More...Christmas Wonder!

... and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

Luke 2:18

Have you ever been amazed by anything?  I remember when our daughter was born. Seeing her beautiful face and 10 perfect fingers and 10 perfect toes seemed amazing to me. I didn’t question it, for babies have been born for centuries.  Yet it was still amazing that from my own body could come another completely intact and wonderful little human being who was completely her own person.

Sadly, today’s world culture often doesn’t stand in amazement for very long, if at all.  We resort to our knowledge of the world to explain away every day miracles. We prefer to not linger with incongruencies and that which defies explanation.  We miss the wonder of life itself often because of our need to know.I didn’t question it, for babies have been born for centuries. Yet it was still amazing that from my own body could come another completely intact and wonderful little human being who was completely her own person.

Today I’d like to take a look at the word thaumazō or “amazed,” as is found in our text today.  I like how the New King James Version interprets Luke 2:18 -  And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.”  Let’s place ourselves in the story, explore the wonder of it all and marvel as the shepherds and the people to whom they shared their amazement had.  Let’s learn to wonder and be amazed all over again.

It was certainly an ordinary night.  The sheep were grazing comfortably and the weather was agreeable for the season.  Just another night… Wait! What’s this? An angel? Whoa!! Suddenly the ragtag band of lowlife shepherds sprang to action.  Anything out of the ordinary was always cause for alarm because the sheep were so vulnerable. Just one misstep… But the sheep were fine.  And the angel was speaking, “Don’t be alarmed! I have great news to bring you tonight. It will bring you immense joy. It’s for all people everywhere but you must hear it first!”

It seemed so unlikely.  Nobody gave shepherds the time of day.  More often than not people would walk away to avoid them.  Nobody trusted shepherds with anything. But good news? For all people?

The angel continued.  “Today a Savior has been born in David’s city!  You will know you have found the right baby because it will be wrapped with strips of cloth and will be laid in a manger.”  Before the shepherds could even respond there were suddenly hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of angels who appeared with the original angel.  They all started speaking together. “Praise be to God who is above all! And may peace be with men of goodwill.”

Just as suddenly as thee angels had come, they were gone.  The shepherds continued to stare in astonishment until one of them suggested, “We should go to Bethlehem to find this baby just as Yahweh has told us.”  And they all knew where they were going. The angel had told them. Strips of cloth. Manger. Migdal Eder, the tower of the sheep. Another chimed in as they gathered the sheep, “What a strange place for a baby to be born!  The sacrificial lambs lambs are the ones born there and wrapped with strips of cloth to keep them from being damaged so they can be used in temple worship. But a baby? I’ve never heard of that before.”

The shepherds hurried as quickly as their sheep would allow.  Before long they reached Migdal Eder. And just as the angel had told them, they found a young couple inside, stretched out on the hay next to the manger where the holiest of lambs were born and laid.  In the manger was a beautiful, perfect child. The angel had told them the truth! The mother was so small, so young. She looked at the shepherds inquisitively. So they told of their experience. “There was this angel.  See? And he told us that we would find you here. And not only that but he told us your baby is the Savior! And then there were all these angels praising God because of your son. Could He be the Messiah we have waited for so long!”

The shepherds lingered for awhile.  When they finally departed back to their sheep they started talking wildly, “What does this mean?  A Savior?!”

“And born in the place of the sacrificial lambs!”  

“It doesn’t make sense.  But we were told by the angel and everything else he told us was true.”

“Have we seen Messiah?”

“Wow!  This is amazing!  Normally we aren’t told anything.  This is the best news ever!”

“Look!  Here’s comes the potter.  Let’s tell him about everything!”

The scenario played out again and again and again.  Everywhere the shepherds went they chattered about their amazing adventure.  And to a person, everyone marveled. There were so many incongruencies. But sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.  And so they entered in and wondered at everything the shepherds related to them, caught fully in astonishment.

Does the Christmas story still astonish you?  Or has it become too familiar? Allow yourself to enter into the shepherds story.  Be amazed! And find More of God in Christmas this year!

Reflections on Advent Part 3

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of 

woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, 

so that we might receive adoption as sons.  Galatians 4:4-5

Timing is everything.  You've heard the adage before.  And it's true for so many things.  If a baseball player's timing is off he will never hit the ball, a quarterback will never get the ball to his receiver, the ball won't roll under the windmill at the goofy golf park.  And we could go on and on and on.  If you've ever needed something from the store and you arrive moments before closing you might exclaim, "I arrived just in the nick of time!"  We've all been there at one point or another.

Here's the thing...timing is perhaps not more important anywhere than in the messiness of the Christmas story.  Talk about a comedy of errors!  But yet all according to a perfect plan!  Hundreds of prophecies dot the Old Testament, promises regarding the redeeming Messiah that would come to save His people, many regarding His birth.  Let's look at how timing plays into the fulfillment of these prophecies.

You have a young couple expecting their first child.  And not just any child, but one of royal, incarnate birth.  Mary is most likely in her ninth month of pregnancy when Caesar Augustus announces that everyone in the entire Roman empire needs to travel to their hometown to register (Luke 2:1-3).  Joseph's lineage required a trip back to Bethlehem from Nazareth.  Remember, Mary is in her ninth month.  When I was pregnant with my second child we lived in Flagstaff, AZ which sits at about 7000 ft. elevation.  I was probably in my eighth month when an opportunity came which required travel to Phoenix, which sits around 5000 ft. lower in elevation.  I was strictly prohibited from making that journey by my doctor.  I would imagine that any contemporary medical doctor would have insisted on making an exception to Caesar's order for a woman in her ninth month of pregnancy.  But in those days that wasn't an option for Mary and Joseph.  Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)  Caesar's declaration demanded action...no exceptions.  And so the young couple embarked on a three day journey to Bethlehem.  I can't imagine traveling 70+ miles by donkey in my ninth month of pregnancy!  Is it any wonder that Mary's need to give birth happens after such a long, arduous journey?

To make matters worse, there would have been quite a number of displaced individuals in Bethlehem in those days, I'm sure.  All traveling, according to the edict, to the town of their family origin.  Apparently Mary and Joseph arrived after many had already taken up the few empty beds in town.  They had no doubt spent a number of nights sleeping under the stars already but that would not suffice for the birth of a baby.  The accommodations they received, however, must have felt little better than those stars.  

They had arrived in a part of Israel that had hundreds of herds of sheep, and not just ordinary sheep.  Many, if not most, of the sheep raised around Bethlehem would have been bound for the temple as sacrificial lambs.  They would have been born either in or near Migdal Eder, the tower of the sheep.  The lambs once they were birthed would be wrapped in strips of cloth to protect them from blemish, since temple lambs were required to be perfect.  Does this sound familiar?  " And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths," Luke declares (Luke 2:7).  Swaddling clothes very well may have been these strips of cloth reserved for the sacrificial lambs.  Do you see the significance?

Jesus would have been part of the lineage of King David, thus necessitating the journey to Bethlehem, city of David's birth.  But rather than a royal birth, which most would have esteemed for the king of all kings, He was born in the humblest of all places.  God, in His infinitely wise plan, may have brought Mary and Joseph, perhaps, to the cleanliest of all stables, but a stable nonetheless.  And one which signified sacrificial death.

Without Caesar's order, Mary and Joseph most likely would have remained in Nazareth.  The timing of that command to register moved a series of events that brought the birth of Messiah to the very place (the very area at least) that the sacrificial temple lambs would have been born.  

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"

John 1:29b