with the angel’s response, “For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:34, 37).

Overall, to dismiss the virgin birth of Jesus is to…

1) Rob the Bible of its faithfulness. Either we believe biblical prophecy and record, or we do not. Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 of the virgin birth to a son who shall be called Immanuel, and Israel’s Messianic Redeemer. The Gospel writers do not permit us to pick and choose what aspects of Christ’s life we believe, and others we do not.

2) Relegate Joseph to a fool. If Jesus wasn’t Mary’s virgin born son, then Joseph’s actions to trust & support Mary seem naïve & foolish to say the least. Joseph was a righteous & godly man. Further, he had his own angelic encounter reflecting the truth of the virgin born Christ.

3) Repulse Mary as a fraudulent harlot. Either Mary was telling the truth or she is a cheating, adulterating, liar. Yet, her character & responses of prayer & praise reflect a woman of humble integrity & godliness.

4) Refuse the angels of their significance. Angelic announcements are unnecessary to Mary, Joseph, or the shepherds if there is nothing special about the uniquely born Christ-child. Yet, the good news from the angels is that Jesus is the sinless substitute & Savior for the world.

5) Remove deity from Jesus Christ. If Jesus is humanity without deity, then He still retains the sin nature of Adam, and is merely a good example but not a sinless Savior for the world. Yet, Jesus’ statements frequently proclaim His deity and origin from God the Father.

6) Replace the cross from a divine triumph into a human tragedy. The Gospels show Jesus willingly went to the cross. If Jesus was not the virgin-born, sinless substitute, there is no reason for Him to have died in such a callous and cruel manner.

7) Reject the resurrection of any veracity and vitality. 
If we can’t trust the Bible about Christ’s birth, how can we trust it about anything else, including the resurrection? Further, the resurrection proves Jesus was uniquely born, & thus death had no power over Him.

8) Recant early church creeds & hymnody. OT Scriptures prophecy a uniquely born Christ. NT authors proclaim the fulfillment of prophecies with a virgin-born Christ. And the church was established on Jesus being “conceived of the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary.”

It is important to take time to show the truthfulness of Scripture so that we know the faithfulness of God. God is faithful to all His promises and we can trust Him with our life, with our hopes, and even with our heartaches. Because God took on flesh and entered our world, He knows what it is like to endure the struggles of this world (cf Heb 2:17-18; 4:15).

• Faith is not like putting lights on a Christmas tree. Instead, Christianity is like the electricity powering the lights to glow and pushing back the darkness. Jesus entered our world to enter our life; plug in and see the power of God’s light.

Christmas interrupts our self-sufficiency (1:21).

As we consider this story, a question arises: Why did God choose an unlikely manual laborer like Joseph and a young peasant like Mary? The probable answer is that God chose the least likely in this world so that our faith doesn’t rest on humanity but in Him.
1Cor 1:27-29 “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things… so that no one may boast before him”

Amazingly, this divine announcement of a child belonging to Mary for Joseph to adopt carried a supernatural purpose: the child’s name shall be “Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (1:21). Jesus was a common name and a Greek translation of the Hebrew name Joshua, meaning “Yahweh is salvation.” In the Bible, Joshua leads God’s people to victoriously fight their enemies and enter a promised land of blessing for their new nation.   Jesus is a greater fulfillment of the OT Joshua, as He rescues us from perpetual slavery to sin and battles victoriously over the grave to enter His eternal kingdom of heaven. 

So, what does it mean that Jesus is a Savior?

Jesus saves us from

• Our religion. Like the Jews of Jesus’ day, we think our religious actions will help us with God. The Jews viewed their religion so important that they identified 613 commandments in the Scriptures (do’s & don’ts), along with oral traditions and teachings to protect their holiness. Further, the Jews practiced the sacrificial system to make atonement for their sins. Yet, their challenges were at least two-fold:
  1) Their religious laws and moral deeds became self-righteous, prideful, and lacked grace toward others. Their behavior became egotistical and empty. 2) Their sacrifices for sin needed repeated because human nature can’t escape sinfulness. Forgiveness would never be complete or certain unless God performed the necessary action of becoming the righteous substitute.

• Our rebellion. Jesus not only saves us from our religion but also our rebellion. The gospel and the Christmas truth shows us that God cares even for those on the ‘naughty list’ or whom have nothing to boast about (cf. 1Tim 1:15). Even if you are uninterested or unbelieving in God, He is merciful to continue pursuing you through circumstances and people placed in your life. God doesn’t want anyone to perish (cf 1Tim 2:4; Rom 5:8). Overall, we are not doomed to Hell for what we do but for what we don’t do. Jesus said, “every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven” (Mt 12:31). God can forgive past rebellion, no matter how intense or ugly – but He will not overlook a present prideful and closed-heart to follow the Holy Spirit.

• One gift that you can give God that He does not already have is your heart. Like Joseph and Mary, say “Yes” to God. What does saying “Yes!” to God look like specifically and practically in your life?

APPLY/THINK

The Gospel’s and NT record not just the birth of Jesus but the life of Jesus intersecting and interrupting the lives of the disciples and future generations.

Tim Keller says, “The message is ‘If Jesus Christ comes into your life, you are going to kiss your stellar reputation goodbye.’ And this is just Matthew 1. When we get to Matthew 2, Joseph will see that having Jesus in his life means not just damage to his social standing but also danger to his very life. What is the application to us? If you want Jesus in your life, it is going to take bravery… When you come to Christ, you must drop your conditions. You have to give up the right to say, ‘I will obey you if . . . I will do this if . . .’ As soon as you say, ‘I will obey you if,’ that is not obedience at all. You are saying: ‘You are my adviser, not my Lord. I will be happy to take your recommendations. And I might even do some of them.’ No. If you want Jesus with you, you have to give up the right to self‐determination. Self‐denial is an act of rebellion against our late‐modern culture of self‐assertion. But that is what we are called to. Nothing less.”[4]

The Christmas message reveals that the holidays and life are not about our agenda but to pause and ponder God’s assignment for each of us. Christmas starts with the Savior in a manger but it ends with Christ on the throne.

Who is on the throne of your life?

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[1] See lyrics of “Away In A Manger”

[2] Mounce, Robert H, Matthew, vol. 1 of New International Biblical Commentary, (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1991), 8.

[3] Insights from Fred H. Wight, Manners and Customs of Bible Lands, Chapter 14: Marriage Customs.

[4] Tim Keller, Hidden Christmas, p.56, 58.