Baptistway Bible Study for Texas for Dec. 21: The birth narrative_112403

Posted: 12/01/03

For use on Dec. 21

Luke 2:8-20

The birth narrative

By Gary Long

I got some good news the other day. It seems that the state of North Carolina (my home state, though I’ve been away since 1994) has some money for me. I bought an insurance policy in 1992 from a company that went bankrupt. However, the courts are now distributing the proceeds from the company’s sell-off. I’m apparently entitled to $58.93. Granted, it’s not a lot of money, but it is still good news.

$58.93 pales in comparison, though, to the good news I was first told as a little child back in Carolina. The good news was that in a tiny stable in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago, God decided to reach humanity in a most unusual way. Long time Christians know this story. It’s been read to us on countless Christmas Eves. We’ve seen the living nativity. We adorned the crèche and advent wreaths in our home.

We should have tired of all this long ago. Yet somehow the power of the story never fades, and though it has almost a fairy-tale aura, we know and sense the truth it proclaims. We must tell the story again and again. We must decorate and celebrate, give gifts and feast with loved ones. We know without being told by our preacher: This is truly good news, too good not to celebrate it. I’m guessing that heaven might be like this, where we celebrate the wonder and limitlessness of God’s loving-kindness. Maybe, just maybe, our Christmas ritual is rehearsal for that ultimate advent of God.

”Good News” as used by the angel in Luke 2:10 is the same word Luke will use throughout his gospel to refer to Jesus’ coming. In a real sense that announcement from the angel to shepherds is an announcement to us as well. We stand today as amazed as the shepherds that night. Our amazement is in part due to the glorious nature of the angel of the Lord. After all, not many of us encounter angels that way, and we certainly raise a wary eyebrow at those who relate having had such a glorious encounter. But our amazement runs deeper. Our amazement is connected to the real substance of the message the angel brings. In Bethlehem, God is doing something. Jesus is born, and the angel wants us to know he is the Savior, the Messiah and Lord.

Imagine it this way. (If you’re not a college basketball fan, hang with me. Someone in your class will relate to this.) You basically have Dick Vitale (the angel) announcing the “diaper dandy” (baby Jesus) with praises for delivering the perfect “trifecta” (Savior, Messiah, Lord). Dicky V then would have wrapped up his commentary with, “Give that kid the rock (Peter, upon whom he will build the church), baby!”

Maybe that’s a stretch for you. But you have to know that this angel was delivering big, big news. All of the hope of Israel as a nation was wrapped up in this one little baby who would be Messiah, Savior and Lord. The fulfillment of an entire nation’s longing was announced that night. Good news? You bet. Let’s explore just how Jesus’ birth is good news for all people, including us.

Good news would have meant “joy” for the Israelites. Although traditional messianic thought of the day anticipated a messiah who would deliver Israel politically and economically, awaiting those who heard and believed the message of Jesus was a new understanding of Messiah and Savior. Surely Jesus was a deliverer, but it certainly wasn’t what was expected. The birth of Jesus is good news that would be met with joy.

Additionally, it was good news that God was coming to Israel as promised. Latent in the story, yet prominent in the nature of God, is this: God’s promises are fulfilled. Jesus’ birth is another huge kind of proof of God’s ongoing plans to redeem and restore. Israel had been promised, “For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11). Throughout her history, the petition of Israel has oft been “Deliver us!” It is good news that God has heard that cry for deliverance and answered with Jesus.

The angel’s proclamation is good news for all people in the world, not just the Israelites. For humanity it is good news that God’s grace was headed to earth. Of course, we view this story through the lenses of history. We understand the birth of Jesus as the beginning mark of God moving in a new way. We understand Jesus also through the eyes of faith and have a much clearer understanding of what “Savior,” “Messiah” and “Lord” mean because of our standing on this side of the cross.

Ultimately, the reality of who Baby Jesus was in the cradle is but a foreshadowing of the powerful Savior Jesus upon the cross, and that pales completely when held up next to the power of the resurrection of Jesus. Yet that resurrection is empty if God was not really human in Jesus. The resurrection celebration of Easter is meaningless if real flesh and real blood and real bones had not been birthed of Mary and laid in the manger.

We will do well this season to look past the giggly gurgling baby wrapped in the swaddling clothes to behold the birth itself. Birthing a baby is bloody and messy, and that applies no matter who the baby or the mother is. The full experience of humanity was God’s in Jesus’ flesh, and he emerged from Mary’s womb—just as you and I emerged from our mother’s belly.

That makes Jesus’ birth good news because in the full experience of humanity, Jesus knew human struggle, human pain, human frailty, as well as human cravings and desires, human hungers and human hurts. That makes Jesus’ sinless life and sacrificial death on the cross all the more meaningful because his life was fraught with the same temptations as us and yet he conquered sin long before he was nailed to the cross, although clearly his battle with sin culminated there.

Many commentators suggest that one piece of good news in this story is that God now identifies with humans. However, this seems to put God in a position of lacking some ability or experience to identify with humanity before Jesus was born. That interpretation suggests that God could not relate to humans before Jesus came, and that is a rather narrow and limited understanding of God’s abilities.

Rather, I would suggest the proper way for us to frame this is instead of God identifying with humans through Jesus, that humans are able to identify with God through Jesus. This subtle shift of interpretation could actually produce a keener awareness that God is not deficient in God’s ability to relate to us. Rather, we must consider that humans have the deficiency in relating to God because of sin. The good news about this birth is that Jesus’ humanity provides a portal of reconnection to the God we know innately, yet from whom we have been disconnected.

More good news is the family into which Jesus was born can be a strong reminder to us of the value of families in God’s sight. Clearly, if Joseph and Mary were a couple in our church today, there would be trouble. Hushed whispers and unkind gossip would surely abound because their situation is not socially acceptable. Joseph and Mary didn’t follow the cultural norm for a family in their day.

Although the texts never allude to this point directly, we can assume certain monikers upon the family, and although it is only conjecture, it is highly plausible that this family was stressed to the max.

That is good news to families in our churches. If God can still work through their unusual family circumstances, how much could God do through our varieties of families today? There is a place in God’s church and God’s plan for all kinds of families – blended families, single-parent families, families where grandparents raise grandkids, families with adopted children, foster families, and even highly dysfunctional families. God has a plan and use for all families, and a plan to redeem and nurture through the means of families. Surely this is good news to us!

The story has been told. By the time your class studies this text together, the celebration will almost be finished. Probably on December 26th some will be experiencing the post-Christmas “blues” that always come after a big party (and accompanied by credit card bills). Yet if we celebrate the truth of the holiday – that Jesus is God’s gift to us of a Savior who is Christ and Lord – our party will last for all eternity and our “hopes and fears of all the years” are met in Christ today. That is good news!

Questions for Discussion

What is the best news you’ve gotten this week? In what way was this a blessing of God? How does it relate to the good news of today’s lesson?

How might understanding the real “good news” of Christmas help us deal with the end of celebrating? Can God’s real presence in your life provide comfort when all the packages are opened and the family has gone back home?

How does the good news of the incarnation help you relate to God?

Understanding that God can use all kinds of families, how is your family especially equipped to share God’s good news? For example, consider: What talent(s) do we have that might be a venue to share God’s good news? What tragedy has our family endured that has equipped us to help share Gods’ love to others who hurt?

What struggle do you face today with which God’s good news can help you deal?