An Unexpected Entrance...

For the past several weeks, we have been looking at the Christmas story from an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Matthew and discovered that the Christmas story reveals that God is a promise maker and a promise keeper. We discovered that God’s faithfulness is to keep His promise to offer the opportunity for the forgiveness of our sin and the relationship with Him that we were created for through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has absolutely nothing to do with us.

The Christmas story is about God’s faithfulness to keep the promise that He made not only in spite of our rebellion; The Christmas story reveals that reality that God is even faithful to keep the promise that He made through our rebellion. And we see God’s faithfulness to keep His promise that we know as the Christmas story revealed and recorded for us in another account of Jesus life in the Bible, which is called the gospel of Luke. And in this account, we see another unexpected aspect of the Christmas story. So let’s look at it together beginning in Luke 2:1:

Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child.

Like any great story, Luke begins the Christmas story by providing us the context for the story. At this time in history, the land that belonged to the Jewish people was under the control of the Roman Empire, which was the dominant military and political power in the world. And as part of their military and political dominance, the Roman Government required that every person who lived in the Roman Empire over the age of 20 pay a tax that was called the poll tax.

And to make sure that they were receiving the maximum amount of taxes that they were able to gather, the Roman Empire called for a census. This census required every Jewish family to travel to their ancestral home town to register for the census so that they would be counted for tax purposes. Every Jewish person, in essence, needed to travel to the place where their family tree was planted. And for Joseph and Mary, that meant traveling to Bethlehem, as Joseph came from the family tree of David, who as we saw last week was the most famous king to ever ruler the Jewish nation. So Joseph and Mary left Nazareth and made the trip to Bethlehem.

Now to understand the significance of this trip, we first need to understand some things about this journey. First, the distance between Nazareth and Bethlehem was about 80 miles. Second, there were no planes, trains, or automobiles to make the trip in. Instead, Joseph and Mary walked 80 miles, which would take approximately five days for an average person to travel.

But as Luke tells us, Joseph and Mary are not average; Because Mary is with child. When Luke says that Mary is with child, she is with child. Delivery could occur at any moment. Most scholars believe that this trip would have taken at least one week to accomplish. And as we see next, however, Mary is not just with child:

While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

After arriving in Bethlehem, Mary discovered that she was not just with child; it was time to have the child. There was a problem, however. You see, Bethlehem was not a bustling metropolis filled with hotels and motels; Bethlehem was a small rural community that was busting at the seams as a result of all the out of town visitors that were required to come to register for the census. Bethlehem was not a destination that up and coming people moved to in order to start their careers; Bethlehem was a departure point that people left as soon as they grew up.

So there was no place for people to reside, unless there were close family that still lived in town. Bethlehem was so crowded that the only place that they could find for Mary to give birth and stay in was with domesticated animals. Most likely this was in a cave on the outskirts of town where animals where kept for their safety. Instead of a crib, all Mary could lay her newborn in was a manger, which was a feeding trough for animals.

Now imagine yourself as Joseph and Mary. How would you be feeling right now? You are in a cave, 80 miles from home, where you have placed your firstborn son in a box that a few minutes ago, farm animals were slobbering in as they ate. And if that is not enough, your son is God in a bod. God, who has taken on flesh, is lying in a feeding trough. And where do you think they got the cloths to wrap baby Jesus in? How would you be feeling? What would you be thinking?

I imagine that for Joseph and Mary, one of the thousands of thoughts that were running through their minds would have been "What an unexpected way for the Messiah to enter into His story. What an unexpected way for God to enter into humanity".

And if that was not unexpected enough, there was an encounter that was about to occur that would be most unusual and unexpected. We will look at that tomorrow.

How would you expect God to engage humanity? Would you expect God to enter into and engage humanity as a baby?