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Bethlehem is the place—of all places that God could choose to enter into our world—where God became a part of our history! It’s there that the story begins, with the birth of God’s son, Jesus. And, it’s there that our understanding of who God is begins as well…
Who is this Jesus? Why is it so important that we come to know him … and deeply? What difference will it make in our lives? Just listen to what the Apostle Paul had to say to a church, not unlike ours—the church at Colossae…
“We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created.
16 For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.
17 He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment.
18 And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone.
19 So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding.
20 Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the Cross.” – Colossians 1:15:20 (MSG)
“Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God….” – Colossians 1:15a (TEV) Jesus, folks, is the portal out of which an understanding of God comes—that mirror that reflects God Himself! If we want to get to know God, we have to get to know Jesus—the real Jesus whose eyewitness accounts are found in the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke & John…
GOSPEL: That term is not an original with Christianity, you know. Gospel isn’t a word the writers of the first part of the New Testament invented. Jesus grew up in a world that was dominated by Rome. The Emperor at the time (mentioned only once in our Bible—to set the date of Jesus’ birth) was a man by the name of Augustus and under his rule great HOPE wafted through the Roman Empire. That’s what kind of a leader Augustus was; he raised expectations of what a leader could accomplish and what a society could achieve. And, it was Augustus who first borrowed the Greek word for “Gospel” (Good News)–εὐαγγέλιον … and applied it as a label for the new world order represented by his reign. The world declared him a god and established rites of worship; his enlightened & stable regime, many believed, would last forever (little did they know)…
This was the world out of which the Gospel writers took the word ‘Gospel’ (Good News) to refer not to Augustus’ new world order … but the new world order being established by the Messiah who had come to earth. In an obscure little corner of Augustus’ empire, the birth of a little baby boy by the name of Jesus was overlooked by the news people of the day; His birth didn’t make the headlines! Instead, we know him through the four books written by eyewitnesses years after his death, at a time when less than one-half of one percent of the Roman Empire had ever heard of him. So, the Gospel writers borrowed the Greek word for Gospel from the Emperor—who borrowed it from the Greeks, to talk about a newer world order being established by a fairly unknown King—Jesus. He was God, shrunk down into the little body of a human baby, humbly entering our history, approachable to a fault, an underdog if I’ve ever seen one, and as courageous a move of rescue as this world has ever known…
By the way, those are the 4 words that come to my mind, as I think about who Jesus is today. If Jesus came to reveal God to us, then what do we learn about God from that first Christmas—God coming to visit our planet? These words hardly seem appropriate for deity, but when I think about the answer to that question, these are the words that come to mind:
HUMBLE. God humbled himself… Before Jesus, almost no pagan author had used ‘humble’ as a compliment! Did you know that? This almost seems like an oxy-moron: a humble God… But, the fact is—as Dr. Bob Tuttle always reminded me, God squeezed himself into the body of a little bitty baby … so that we could come to know Him!
Have you ever sat through a beautiful rendition of Handel’s Messiah … when a full chorus is singing, “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed?” What images come to your mind? For first century Christians—many of whom were converts from Judaism, I’m just guessing that they thought back with sharp nostalgia to the glory days of Solomon, when (as it’s recorded) “the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones.”
Today, this line from the Messiah might conjure up an image of England’s royalty and the ‘crown jewels.’ What does ‘the glory of the Lord’ conjure up in your mind?
When God showed up on this planet, it was a different kind of glory that was revealed, wasn’t it? It was ‘the glory of humility.’ Our God humbled himself … so that he could come to us, so that we could get to know him, and be saved… GOD ALSO CAME TO US AS…
APPROACHABLE. God made Himself approachable… To my way of thinking, this may be the most incredible thing that God did for us; he loved us this much… Those of us raised in a tradition of informal or private prayer may not appreciate the change Jesus wrought in how human beings approach deity: In most religious traditions, in fact, FEAR is the primary emotion when one approaches God…
- Hindus offer sacrifices at the temple…
- Muslims bow down so low that their foreheads touch the ground…
- Even for Jews, fear was usually associated with worship: a person ‘blessed’ with a direct encounter with God expected to come away scorched or glowing or maybe half-crippled like Jacob … and these were the fortunate ones…
But, not so in Christianity; Jesus came to change all of that…
Let me share with you this simple illustration to explain: Have any of you ever had an aquarium before? I never realized that an aquarium could be such a daunting task! It’s like running a portable chemical lab to monitor it, so that your fish will be healthy—especially if it’s a salt-water aquarium. You have to give your fish all that they need in order for them to survive. You have to feed them—the right food and the right amount. You have to keep their environment—the water—clean and healthy. You have to filter it … and you have to keep up with the filters. You’d think—in view of all the time & energy expended on their behalf—that the fish you care for would at least be grateful wouldn’t you?
Not so… Every time your shadow looms above the tank, the fish usually dive for cover … into the nearest shell or whatever (unless you’re Evan the Almighty, of course). Usually the fish show only one emotion to the one caring for them: FEAR. Although you open the lid, drop the food in on a regular schedule, they respond to each visit as a sure sign that the one caring for them is really there to torture them. You always have trouble convincing fish … of your true concern.
To your fish … you are DEITY. You are too large for them, your actions to incomprehensible. Your acts of mercy they see as cruelty; your attempts at healing they view as destruction. To change their perception would require a form of incarnation. You would have to become a fish … and speak to them in a language that they could understand… Are you beginning to understand who Jesus is now? Are you beginning to see who God really is … and how much God really loves us? God made himself … APPROACHABLE. Unbelievable, isn’t it? Here are a couple more things God did for us through Jesus: This word comes to mind…
UNDERDOG. God favored the underdog… I hesitate to use this word in reference to Jesus, because it probably came from the act of dog fighting and was applied over time to predictable losers and victims of injustice… Yet, as I read the birth stories of Jesus from the Gospel, how God came to visit our planet and enter into our history, and I cannot help but conclude that … though the world may be tilted toward the rich and powerful, God is tilted toward the underdog!
Do you remember Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:51-52, TEV)? “He has stretched out his mighty arm and scattered the proud with all their plans. 52 He has brought down mighty kings from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.” Growing up, Jesus’ sensibilities were affected most deeply by the poor, the powerless, the oppressed—in short, the underdogs. AND FINALLY, the word…
COURAGEOUS. God showed great courage from the time he entered into our history (incarnation) … to the time he left (ascension). Folks, if another pastor from our community—a pastor who you had known of for awhile, born of regular parents and not necessarily anything special by birth, began to claim that they were the long-awaited Messiah who was going to save the world … how would you react? And, along with that, several people began to follow closely, to back this person’s claim up, to as much as worship this individual making such a claim, how would you react?
I’m guessing that some would laugh out loud. I’m guessing that some would say things like: “Who is that person trying to kid? Who do they think they are?” If that would be your reaction to such an incredible local event as this, then you’re in good company. Because this is the way that many reacted to Jesus…
In other words, it took great courage for God to humble himself in the way that he did—to lay aside his power & glory and to take a place among regular human beings … who would greet him with the same mixture of doubt, haughtiness and skepticism that we might greet someone from our own community making the same claim. It took great courage for God to become so common—born as a normal poor person of Jesus’ day would be born—without much fanfare and in incredibly humble surroundings. And, it took even greater courage to decide to ‘play by humanity’s rules’ for a time—even unto death … for our sake, I might add…
Who is Jesus to you? The Christ of Christmas was God, come to visit our planet and enter into our history. When we get to know Jesus, we indeed get to know God—humble, approachable, a lover of the underdog, and courageous as all get out… He loves us enough to go through an incarnation like this! Who is Jesus? Folks, He is One who loves you … more than you’ll ever know!