A Messy Christmas
Too often we envision Christmas almost in a fairy tale way. We tend to think of Christmas as Santa coming with gifts…finding or receiving the perfect gift…delicious cookies and tasty treats…Hallmark Movies that always have a perfect ending…spending evenings decorating our homes…attending nice Christmas Eve services and everything being just right including peace on earth!
If only it were this way. Sometimes I think we forget or we just try to escape reality and the way the Christmas season often is – a time where so many people are overwhelmed, anxious, and frustrated. Others are over-spending and feel over-worked. And for many, it’s anything but the perfect family gatherings for the holidays, rather its tensions running high with family they really don’t want to see. Can anyone relate?
And then there are those who are feeling the pain of the holidays – those who are lonely…those who have mostly bad memories of Christmas’ pasts…everybody seeming so happy but them and those grieving deep losses for people they so loved but are no longer with them. Christmas has become for many, just a reminder of their pain and for people who they will never see again who meant so much to them.
For almost everyone, Christmas is not quite the perfect time of year that is painted through advertising and commercials. In fact, the very first Christmas was anything but perfect – it was filled with chaos, confusion and corruption.
On that first Christmas, we find a young girl named Mary, trying to explain that she got pregnant, not from being with a boy for a night, but from God. Try telling that story! See how many believe that. You can read the account for yourself in Luke 1:26-31. Talk about the confusion that Mary faced in these moments of her life. And the stakes were much higher for her in those days in the Middle East than for most girls today who become pregnant out of wedlock. If her husband-to-be decided not to marry her, she probably would remain unmarried for her entire life and if her father rejected her, living in a male-dominated world, she would have limited ways to support herself other than through begging or prostitution. Abuse, starvation and sickness was her future. Further, trying to tell people in her day that the Holy Spirit made her pregnant, almost assuredly would have labeled her crazy or filled with demons, thus everyone she knew would have rejected her, including her family and faith.
Then there is Joseph, that was pleaded to be married to her. Well, what do you think he thought of Mary’s story. That’s right, just what you would have thought if you had been in his shoes. That Mary was a liar, deceiver, a cheat and completely betrayed him. You would have been angry and broken-hearted. Talk about chaos and scandal. Yet he heard from God (Matthew 1:18-21) to not do anything rash in the midst of his hurt, and to trust both God and Mary. And he did just that in the midst of chaos. It says in Luke 2:1-7, that he made his way back to Bethlehem with Mary to register in the census. Along the way, Mary got bigger and bigger. Traveling became more difficult. And when she was ready to give birth, they couldn’t even find a decent motel. They were all booked. So they had to have the birth of the king in a stinky and cold stable. Talk about chaos and confusion!
Upon Jesus’ birth, an angel said to them,
“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord.”
- Luke 2:10-11
What a story! You have virgins saying they were made pregnant by God…you have a fiancé hearing voices from heaven…you have the Savior of the world being born in a stable rather than a palace…and you have people saying they are hearing things said only by angels that made no sense to anyone at the time. Talk about chaos and confusion.
But then add in the corruption, which is the backdrop of this first Christmas story. King Herod (Herod the Great) who ruled over the land of Israel in those days for the Roman Empire, when he found out about the birth of Jesus, became insanely jealous. How crazy was it for a king with such power to be so afraid of a little baby that he declared that all babies two years or younger must be killed to make sure he stamped out this one baby that was such a threat to him (to read about this, go to Matthew 2:7-16)? How corrupt must a leader and his empire be to kill thousands of babies? While we see corruption in our government and in many places around the world in our day, it isn’t anything new. The world that Jesus was born into was a very crazy, chaotic, confused and corrupt world.
But here is the message of hope in all of this for us – God is with us!
God said to Joseph through an angel in the midst of chaos – “do not be afraid” (Matthew 1:20)
The angel said to Mary in the midst of her confusion – “The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28)
He said again to Mary in the face of her ear – “Do not be afraid” (Luke 1:30)
In the midst of their confusion and corruption all around them, the angel said – “Do not be afraid, I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people” (Luke 2:10)
The message is clear to us this Christmas, despite the craziness, the chaos, the confusion and the corruption in our world and in our own lives, God is with us! (Matthew 1:23)
May each of you have a very Merry Christmas this year as you worship King Jesus this season!
Jack
