Meditations in Luke – December 22, 2008

Luke 2:1-20

I can hardly believe what I read. Luke goes on to tell us about how Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem and had the baby. Then he throws this on at the end: “She wrapped [her baby] in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (7). I can’t believe this! They couldn’t find a room in Bethlehem so they stayed the night in someone’s barn. And they laid the Messiah, the Savior of God’s people, in a probably stinky and dirty feeding trough. Is there something wrong with this picture?! What kind of crib is this for a king?! What kind of crib is this for the King of Kings – the Lord?!

I am reminded of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians:

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; and the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of this world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord’” (1 Cor. 1:18-31).

What an amazing explanation of what is going on here in Luke. Celebrating the Son of God, the Messiah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who has a feeding trough in a barn for his crib is much like worshipping the Son of God, the Messiah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who was murdered on a cross like a criminal. This, I think, is one of the lowly and despised things that God has chosen to display his wisdom to those who will be shamed by its seeming foolishness. Notice in the passage above the reason Paul gives for God displaying his wisdom like this: “so that no one may boast before him” and so that we might be left with nothing to boast in except the Lord. Incredible.

This is exactly what happens after Jesus is born in Luke’s story. God in his wisdom sends angels not to the houses of the most influential people in town or the mayor or the effective communicators or the teachers and rabbis; but he sends the angels to tell the shepherds sitting out in the fields watching their sheep. He heralds the good news to what society would consider a bunch of dirty fleabags who probably weren’t educated or skilled at communicating, teaching, etc. He sends the angels with the good news to the lowly and despised! Think about this! You’re a shepherd sitting on a hill or in a field and an angel comes to you and says: the Savior, the promised Messiah, the Anointed One, the king who will resume David’s throne has been born tonight; he’s over there in so-and-so’s barn lying in a feeding trough. Even the shepherds must have wondered about this…the Messiah is lying in a feeding trough?!

So they go and find it just as the angels told them! And there is no way they can be prideful about this! There is no sense in which they can say, “I have seen the Messiah and you haven’t, nana nana boo boo!” There is no room for boasting in this. Have you ever thought about this, that the shepherds are going door to door late at night telling people that the new King and Savior of Israel is over in so-and-so’s barn lying in his feeding trough!? You shepherds must be out of your minds! You must be mad!...The good news is simultaneously the powerful wisdom of God and the utter foolishness of society! As a result the shepherds have nothing of themselves to boast about; they are left with no one else to magnify but God. So as soon as they finish waking the whole town with this ridiculous message, they return to the barn “glorifying and praising God for the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told” (20).

I remember a time in my life where I was hesitant in my faith. I was slow to believe all that God has said because I held the opinions and perceptions of my friends in high regard. I remember trying to show my non-Christian friends how “attractive” Christianity was in that I could be a Christian and have the same fun that they can have. I was careful not to step on their toes in sharing my faith because I didn’t want to offend them. The gospel I lived was my highly refined and polished version of the story that left out all of the silly and ridiculous parts. I was sub-consciously ashamed of the message because I had too much invested in the approval and acceptance of my peers. What a foul compromise! I had exchanged the glory, wisdom, and power of the good news for being liked by my friends.

I remember myself waiting for the “opportunity” to share the truth about Christ with my non-Christian friends. What that really meant in my heart was waiting for the moment in which the foolishness of the message seemed palatable to my friends. But God has not called us to judge when the soil is ready and when it is not. He has called us to proclaim the gospel, to go out into the harvest field, to sow and to water and to leave the growth and the results up to him. It seems like we sometimes expect God to save our non-Christian friends before we tell them the gospel. But have we forgotten this word? “How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news’” (Rom. 10:14-15)!

Father, please be gracious to us in North America and keep us in the truth. Help us to be faithful to the foolishness of the good news! Help us to renounce our own sinful desires to proclaim a message that is wise and winsome in the world’s eyes. God, help us to overcome the snare of compromise. It’s the foolish message of the cross and the trough that is the power and wisdom of God unto salvation for those you have called. Help us to be faithful to your Word. We thank you and praise you that you have revealed these things to us and that our celebration this Christmas magnifies a King with a feeding trough for a crib proclaimed by shepherds on that wonderful night over 2000 years ago! Amen.