My Thoughts For Sunday, 25 December 2016
“The King’s Bed, A Christmas Story”
“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,33and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdomwill never end.” Luke 1:32-33
Please let me deviate a bit from the norm and add some insight on how I feel things might have transpired at the foretelling and account of the birth of The King. Actual accounting of the facts shall be so noted by scripture passages from the New Internal version (NIV) of the Holy Bible.
It all began on what was going to be an unbelievable, yet glorious, day in the life of a very young virgin who was pledged to be married to a carpenter from her village of Nazareth, in Galilee.
Early on that eventful morning God gave a special announcement to His Hosts of Heaven and a very special mission to His messenger angel, Gabriel. He announced to the angels that the time had finally come when He would bring to fulfillment His promise made so long ago to Adam and Eve. He was going to send His Son to earth as a human child to redeem all mankind from their sins and reconcile them to Himself. He then proceeded to give Gabriel the specific task of descending to earth, to Nazareth to this young virgin, Mary. Gabriel, blessed by God to deliver this message of salvation, was told by God how he would deliver the great news. Itis undoubtablethat this was the first mission his God had sent him on, but probably one of immense pleasure. God had also, probably, instructed Gabriel to be kind and gentle with Mary, as she was very young, a virgin, and might have some strong feelings about the change about to come over her plans for the future.
The angels rejoiced and praised God as Gabriel set off on his mission from God to deliver that glorious, long foretold story of the birth of the Son of God, as a baby, to come into the world to save sinners. There is no indication as to where Gabriel found Mary. She might have been carrying water jugs from the well. Maybe doing laundry. Maybe in the kitchen, cooking for the family as training for her upcoming responsibilities as a new bride with a husband to feed and care for.
Gabriel did find her and Luke, in his gospel, writes under inspiration of God; “The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”(Luke 1:28) Is it any wonder that Luke continued with the following words? “Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.” I’ll bet she was “greatly troubled. How would an announcement like this affect you, coming from a total stranger, in the middle of your workday? Good old faithful Gabriel remembered God’s admonition to be gentle with her and continued: “Do not be afraid,Mary; you have found favor with God.”Perhaps this was consoling for her, momentarily, but his next statements had to cause her even more concern! “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdomwill never end.” (Luke 1:29-33)
What might have been flashing through her thoughts with this declaration? Did she remember what she had been taught of Isaiah’s’ and Micah’s’ prophesies of the coming Messiah? He was to be born of a virgin! But He was to be born in Bethlehem, not Nazareth! There must be something she was missing. She said to Gabriel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” A very sound question. Maybe this could still be cleared up. She quickly got her answer: “The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.’” (Luke 1:34-37) Then Mary, by God’s grace, believed the message Gabriel had delivered from her God and in humility she accepted her responsibility.In verse 38, her reply is recorded for us all as a lesson; “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered “may your word to me be fulfilled” Then the angel left her.”
There is no record of Mary telling her mother of the coming event, but I find it hard to believe that this young virgin was able to keep her pregnancy a secret. Sometime after her visit by Gabriel and her return from visiting her aunt Elizabeth, she had to have confided with her mother. This child she was carrying had been foretold hundreds of years earlier and was common knowledge to any who were familiar with the prophesies. I am sure that it was a dream of every young virgin of the time. Who would be the chosen? Who would be selected by the Almighty Himself to bring His child into the world? Who would be most blessed among all women? We must just speculate. Sooner than later the secret would be out.
Sure enough, the secret was out. Matthew wrote of the outcome of this newsflash. Joseph discovered Mary was with child, not his, and out of his love and respect for her decided to send her away before the town fathers found out and had her stoned as a harlot. (Matthew 1:18-19) Naturally, he was devastated but could do nothing more than cover her supposed sin. Reading on in Matthew’s account, we see that Joseph was visited in a dream by an angel who told him the whole story about Mary’s mission of bringing God’s own Son into the world and that he should keep his plan and take Mary for his wife. He would be responsible for the upbringing of Jesus through His early years. (Matthew 1:20-25)
Being the village carpenter, Joseph soon got to work preparing for the new arrival. He began building a cradle for this soon to arrive King. However, time and the ruler of the Roman world were not about to cooperate. Caesar Augustus demanded that everyone must travel to their city of origin to be counted in a new census. Joseph packed up the necessary items for the long journey on one donkey; he would be walking the distance.
Mary said, “We must take the cradle, Jesus will need a nice place to sleep.” She continued: “He is the Son of God, the future king over all people.”
Joseph, with serious regrets convinced her that they had no way to carry the cradle that distance. He said he would make the baby comfortable. About five days and ninety miles later, they arrived in Nazareth. To very bad news! There was not a room to be had, much less a comfortable bed for the, soon to arrive, infant king.
Joseph was finally able to convince the owner of a vacant stable to let them move in for the birth of the baby. A stable! For a King! For the Son of God! How much worse could it get? Or would it get?
Joseph hurried to clear out the old, filthy, bug infested straw that was in the manger and replaced it with some cleaner straw and a blanket they had brought with them. Mary was frantically approaching her time of delivery.
The moment came! Jesus quietly entered our world! Jesus, the Son of God! Jesus, the Messiah! Jesus, the one to take away the sins of the entire world!
Did Mary and Joseph deserve this great blessing? NO! Do we deserve this blessing? NO! But here He is, by God’s love for fallen mankind, by His grace alone, we now could be salvaged, redeemed and reconciled to our Father in heaven.
At last, after their long journey, Mary’s delivery, everything cleaned up as best as possible…Time to rest. They thought!
As they were just settling down, watching the baby Jesus sleep and contemplating everything that had transpired and looking to the future, someone stuck their head into the stall, their stall! Joseph jumped up with staff in hand to protect his charges. It was a shepherd, more alert. Everyone knew about those kinds of people. The shepherd asked, apologetically, “Is there a baby in here?” Then he saw the tiny bundle in the manger. He ducked back out and called to his friends, “I’ve found him, Levi!” Suddenly several individuals appeared at the entrance to the stable. Joseph could see they were dressed as shepherds. The grip on his staff tightened!This could be danger!
Levi appeared to be the spokesman for the group. He spoke haltingly, “Can we come in” We have…ah…come to see the Christ child.”
As Joseph felt the tingle, up and down his spine he realized, this is no accident. This whole, fantastic chain of happenings was far more than an accident. He nodded and stepped away from the entrance. He nodded and said “Yes, come in, you are welcome.”They all crowded into the cramped space to get a better view. They knelt before the manger, the eldest, the spokesperson said, “God be praised.” The old shepherd spoke with deep and sincere reverence.
Another of the group, Micah, said, “It is just as the angel told us.” Another said, “‘Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people,’ the angel said.”
“Just imagine,” Levi said. “An angel actually talked to us, then he added, none of the people of this town would think of lowering themselves to speak to us shepherds, but an angel did.”
Joseph asked, “How did you find us?” He could not imagine that they would be found by total strangers, actually looking for their Christ-child.
The old shepherd had the answer and delivered it as if he would never forget one word. He spoke with deep reverence, as he always did, “This is what the angel said; ‘Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’”(Luke 2:11-12)
The younger shepherd broke in, “This is Bethlehem, the city of David. He was born here.” Then as he proudly thrust out his chest, he continued, “He was a shepherd, too.”
Levi addressed Joseph directly when he said, “The angel was very specific. This was the sign for us. ‘The baby would be wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” He went on to explain, “We went from stable to stable, when at last we found you here. We found Him, our Savior, Christ the King. How many newborn babies do you think you could find on this night in a cattle feed trough, in Bethlehem?”
Joseph smiled. So this was God’s way of bringing His Son into a sin filled world without all the show of the earthly kings. What better bed could he, Joseph, have provided than that designed by His Father. Then an angelic sign to the lowly shepherds, showing them God’s miraculous love.
Joseph squeezed Mary’s hand tightly as the shepherds left and they were finally able to settle down. Praise be to a loving God.
Merry Christmas to all from your Web-team.
George & Kim Perry