Christmas Eve 2023

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you that you saw fit to send your son, that he might be born in a lowly state, that he might take on our flesh, and that he might be born so that he would die in our place.

Lord, we thank you that your grace was so deep that you would go to the lowliest of places, that there would be no one so lowly that they would be left out of your story, Lord, but that you would enter our story, that we might be brought into yours.

Lord, I pray that this Christmas we would see the incredible depth of your grace and mercy in the incarnation.

We lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Right after today's service, my wife and I are going to put our kids in PJs and load up in the car and drive to her parents' house where we're going to spend the night.

And our car is loaded so densely with Christmas gifts and things for three kids.

There's a dog in there right now, which I think is fine.

She's covered in fur.

So she'll she's very warm.

And the uh uh our car is on the verge of uh I think forming uh if we were to put like one more thing in there, it will probably form a singularity.

And all we will our whole solar system will get sucked into it.

Which is why we're just we're just right at the limit.

On these Christmas Eve nights and travels like this, there's just so many details to remember to put in the car.

And it's so many details that we are we've all worked to bring together.

Many of you have spent months locked in heated negotiations with your in-laws to determine which home you would be going to Christmas at.

And we um uh are participating in in gathering just just as many as many details as the rest of you, I think.

That's kind of part of celebration is gathering together all of these details.

For us, the most important detail is uh my daughter has this bunny, and if bunny doesn't make it into the car, then the next three days are gonna be really they're gonna be really bad days.

So we've we are sure to pack bunny.

Preparation for a celebration requires the gathering of countless details.

And the birth of our Lord was no different.

We see some of them come together in that scripture reading that George just read for us.

Let's go ahead and move through that.

In Luke 2, 1 through 3, it says, In the days, in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

This was the first registration when Cyrinius was governor of Syria, and all went to be registered, each to his own town.

Caesar Augustus became emperor because he was the nephew of Julius Caesar, which is a pretty good guy.

If you're gonna pick rich uncles, then Julius Caesar is a pretty good rich uncle to have.

And uh he became uh the the emperor of Rome because as he was growing up, Julius Caesar witnessed the incredible skill and wisdom that uh his name then wasn't Caesar Augustus, it was Gaius Octavius had when he was just a boy.

And so, in his will, he left the emperorship to Gaius Octavius, who would, upon becoming emperor, be named Caesar Augustus.

Caesar Augustus had this incredible um administrative skill, and he ushered in a time in world history that until that point was really unprecedented.

Uh, that's a term that we use now to describe anything that happens.

Uh, but it it was truly unprecedented in that he uh the the amount of the length of peace that the world experienced under Caesar Augustus was uh it's the Pax Romana, it's the the Roman peace, that great Roman peace that we uh that you have you have heard of.

Part of his administrative skill manifests itself in a desire to have numbered his entire empire, probably for the purposes of taxation.

Uh but you know, it's nice to know what you have.

And so Caesar issued a census for the entire world, uh, or at least uh his entire known world.

And so all of the Roman Empire is like Christmas break in college, it everybody just goes back home.

And so the whole Roman Empire does that.

Mary and Joseph are included in this dispersion.

In verses four and five, it says, And Joseph went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

Mary could not have been too happy.

It's the third trimester, and she gets news from the government, this blasted bureaucracy, that she uh has to travel 90 miles from her home of Nazareth to Bethlehem.

That 90 miles was likely uh not that uh terrible of a commute for Joseph, but for Mary, likely incredibly difficult and challenging and painful.

But there they arrive, and they honor the requirement that Caesar had placed upon them, and they move from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

And in verses six and seven it says, And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

So while they are in Bethlehem, while they're away, you're you're not even re in the third trimester, you're not really supposed to fly anywhere or travel anywhere.

Uh but they, of course, were forced.

And so, outside of their own home, the time comes for Mary to give birth.

Mary gives birth to Jesus, our Lord.

She wraps him in swaddling clothes, and there is no place to lay him, so she lays him in a manger.

A manger, don't forget, we we all have precious little mangers in our nativity scenes.

This is a feeding trough for animals.

It's a makeshift apparatus for the child to be placed in, into this manger.

There's a lot of conjecture with regards to what the inn was that they couldn't stay in.

They were likely places in which caravans would travel and pass through.

There's some evidence that there are uh places that the first floor, they're kind of built like uh slot homes down Tennyson.

The first floor is where you park the horses, and they were the stables, and the second floor would be the inn.

It's likely that there is no place to stay in the inn because all of the uh census takers, which is a great job every 10 years in the Roman Empire, all of the census takers would not have been permitted to stay with the Jews who lived in this area.

And so they would have to stay in accommodations like an inn.

So it's likely that it was filled up because of the census, the very reason that they had to attend there.

But of course, the oldest Christian traditions that we have with regards to where it is that Jesus was born is not in some stable as we often depict it, but Justin Martyr describes this old tradition of the of Jesus being born in a cave.

In a cave and then placed in a manger, a feeding trough for animals.

Now, let's gather some of the details that came together for the birth of our Lord.

First of all, we know that it was necessary that Jesus be born in Bethlehem.

It is the city of David.

Bethlehem means house of bread.

And this is the very place in the world where the bread of life would come into the world in the birth of our Lord.

The city finally finding the fulfillment of its ancient name.

It is the city of David, the place where David, the king, was born, the king who was given the promise of the eternal throne.

And it is of the lineage of David that Jesus is born into.

So they are precisely called back to, in a sense, the place where the promise of the eternal throne is, and where the bread of heaven would be given to the world.

It was also necessary that Jesus be called a Nazarene.

Matthew 2, verses 23 says that it was necessary that Jesus would be called a Nazarene.

Matthew 2:23

He would be pure and set apart for his people, just as a Nazarite would, taking the Nazarite vow.

So, how is it that these two realities would be accomplished?

Well, his parents would be from Nazareth, but how would ones who would be from Nazareth be make sure that their child, the promised Lord, would be born in Bethlehem?

Well, it happened because Julius Caesar recognized the great administrative skill of his son Caesar Augustus.

And Caesar Augustus rose, and by his incredible administrative ability and his desire to bring order and structure into his kingdom, these two young people, Mary and Joseph, are required to leave their town at a time when it would be particularly difficult on them to do so, and go to Bethlehem.

And at that precise time, the Lord would be born.

It is as though the highest authorities in existence are conspiring to bring about the perfect details for the birth of our Lord.

What higher authority is there in the world than Caesar Augustus at this time?

There is no higher authority.

And so the birth of our Lord includes a narrative regarding this highest authority in the world.

And what is shown to us in that is that the highest authority in the world is under the authority of God.

The highest authority is only operating as a character, in this way, almost a bit part, although a necessary part, in the working of God to bring about the birth of our Lord.

In the story right after this one that was just read, which we'll hear soon, is uh the story of the angels who appear to the shepherds in a field.

The host of heaven itself is gathered to announce to the lowliest nomads.

You've got to see the difference in these images.

The host of heaven is something like the stars of heaven.

Those are those are very similar.

And the host of heaven gathers and sings and proclaims this glorious message to the lowest of people, shepherds, people who wander around and have no fixed location, no real home to call their own, the lowest of the low in this society.

From the highest to the lowest.

The stars in heaven will be read and interpreted, the music of the spheres will be understood by strange kings from the east who will interpret it and understand.

A great miracle has taken place, and a birth of extraordinary importance has taken place.

So they travel into a land that must have been strange to them to see the birth of the Lord.

The details that are worked for the birth of our Lord, that he might take in this story, the fullness of the story of the promises that God has given to his people, are all orchestrated perfectly.

From the highest of the high, the most important man in the world, Caesar Augustus, to above him, the angels, to the most fixed objects that we know by which we might navigate through the dark seas, the stars in the heavens, all coordinated and orchestrated with a perfect and absolute detail to manifest the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

All of the details were absolutely perfect.

The best show of the past five years is a show called The Bear.

It's on Hulu.

It's the best show.

And it is a show about a young man who is a Michelin star chef, and he inherits a restaurant, and it's his job to he takes it upon himself.

That's where he's inherited this sort of like, you know, hole-in-the-wall restaurant.

He wants to turn it into a Michelin star restaurant.

And it's the story of him trying to do that.

And so his cousin who works for him is uh not of Michelin star quality.

Now I don't know much about Michelin stars.

Uh I always thought they were more in the tire business than the restaurant business.

But there's one episode in particular, and the episode is entitled Forks.

And this cousin is sent to a Michelin star restaurant to learn the quality at which he must operate and the level of attention to detail that they must have in order for their restaurant to gain this coveted Michelin star.

And so he is sent to a Michelin star restaurant for a week, and all he does for a week is polishes forks.

Once the forks are done being washed, he polishes them to make sure that there is not a single smudge on the forks.

He's just sitting there and he's frustrated throughout the whole episode having to polish these forks because he's saying, What is the point of this?

Why would it be so important that we would we couldn't have a fork with a smudge on it?

Would that really ruin somebody's night?

And then somebody that he works with explains to him, we are not just a restaurant.

We're not just selling food.

People might have saved up for months and months to be able to come and have an experience of a night like they will experience here.

We are in the business of giving people a perfect night, a night where every detail is absolutely and precisely accounted for.

It reminds me of the details of the birth of our Lord.

Every detail from the highest you could imagine, the stars in heaven and Caesar Augustus to the lowest that you could imagine.

A young couple in a backwater called Nazareth, a town of no repute, to shepherds who have no home, who just wander around.

Every detail from the highest to the lowest is absolutely accounted for.

And doesn't that raise the question, why not book a room?

Like, like when we tell great travel stories, the travel stories that we tell, a friend of mine actually just went to Europe.

Europe is, it's like a bunch of other countries.

And he had to get some trains from Germany to Amsterdam.

And this is a story that he tells.

They randomly sat next to a lady on the train that they were transferring to, and she said, Oh, I know where you're headed.

I'm going just one stop further than you.

There's all kinds of construction, so the train directions that you don't have will not work.

You'll end up in like, I don't know, somewhere else.

And so they followed her through seven different train changes, and by following her, they ended up in precisely where they went.

And we tell a story like that, and we say, wow, look at the wonder of the providence.

Things worked out just perfectly because they happened to sit right next to the perfect right person who was headed just to where they were headed and could guide them perfectly through something that they couldn't have possibly pieced together on their own with their own knowledge.

I mean, couldn't the story have been they got there and one of the census takers was sick.

So there was only one room available in the inn.

And we'd say, look, every detail was perfectly accounted for.

Even the one leftover space in the inn, God providentially guided.

But this was no miss.

This was the details being perfectly accounted for.

Jesus is born in a lowly state.

And he is born into a state of homelessness and exile.

Because that is what Jesus came to do.

After Adam and Eve sin in the garden, they are removed from the garden and they are put into exile forever.

They are never able to return home because there's a cherubim placed in front of the garden with a flaming sword that can never be crossed.

And all of humanity suffers from this sin, and that we all find ourselves exiled from our true home.

We are all exiles from the Lord, from the presence of God.

And because of our sin, we are absent from him.

And so there is no true place of home that we can find.

Not a true sustaining place of home.

All of our stories end in death.

Every one of us is born to die.

There is no one who is born forever.

That is the story that Jesus enters into.

So Jesus is born, and he's born perhaps in a cave, as the old tradition says.

And what is that but a tomb?

Jesus has no place because he is coming to get a people who have no place.

He is coming to get a people who have no home, so that they might be brought home.

There was no miss by there being no place in the inn.

The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, eternally begotten of the Father, the one who is there at the beginning of creation, the very word who upholds creation itself, did not miss when at his incarnation he is born homeless.

He is born homeless because he came to get the homeless.

Such is the grace of our Lord.

You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who though he is rich beyond the highest of riches, beyond the riches of Caesar Augustus, beyond all of the stars in the heavens belong to him.

They obey his commands, he calls them out by name as a mighty host.

He is the Lord of hosts, he is rich beyond imagination, and he is born homeless.

This is the grace of our Lord, so that by coming into our story, we might be brought into his story.

Because he is born to die.

Born to die so that our sins might be atoned for, born to die so that the lowliest among us might have a hope.

And you are probably not the lowliest among us.

Even if you are very lowly in here today, you're probably not the lowly is.

But if the Lord came to rescue the lowliest, then he can certainly rescue you.

Then the mission that he came to accomplish certainly includes you.

And do you see that you are included in this story of our Lord who is born and placed in a manger, a place where there is food for animals.

Beneath the animals he is placed.

Who is higher than Caesar?

Who is lower than a Nazarene?

Who's higher than the angels?

Who is lower than a shepherd?

Who is higher than God?

Who is lower than a homeless infant?

It was no miss.

Christ came to save the lowliest.

We see the glory of the grace of our God and his willingness to do this.

In Philippians 2, 6 through 11, Paul writes of Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

And to the glory of God the Father, we remember today that our Lord was born a homeless infant in a manger, the lowliest of low.

And when you remember that, and when we celebrate that, I want you to think, and I want you to remember if the Lord did that, how deep must his love be for people such as us.

And if his love is so deep to do something like that for people such as us, perhaps I can trust him.

Perhaps he can save in the way that he says he can save.

Perhaps the Lord is as good as we say he is.

Look at the baby in the manger.

Know what he is born to do.

And see the glorious grace of our Lord fully on display, like a light that breaks out into the darkness this Christmas.

Let's pray.

Holy Father, we praise you for your loving kindness towards us.

Lord, I pray that we would see and meditate on the the you, our Lord, being born homeless, being placed in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes by your mother and father from the backwater of Nazareth, while the whole world conspires for this glory under the guiding hand of our Father.

Lord, let us consider your grace on display in this infant, the wonder and miracle of the incarnation, and the hope that we have in the death and resurrection.

Lord, let us remember that this Christmas and trust in you.

Lift that up in Jesus' name.

Amen.