A SAVIOR WRAPPED IN A BABY

Luke 2:1-20

INTRODUCTION:

That favorite old Christmas song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, is probably the most misunderstood of all of our traditional holiday music.  Most of us, who were raised in non-liturgical churches, think that the twelve days of Christmas must start on about the 13^th and culminate in Christmas Day.  After all, someone’s true love begins by giving a single partridge in a single pear tree and builds up to giving an entire percussion section of twelve drummers drumming.

 

In fact, the tradition of the twelve days of Christmas goes back to the middle ages and it marks that period between Christmas Day (December 25^th) and the Feast of Epiphany (January 5^th into January 6^th).  Epiphany was the time when the church of the Middle Ages celebrated the coming of the Magi to see Jesus.  (The fact is that it took the Magi more than twelve days to get from Persia, where they began their journey, to Bethlehem where, according to Scripture, they found the child [not “the baby”] in a house with Mary, his mother, and Joseph.  By this time, Jesus was probably between 18 months and 2 years of age.  But let’s not let the facts get in the way of our traditions, shall we.)

 

In the church of the Middle Ages, and, in many Latin cultures to this day, the Twelve Days of Christmas begin with the giving of small gifts on Christmas Day and finish with the giving of the most generous gifts on “All Kings’ Day” when the gifts of the Magi are remembered.

 

For most of us, not raised in such a liturgical tradition, the song, The Twelve Days of Christmas merely lists a litany of riotously inappropriate gifts given on twelve successive days of holiday celebration. 

 

Might I suggest to you, though, that in some ways, this song captures the true spirit of Christmas?  The true spirit of Christmas just may be inappropriate giving.  The best gifts, the most treasured gifts, are often impractical, extravagant and inappropriate gifts.  If you don’t believe that’s true, just give your wife a vacuum cleaner or a gift basket of Lysol products for Christmas.  People like to receive things they would never buy for themselves.

 

In that way, The Twelve Days of Christmas may capture the true spirit of Christmas because at the first Christmas, God gave us a most inappropriate gift.

 

God’s gift to us was:

I.                    GIVEN IN AN INAPPROPRIATE PLACE

Sometimes, the place where a gift is given can add to the impact of the gift.  I’ve heard of gifts given in dramatic places such as in a hot air balloon, at a ballpark, in a fancy restaurant or a peaceful park.

 

When I gave Sandy her engagement ring, lo these many years ago, I gave it to her in the library at the college we were attending and when her eyes got big and she looked like she might squeal, I went, “Sshhh” and reminded her that we were in the library and she must be quiet.  So she scooted out into the hallway and screamed.

 

If the place where the gift is given can add to the impact of the gift, Bethlehem seems an inappropriate place for God to give His gift to the world.

 

Bethlehem was an important place in the history of the Jewish people.

·         First identified with the name “Ephrath” in Genesis 35:19, Bethlehem was near the burial place of Jacob’s wife, Rachel.

·         Bethlehem was the home of Boaz.  It was in the fields east of Bethlehem that Ruth, the woman from Moab, would have gleaned grain to eek out a mere subsistence for herself and her mother-in-law, Naomi.  And it was in or near Bethlehem that Ruth would have married Boaz, in whose fields she had gleaned.

·         Bethlehem was also the hometown of Jesse, the father of David: Israel’s greatest king.  It was in the meadows near Bethlehem that David once watched his father’s flocks and it was in Bethlehem that the prophet Samuel anointed the boy David to be the successor to Saul as King of the Jews.

·         It was from the well at Bethlehem that three of King David’s most heroic men brought David a drink of water when he was hiding in the cave of Abdullam.

·         The prophet Micah had foretold that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem Ephratha. 

 

Yes, Bethlehem was historically significant to the Jewish people.  But by the time of Jesus, Bethlehem was insignificant in every other way.  It was not a commercial center.  It was not an artistic center.  It was not a seat of learning.  In fact, Bethlehem had become such an obscure village that, other than its location, almost nothing is known of it at the time of Christ. 

 

In fact, even though the census ordered by Caesar Augustus is the occasion that drew Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem before the birth of Jesus, we don’t even know what the population of the village would have been at that time.  We do know it was small and of no social consequence to the region.

 

But, as the prophet Micah had foretold, the little town of Bethlehem became the birthplace of the Messiah, God’s Son, our Savior.  Jerusalem would have been an appropriate place for the birth of the Messiah.  Rome would have been an appropriate place for the birth of a king.  The Greeks thought Mount Olympus was an appropriate place for the birth of a god.  But Bethlehem?!?!  God’s gift to mankind seems to have been given in an inappropriate place.

II.                  ANNOUNCED TO AN INAPPROPRIATE PEOPLE

Have you seen some of the cute birth announcements that people send out now?  I’ve found some really great ones on the internet.  And about 23 months ago, I received a very special one that announced: A Starr Is Born.

 

When new parents send out the birth announcements, typically, they want to let everyone know.  You can read birth announcements in the newspaper, hear them on the radio and sometimes even see them on the television.  Some hospitals play a chime or a line from Brahms’ “Lullaby” over the intercom every time a child is born.

 

God didn’t do it quite like that.  When God gave His gift in that inappropriate place, He announced it to inappropriate people. 

 

The Messiah’s birth might have been announced to the Jewish High Priest or to the Sanhedrin of the people…that would have made sense.  The birth of the King of the Jews might have been announced to the Caesar or to the Roman senate…I could have understood that.  But to announce the birth of Jesus to a clump of shepherds clustered on a hillside outside of Bethlehem?  That makes no sense…no sense at all.

 

Our nativity scenes have colored the shepherds in warm hues of romantic glow.  But at the time of the birth of Jesus, shepherds were outcasts.

·         They were religious outcasts because their obligations with the livestock out in the open range prevented them from going to the synagogues and the temple to make offerings, offer sacrifices and attend the services of worship.  They were religious outcasts.

·         Shepherds were social outcasts, too.  Respectable people didn’t usually get to know shepherds personally.  They were out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks instead of socializing in the marketplaces of the towns and villages.  They lived in the open air, slept in the open fields and rarely changed clothes.  Nice folk didn’t hang with shepherds.

·         Shepherds were also moral outcasts.  They could not keep the rites of purification nor the rituals of feasts and fasts.  Plus, the writings of the times show that there were lots of rumors and innuendo about what shepherds were doing among the sheep when no one else was around.  Shepherds were moral outcasts.

 

So in spite of the way we have imbued the shepherds with a wispy cloud of sentimentality, the fact of the matter is that they were very inappropriate people to receive God’s birth announcement that first Christmas night.

III.                PRESENTED IN AN INAPPROPRIATE WRAPPING

But of all the inappropriate, improper and improbable facts about the gift God gave that first Christmas, the most inappropriate was the gift-wrap He used.

 

Some gifts can be a real challenge to wrap!  I’ve tried to wrap tricycles, bicycles and skateboards.  I’ve tried to wrap three trombones and a saxophone…not in the same package.  I’ve never tried to wrap a puppy but I’ve known people who did.  But think of this: how do you wrap God?

 

God’s gift to humankind came wrapped in a baby!

 

Think of it. 

·         The eternal God who has no beginning and who will have no end came to earth in the body of a baby! 

·         The almighty God whose might has no equal and whose power knows no limits came into this world in the form of an infant. 

·         The Creator of the heavens and the earth, of the principalities and powers, of time and space, the Creator of life, itself…That God of creation came into His creation in the shape of a little child.

 

Usually, the purpose of wrapping a gift is to hide the contents and at the same time build anticipation of receiving it. 

 

I’ve used some pretty large boxes for fairly small gifts just so I could confuse the one who was to receive the present.  I’ve tried to be creative in how I wrap large gifts so as to mislead the one whose name is on the present.

 

We wrap the gifts so they will not be recognized for what they are and then we put them in plain sight underneath a lighted tree in a prominent place in our home so we can build anticipation in the one who is to receive the gift.  If you watch, you may see someone sneak over and lift the present; study it; shake it; try to see through the wrapping, all to try to unlock the mystery of the gift.

 

God wrapped His gift in an unlikely covering and then hid it in plain sight.  He had already told us where the Messiah was to be born but people missed the gift because they’d forgot the clue.

 

And to this day, some people miss God’s gift to them because it seems so improbable, almost impossible that God came to us in a baby.  Improbable?  Yes.  Inappropriate?  Probably.  But impossible?  Not at all because that’s exactly what God did.

CONCLUSION:

As I said before, ultimately, the most treasured gifts are often the most inappropriate because they are the kinds of things we would never buy for ourselves…or could never buy for ourselves. 

 

Over 2000 years ago, God sent you His gift – a gift you could not get for yourself but a gift you may receive today.  God gave the world a child and this inappropriate wrapping covered the most inappropriate gift ever given: salvation for people who don’t deserve it. 

 

What do you say to the Giver today?   Will you accept His gift or will you refuse to receive it? 

 

INVITATION:            #272:1,3,4 – “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks”

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