disturbed

Since I was a little boy, the story of the Magi always raised a cloud of questions. What are Magi? How do you follow a star? How can you tell which house or even town a star is over? What about that star made them come anyway?

As an adult, I still don't have satisfactory answers, but I do have another question. Matthew 2:1-3 reads, "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him."

I get why Herod didn't like hearing about a new king, but why was all Jerusalem disturbed with him? Why wouldn't they want a king from David's line instead of a Roman king?

It suggests that Jerusalem was pretty comfortable under Roman rule. The religious elite, those Pharisees and Saducees, may have liked their status as an officially approved religion, and probably liked having Roman troops available to stamp out other sects. The people of Jerusalem might have liked the boost to the economy of having all these Romans in town.

Or maybe they'd lived with Herod long enough that they feared what he might do. Maybe they were used to having to keep their heads down during his tantrums.

It makes me think, though. Have I gotten too comfortable with my life in this world, so much that I wouldn't want Jesus to disturb it? Do I sometimes cringe when faith topics come up because I fear the reaction of the non-believers around me? Like all Jerusalem, I probably sometimes am disturbed at the thought of how disruptive King Jesus can be to this world.

Why wouldn't I long for Jesus to purge and restore my corner of the world? Sometimes, I guess, no change seems the easiest.

finally

Two old people. One, Anna, was a prophet who never left the temple. The other, Simeon, clinging to a promise, was at the temple because the Spirit urged him to be. And both had their patience rewarded, because that was the day Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus into the temple for purification rites demanded by Jewish law. You can read about it in Luke 2.

Anna's response was to tell anyone who cared (v38). And Simeon said, 

"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,

you may now dismiss your servant in peace.

For my eyes have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:

a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and the glory of your people Israel." (v29-32)

" . . . a light for revelation to the Gentiles . . . " Simeon, the old Jew waiting for the Jewish Messiah, speaks first of the Gentiles, those "others" who were outside the covenant. Of me. His thanksgiving prayer was, in part, for my salvation! Jesus would be the Messiah for the Jews, to be sure, but even more so, he would save millions who weren't even looking for a savior. He would include in the covenant of Abraham any who listened and believed, including a long line of Dutch Calvinists who eventually became my church in North America. 

 

Simeon had seen everything he was promised, and was content with that. Chances are good he was dead before Jesus started his ministry, but that's OK; Simeon knew.

 

Just like I know about Jesus' return, not yet happened but certain anyway. Simeon and Anna is a great role models of the kind of patient, faithful waiting I am to live with every day. Simeon, longing for the day. Anna, quick to bring the good news to others. Me, sometimes that way, but too often focused on my own worldly kingdom. 

 

Live like Simeon and Anna. What a New Year's resolution that would be!

angel words

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night."

Luke 2 might contain some of the best-loved and most widely recognized verses in all of scripture. I love to imagine these rough shepherds around their little fire, jumping out of their skins when the sky suddenly blazed with angelic glory. And then the words that everyone had waited for since the beginning: "'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.'" (Luke 2:10-11).

I've read and sung those words since I was a little boy, so I have to put some work into really feeling their impact. It's like a castaway on a desert island finally seeing a ship. It's like a POW finally being released. It's like a terrified mother finally getting a phone call from a runaway child. Only more so, much more.

For centuries upon centuries God's people had been tormented by evil. For all those hundreds of years humanity had inflicted suffering on itself by its own sin. The whole world, scripture says, groaned in it's misery, helpless victims. And now, finally, the beginning of the end. Or maybe the end of the beginning, if we're talking about our relationship with God.

All of the frustration and sadness and pain that I cause myself in my own total depravity had its answer on that night in Bethlehem.

If I can get my brain around that baby announcement proclaimed by the angels, then it's easy to join in their song:  "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

Encountering Jesus III

Christmas Day was the beginning of the end. We don't like to think of it that way, but Jesus' coming was a catalyzing event that would ultimately divide the entire world into two opposing camps. 

What do we do about Jesus? The Gospel of John is all about the reactions of people as they encounter Him for the first time. John contains several discourses, during which Jesus explains Himself; the first was to Nicodemus. 

In John 3:14-21, Jesus says to Nicodemus, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

I find John 3:16 so much more interesting in context. And I find this passage very challenging in light of Christmas. A few days ago I wrote about light, and quoted Isaiah 9:2: "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light." Jesus tells Nicodemus, "Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of the light . . ."

What do you do about Jesus? It's more than just an intellectual question; it's a choice whether to live or die. Ever since the creation of the world, all of history has been about the mighty cosmic struggle for control of the souls of men. Jesus's birth was the point where victory became inevitable for those who love God. 

The evil that we live with is Satan's desperate attempt to stave off disaster. Our own encounter with Jesus will determine whether or not we go down with Him.

Jesus came once, and died. He will come again, and rule. So this question is one everyone on earth will answer, no matter how they try to avoid it now.

Encountering Jesus II

What do you do about Jesus? The shepherds went to worship him, and then returned to their work filled with gratitude.

Herod had a different reaction. Matthew 2:13 says, "When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. 'Get up,' he said, 'take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.'"

To Herod, Jesus was a threat. Herod wasn't going to let anyone else rule; the news of a newborn king made him furious. His solution was to kill the baby; when the magi failed to return to tell him which one, he killed them all.

There are a lot of people today who see Jesus as a threat. Some are outright sinners: pornographers and gamblers and addicts who can't acknowledge Jesus because they don't want to give up their sin. Some want control of their own lives, and can't let Jesus be Jesus because that would make him their Lord. Some want to live in ways that, while legal, are immoral; for them, Jesus and His followers are an external guilty conscience that won't let them have their fun.

They can't kill Jesus, so they attack Him in other ways. They try to banish Him from public life. They try to prove scientifically that He doesn't exist. They mock and marginalize His followers, as if He only has power if we do.

That all seems ridiculous, until I look at my own life. Are there times that I set Jesus aside? Are there times I leave Him behind? If so, why?

What do you do about Jesus? His birth, and death, demands an answer every day.

Encountering Jesus I

The Christmas story raises one question that everyone in the whole world needs to resolve: What do you do with Jesus?

The shepherds had to decide. They heard the choir, they went to see the child, and then what? Luke 2:17-20 tells us,  "When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told."

The first thing they did was spread the word. They told people, a lot of people. And the story they told amazed everyone who heard it.

The second thing they did was go back to their lives. They returned to the flock and fields, and resumed their jobs guarding and nurturing the sheep.

But notice how they did it: Glorifying and praising God. The same lives, lived now in the sense that a momentous change had taken place. Sheep herding was a little different now, because they had been given a glimpse of God at work, by God himself. Of all the merchants and religious leaders and tradesmen who could have been the ones, it was the shepherds to whom God revealed the baby Jesus.

What do you do with Jesus? That's one good choice, and it's the one the magi took too, as did Simeon and Anna.

It wouldn't be a bad one for us either. Spread the word. And get back to work, doing all those things that people depend on you for, but with a spirit of gratitude. I guess in their own way the shepherds were wise men too.