‘Behold, the Lamb
of God’
ide
o amnos tou theou
College Study
98th teaching
2.2.2015
“the Incarnation”
Turn to Luke 2:1-7.
“And
it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that
all the world should be registered. This census first took place while
Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his
own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into
Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the
house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who
was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed
for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped
Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room
for them in the inn.”
What we are looking at here is the completion
of an age-long project. This is “the Incarnation” and we shall take that great and
simple word as the title for our study tonight.
This is the culmination of a carefully
managed, carefully and even divinely guided masterpiece, the closing stanza of
a song that has echoed from before time began, the finale of a miracle that all
of human history had been painstakingly moving toward. This account, ladies and
gentlemen, contained in these few short verses represents all the hope and
anticipation of humanity fulfilled. This is, at long last, the birth of the
fulfillment of promises, the fulfillment of all the longing of the Old
Testament, this is the Seed of the Woman, this is the blessing through Abraham,
this is the mystery of the prophets, the Child born unto us who’s name would be
called Wonderful, Counselor, Almighty, God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of peace, this is the One like the Son of Man, the Dayspring, the long-awaited
Messiah, the Savior, the Redeemer, the “Immanuel”. Everything that has come
before this moment of the birth of this Child has been guided by the hand of
God’s Providence to bring this one Child into the world.
Recognize the unprecedented significance
of what we’re looking at here. If this moment never happened, there could be no
songs of freedom, no churches of God, no entrance into heaven, no peace with
God, no friendship of believers, no Christianity, no comfort and no hope for
our sinful souls. With the birth of this one Child, everything changes. This
moment is the moment upon which all history opens and closes, swings like the hinge
of a door.
The word “Incarnation” comes to us
from 12th century Latin incarnationem,
a compound word from two words: in- which
still meant “in” and carnis which
meant “flesh”. So the word Incarnation is a unique word that means “in flesh”.
Literally, it means the “embodiment of God in the person of Christ”. Incarnation
is an action, it is the act of making flesh. It is infinity being focused into
a finite form. It is a Mind more complex than the universe coming and dwelling
in the gray tissue and liquid of one human skull. It is never-ending Life
coming and living among humanity in the form of a Man. It is giving flesh to
what was for eternity past flesh-less: the immaterial Spirit of God. The birth
of this one Child is unspeakably wonderful. Not only did this birth change
history—heck it changed the way we count the years with BC and AD—but this
birth was unlike any other birth before.
And yet it has come too late for
Christmas.
A while back, getting toward the end
of last year, I was eye-balling the calendar and eye-balling the opening
chapters of Luke’s gospel thinking to myself: “Self, wouldn’t it be great if
you managed it just right so that you covered Luke chapter 2 verses 1 through 7
right before Christmas?” And you
know, what that would’ve been great, but it didn’t happen that way. Here we are
in February just barely cracking open the second chapter of Luke and getting
into the “Christmas story”.
But in retrospect, I’m glad it worked
out this way. It’s better, perhaps, that we approach the subject of the Incarnation,
God-made-flesh, without all of the dazzle and lights and traditions and
long-overheard songs and hymns and carols and fuzzy-feelings and warm,
well-meaning catch-phrases of the Christmas season and rather approach the
subject as Luke himself, the writer, approached the subject: without hardly any
pre-conceived notions, certainly without any long-running layers of tradition
and religion, but just as a basic fact of history.
Take all the images in your head of
nativity scenes and throw them out. Take all the cheery pictures of the cute
little baby nestled in that perfect crib of golden hay and throw that out. Since
it is February, then, we have the rare chance of glimpsing the Christmas birth
of Christ without all the baggage of Christmas as a holiday with all that that entails and simply looking at Luke’s
very streamlined, historical account of the birth of Christ. February gives us
a perfect chance to see only Christ in Christmas, to look beyond the
hullaballoo of “the Christmas story” and get down to the heart of the matter
beneath all of the carols and traditions and lights.
Don’t be dumb enough to think I’m
anti-Christmas. I’m not. But there’s a long of peripheral stuff, the “stuff” of
religion, religious, liturgical and traditional “stuffs” that have built up
around this story through the years. We get an opportunity now to look beneath all
of that.
Luke gives us the perfect account of
it. Consider these seven verses from a distance before we get down into them.
Looking at them, what do you see? This is the birth of Christ. We talked about
it several weeks ago that the real miracle was not the Virgin Birth but more
appropriately the Virgin Conception. In other words, the historical fact that a
young Jewish girl named Mary somehow conceived this Child in her virgin womb, without any normal sexual contact, is
the real miracle, and not the simple (or not so simple) passing of that Child
at His birth.
So what do we see then in Luke’s
account of the birth of Christ? You’ve got two historical figures: Caesar
Augustus and Quirinius the governor of Syria. You’ve got two ordinary human
beings: Joseph and his betrothed wife Mary. You’ve got two real, historical
cities that are still there today: Nazareth and Bethlehem. You’ve got a real,
historical event: the census under Quirinius. You’ve got a human pregnancy
coming to term in a normal time: “the days
were completed for her to be delivered” would be senseless for Luke to
write unless he meant that this is about 9 months after the miraculous
conception.
What are you left with? A clean,
streamlined, sleek historical account without anything that could remotely be
pointed to as “legend” or “mythology” or “embellishment” or “supernatural”. There
are no angels there in that manger. There are no wise men, no Magi in Luke’s
account (and Matthew mentions them only as coming to Christ later, after His
birth). There’s no star to be followed. There’s no glowing light emanating from
the Newborn God-child. There’s no immaculate chorus. There’s none of that. All
the “stuff” of religion that has built up around Christmas over time is gone
from the Lukan account and all you’re left with is just Christ Himself. Don’t
miss the simplicity, the realism and the historicity of these verses. This is
not a myth. This is a record.
v.1,
First question: “Who is Caesar Augustus”? Good question. Glad you asked.
Turns out, Caesar Augustus is a better
big name to name. He was a bigger name than Herod the great. He had such an
effect upon history and the Romans that we still feel the effect of his life
today, once a year. Care to guess how?
Because the name of the eighth month
on our calendar—August—gets its name from this man, Caesar Augustus. I don’t
think we can underestimate the importance and the influence of this one leader.
Born Gaius Octavius on the 23rd
of September in 63 AD, he would become the heir of an emperor. When Julius
Caesar (yeah, the Julius Caesar), the
great-uncle of Octavius, was assassinated, Julius’ will named Octavius as his
adopted son and heir. Octavius defeated the assassins of his uncle, destroyed
his own rivals for power, including Mark Antony and Cleopatra, reorganized the
Roman Republic and restored the laws of the state, built a network of roads
that could link the cities of the empire, established the Praetorian guard,
rebuilt the city of Rome, assumed supreme military command, called himself
Princeps Civitatis (First Citizen of the State) and effectively ushered in the
Pax Romana (the Roman Peace) a span of 206 that saw relative peace and
stability for Rome. He had quite a resume.
Eventually this man had risen to such
power that he shed the name of his birth and adopted the name Augustus which
can mean “illustrious one”, which according to historian Werner Eck was a title
of religious authority rather than political authority. It was a title that put
him above a mere man, that symbolized his authority over humanity and over
nature beyond any constitutional definition of his status of power. He also
transformed the word Caesar into a
new family line with himself at its head. Thus he went from Gaius Octavius, the
man, to Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus, a new name which loosely meant
Victorious Conqueror Caesar Son of the Divine, the Illustrious One He literally
adopted a name for himself that meant Son of God, since had become the adopted
son of Julius Caesar, who had already been deified as a god himself.
So I find it incredibly fascinating
the kind of juxtaposition we’re getting here in Luke: a contrast between two
human beings who claimed to be the son of God. They could not be more
different, even though they made the same claim.
Consider that Caesar Augustus, a
world-famous ruler, called himself the son of God and kept that title for
himself. Jesus Christ, an obscure and wandering teacher, called himself the son
of God but gives the right to become children of God to those who believe in
His name (John 1:12). Caesar
Augustus rose to a position where he had many servants and people under him.
Jesus Christ came into the world not to be served but to serve (Mark 10:45). Caesar Augustus dined with
wealthy senators, politicians, military commanders, foreign leaders and
dignitaries. Jesus Christ broke bread with sinners and prostitutes and the
despised and the uneducated and the outcast. Caesar Augustus was born as Octavius
into a wealthy and respected family of Roman Knights. Jesus Christ was born
into a poor family from a little country-town, to a man who was a carpenter and
a woman who probably bore the brunt of suspected infidelity for the rest of her
life. Caesar Augustus accumulated great wealth and power. Jesus Christ had no
place even to lay his own head at night and He gave His power to His disciples
through the Holy Spirit. Caesar Augustus died at the age of 75, an old man,
under suspicion of being poisoned by his wife Livia. Jesus Christ, died at the
age of 33, a young man who gave laid His life down for the lives of humanity.
This passage we’ve read begins and
ends then with two possibilities for the “son of God” title: either the proud, wealthy,
respected tyrant Caesar Augustus or the humble Shepherd-King, Jesus. In a
sense, the system of the world put up its best candidate and God Himself put up
His own best candidate for the title. You choose between the two.
One more note on Augustus before we
move on. Why would God allow a man like that to achieve so much power and
prestige and wealth in the world? Why would God allow a man like Augustus, so
proud, to have so much authority? Augustus was no saint. He was a
self-worshiping warlord. So why put a man like that into authority, if indeed “there is no authority except from God, and
the authorities that exist are appointed by God” (Romans 13:1) is true?
Answer: Because God had a problem. Not
an insurmountable problem. God doesn’t have those. But a problem that needed to
be solved. The problem was this: the Messiah, the Savior, the Christ had to be
born in Bethlehem. According to the prophet Micah, the city of Bethlehem would
be the birthplace of the Messiah. Micah
5:2 says “But you, Bethlehem
Ephrathah [a word meaning Fruitfulness],
though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come
forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old,
from everlasting [literally: from the days of eternity].” The
Messiah-Ruler, One who existed from eternity past, the King of the Jews (the
inscription that hung over the cross), was to be a figure who would arise out
of Bethlehem.
Ah but Luke has already told us that
Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth in Galilee, almost 70 miles away from
Bethlehem. So, God, how do you get the parents of your Messiah down to the
right place at the right time to fulfill the prophecy? Now Since He is God, He’s
got an endless amount of options to choose from. He could simply send another
angel, maybe Gabriel again, to simply tell Joseph and Mary that they’ve got to
be in Bethlehem and bring the hot water ‘cause the baby’s coming. Or he could
have supernaturally transported, teleported them from Nazareth to Bethlehem
like he did with the disciple Philip in Acts. Or he could set it up for them to
meet up with family in Bethlehem. Or he could have come up with anything
really.
But notice the choice God makes to get
Joe and Mary down to Bethlehem. God goes for the biggest, most elaborate and
complex plan: cause a man named Gaius Octavius to be born in 63AD as the
great-nephew of Julius Caesar, a man named Octavius who would be carried along
by destiny and by his own pride to eventually become the most powerful man in
the world: Caesar Augustus, who’s pride would decree at the exact timing that
God needed the decree for a census of all the world: a counting of the citizens
of the empire for a measurement of its vastness and glory, which at the same
time would trigger massive Jewish revolts since a census was against Jewish law.
In simpler terms, God put Augustus into authority (according to Romans 13:1) because just such a man in
authority would indirectly accomplish the will of God and allow prophecy to be
fulfilled. A proud Caesar was needed and God created just such a man who would
have just such a pride, Caesar Augustus. There are so many other ways, simpler
ways, God could have got those two down to Bethlehem, but he chose a vastly
complex means to accomplish His goal.
In our politically charged atmosphere
of modern America, even in terms of our relations to foreign authorities, this
stark and shocking biblical truth of God’s providence should bring us immense
comfort. It is not a mistake, biblically speaking, that Barak Obama, Kim
Jong-un, Benjamin Netanyahu or the king of Saudi Arabia are in power today, nor
has it ever been a mistake, biblically speaking, for any ruler, tyrant or
despot or benevolent leader, to be in power and authority, since all authority
is appointed by God. That never means that God condones or causes everything
that human authorities do. It does not mean that human authorities cannot make
mistakes. They do make mistakes, but it is no mistake of God’s providence that
they’re there to make those mistakes. It means that God is never surprised. He
was not surprised when Obama was elected for a second term. He didn’t hold a
pity-party because the Republicans didn’t win. Nor will He be surprised at the
outcome of the next presidential election.
Proverbs
21:1 says “The king’s heart is in the
hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.”
Psalm 2 describes the kings of the
earth, human authorities, plotting and counseling with themselves against the
LORD and it says that God shall simply laugh. All the big-shots calling the
shots around the world today, God simply laughs at them, knowing that they are
there ultimately to fulfill whatever final purpose God may have, if even
through their own human wickedness that God might use what was meant for evil
and turn it into good.
v.2-3,
Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, also known to history as Cyrenius, was a Roman
aristocrat who was later appointed governor of Syria, which included the
province of Judea at the time.
Luke is inadvertently giving us the
date of his narrative here by linking his account of the birth of Christ to
this real, historical event of the census under Quirinius. The Jewish
historian, for example, describes the census as causing an uprising and the beginning
of the Zealot movement which culminated in the First Jewish-Roman War. The
current issue with this census and its timing is that a comparison of Luke and
Matthew and other historical records raise some problems.
This census under Quirinius would
place the birth of Christ around the year 6 or 7, whereas the Gospel of Matthew
does not mention the census but indicates Christ’s birth occurred in the days
of Herod the king. But if that’s Herod the great, then he died in the year 4,
before the census occurred. So either Luke or Matthew is wrong. Furthermore, it
seems to be unusual in history for any census to occur which required the taxed
to travel to their hometowns, nor are there any historical sources that mention
a census of the entire Roman population.
It’s problematic, even though it gives
us a rough estimate of the date of the birth of Christ. Obviously, I don’t want
to spend the rest of my time preaching on the technicalities of history, but
here are a few possible suggestions to reconcile the situation.
a. What if the Herod in Matthew’s
gospel was not Herod the great, but his heir instead?
b. What if historians don’t know
about any general census of the entire Roman population because no record has
been discovered yet, or all the records have been destroyed?
c. What if this census in Luke is a
unique census that did require the taxed, even if only in the land of Israel,
to return to their hometowns? It’s unprecedented but not impossible.
d. What if the decree and the census
are two different events: the decree taking place in Herod’s days bringing Joseph
and Mary to Bethlehem in the year 4 and then the actual census occurring some
time later in the year 6 or 7?
There are simply too many
possibilities to outright dismiss this account as unhistorical.
v.4-5,
Joseph was a good man. We know that because when he found out about the
conception of this Child within his betrothed wife, he was going to divorce her
quietly rather than subject her to open shame until he found out that it was a
miracle and not a case of adultery. We also know he was a good man because he
was a law abiding citizen. He did not resist authority, even the authority of a
wicked man like Caesar Augustus, but was subject to governing authorities a la Romans 13:1. Did he need to obey? Well,
yes in order to fulfill the prophecy. But understand that as a man in those
times there was uprising and revolt happening. The Jewish Zealots were
assassins and fighters who wanted to kick Rome out of Judea by force. Joseph
could have easily been swept up in the mad passion of resisting authority, even
the wicked authority of Caesar, and inadvertently resist the very orchestrating
hand of God setting up the fulfillment of prophecy.
Joseph shows his mettle here. He
demonstrates his character as civilly obedient and thereby obedient to the hand
of God. Mary also demonstrates what kind of woman she is. Not one mention of
her nagging Joseph on the way is to be found. But if any woman had the right to
nag, it would be Mary on that day.
Nazareth, again, is almost 70 miles
north of Bethlehem. Pregnant women have a heck of a time just getting up and
down the stairs, not to mention trekking across the country right before they
give birth to their child. Yet in one man’s civil obedience and in one woman’s
acceptance of her discomfort, the Child that would redeem the world was born.
Imagine if Joseph had faltered
politically and said “No, I’m not going all that distance” or if Mary had
faltered relationally to her husband and said “No, I’m not going all that
distance”. God is not looking for people who say “No” but for people who will
say “Yes, I will go”.
v.6-7,
Again, cast as far from your mind as you can the images of the warm, clean
mangers with the cuddly animals looking on at baby Jesus as He’s lying there
glowing on the perfect bed of hay. Religious tradition has a way of “cleaning”
up the reality of things. Reality: there would be blood. Everywhere. Reality:
animals would be making noise and defecating and eating and smelling up everything.
Everywhere. Mary’s head wouldn’t be glowing with a halo, it would be glistening
with the sweat of exhaustion.
This was a barn, it was filthy.
Animals lived there. It wasn’t fit for humans. How could it possibly be fit for
the birth of Christ, the Savior of the world? Yet what a profound statement of
the “real” humanity that Christ came with. All these fuzzy-feeling images of
nativity scenes somehow take away from the shocking humiliation of being born
under such circumstances by glorifying the whole scene and at the same time
distancing the Newborn Christ from the reality of His life of humiliation and
humility. He did not come to be served or pampered, to be portrayed in images
as glowing, to make the heart warm with the Christmas-feeling.
Jesus Christ, of all people ever born,
uniquely was born to die. The shadow of His cross stretched across time and
touched His cradle. Note the similarities between His birth and His death: at
His birth He was wrapped with swaddling cloths, at His death He was wrapped
with strips of linen; at His birth, nobody was there except for a few shepherd;
at His death, nobody was there except for a few faithful, His disciples had
fled; at His birth, He was surrounded by animals; at His death, He was
surrounded by men who acted like animals, thieves and torturers; at His birth,
He was lain in a manger where animals ate their food, at His death, He wanted
to be remembered by eating bread that represented His body; at His birth, He
was lain where nobody else had lain in a manger, at His death, He was lain
where nobody else had lain in a fresh tomb; at His birth, He was covered in
blood; at His death, He was covered in blood; He was born in humiliation, He
died in humiliation; and strikingly: He voluntarily chose to be born in such a
way, and He voluntarily laid His own life down to die in such a way.
My final question is this: Why were
they there? Why had they come all this way and traveled to Bethlehem and ended
up in a dirty manger. The text tells us “because
there was no room for them in the inn”. But wait a minute, forget the inn!
Wasn’t this Bethlehem? Aren’t we to
suppose that they went there because that’s where Joseph and his family was
from, “being of the house and lineage of
David”? If that’s the case, have you ever asked yourself where was Joseph’s
family? If they were from Bethlehem, then why stay in a barn or an inn, why not
stay with relatives?
Is it possible that Joseph’s line had
died out and he had no relatives living any longer in Bethlehem? Were they away
for Christmas vacation? Or is it more plausible that he had relatives there but
that they told him there was no room with them, even as there was no room in
the inn, because his betrothed wife
Mary was with child under suspicion of adultery?
If so, then it’s not only that there
wasn’t any room in the inn, a commercial business that could indeed run out of
rooms to rent out, but it’s also that Joseph’s own family turned him away
because of the unborn Child in his wife’s womb, a Child that admittedly was not
His own. There wasn’t any room in the inn, and there wasn’t any room in the
hearts of Joseph’s family. And that’s why they ended up in that cold and dirty
place for the birth of the Savior of the world, ostracized not only from
society but from their own family. The most amazing thing had just occurred!
Something the world had never seen before: the Incarnation! God in the flesh!
But there was no room for the Maker in the world that He had made.
Our world today has plenty of room for
alternative worldviews: plenty of room for homosexuality, plenty of room for
transgender expression, plenty of room for religious freedom and acceptance of
Islam and Mormonism and tribalism and Hinduism and Shintoism, and the words of
Buddha, Confucius, the Mahabharata and astrology, plenty of room for
philosophies of all shapes and colors and sizes, plenty of room for the books
of preachers and teachers and cultists and doctors and priests and scholars and
monks, plenty of room for Satan, plenty of room for pleasure and wealth and the
accumulation of both, and yes, even plenty of room of the warm-hearted fuzzy,
feel-good pictures of Jesus Christ there born in that immaculate manger, plenty
of room for the simple songs and the bright lights of Christmas. But there is
no room for a dying Messiah, the Bearer of the cross, the One who puts His finger
right on your sin and mine so heavily as to demonstrate the sincerity of His
love by dying grotesquely crucified. There is no room for that kind of talk of us all being so desperately sinful that the
only last and final hope was to send the very Son of God to be brutalized in
our place. Oh there’s plenty of room for the cheery cradle and yes even the
wise words of Jesus, but not for the dying Savior, not for the garish cross,
not for the blood that says “You are so hopelessly wicked and evil that this is your only cure, this is your
only salvation, faith in the shed blood of the crucified!”
Ladies and gentlemen, it is as much a
fact of history that He was born that He died. It’s already done. You can’t
stop Him from dying. You can’t change that fact of history. The only thought we
can have on His death is whether to accept it or not. The only thought we can
bring to the table is whether we’re going to make any room for Jesus in our
hearts, unlike society, unlike the inns of the world.
Is there room in your heart for the
Dayspring? Is there room in your life to serve Him? Is there room in your soul
to worship Him? Is there room in your friendships to talk about Him? Is there
room in your time to learn more about Him? Is there room in your aspirations to
dream of being with Him?
Is there any room for Jesus?
He Who died on Calvary,
He Who standeth, knocking, waiting,
Pleading with you tenderly.
He Who died on Calvary,
He Who standeth, knocking, waiting,
Pleading with you tenderly.
Room for Jesus,
room for Jesus,
Let Him in your heart today,
Throwing every window open,
O receive Him while you may.
Let Him in your heart today,
Throwing every window open,
O receive Him while you may.
We have room for worldly pleasures,
Cares of life crowd every day,
And our hearts and minds are burdened
While the Lord is turned away.
Cares of life crowd every day,
And our hearts and minds are burdened
While the Lord is turned away.
Will you not make room for Jesus,
For the Christ, the Crucified?
Is there not some place to enter
In the soul for which He died?
For the Christ, the Crucified?
Is there not some place to enter
In the soul for which He died?
Room and time and thought for
Jesus,
Hasten to accept His grace
Ere the heart grows cold and careless,
And His pleading voice shall cease.
Hasten to accept His grace
Ere the heart grows cold and careless,
And His pleading voice shall cease.
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