Word of Salvation - Vol.48 No.47 - December 2003

 

What Could Be More Of A Sign?

 

Advent Sermon by Rev S Bajema on Luke 2:7b

 Scripture Readings: Luke 2:8-20; Isaiah 7:1-17

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The scene described to us in our text is a sign. For 'sign' is the special word used to describe what happened in both Scripture readings. In Luke 2 verse 12 the angel tells the shepherds, "This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." And this had also been said, long before, by the prophet Isaiah to the difficult King Ahaz, in Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a Son, and will call him Immanuel."

1. What could be more of a sign than the king needing poor people?

Now, to the Jewish people, signs had become very strong in their religious experience. The apostle Paul refers to this in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, when speaking of the difference between Jews and Greeks. He says in verse 22, "Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom."

So what exactly did a sign mean? To us a sign usually means something on the roadside telling us which way we go to get to a place. But what could it be when the Lord Himself specifically gives a sign? Well, let's combine the signs we look for and the sign they were waiting for. You see, there is a type of anticipation that happens when you're always looking for a sign.

When you're driving on a long journey, and especially if you're going to a new place, you find yourself looking for a sign. Then everything you focus upon is seen in the light of looking for that sign: "Surely there must be one around here somewhere?" Suddenly any sign could become your sign! Normal everyday objects are easily mistaken for that sign. You realise it after you've passed it, but in that desperate moment, didn't you think it might just be that sign?

When you look at Jewish history, you also find they mistook many things for what they thought the coming of the Messiah would be like. There had even been a number of people claiming to be the Messiah leading groups of supporters around the countryside. And that's still happening today. It wasn't that long ago that there was a huge Messianic expectation among Orthodox Jews in Israel, at the prospect of a particular revered Rabbi from New York making the ultimate second coming trip to Jerusalem.

So, into the middle of all this Jewish looking out for a sign, there comes the sign itself. This is the sign which would fulfil all that had been declared about the Messiah. This is the sign about which the aged Simeon could praise God, declaring in Luke 2, "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant with peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel" (Luke 2:29 ff).

But, dear friends, having seen that this is a sign, what a sign it proves to be! For if a sign is meant, by its very nature, to stand out and to point us somewhere, there couldn't have been a more distinctive sign! In the words of this first part of our text - what could be more of a sign than the king needing poor people?

You see, this would really have been an insult to Jewish pride. We know that clearly enough from later on in Jesus' ministry, when He kept pointing out the difference between His work of salvation and their concept of earthly glory. The Jews looked for a powerful king, one like David and Solomon, with a vast army and enormous wealth. To them that would be the sign.

But a king needing poor people? This kind of humble estate just didn't equate. So, it couldn't be a clearer sign! For what could stick out more for these very proud, boastful people, than the very opposite?

So listen to this, "She wrapped him in cloths." You can go through the biographies of many powerful people, and you won't find one single reference to their baby clothes or who changed them then! The King of kings is born. A poor peasant woman dresses him with the cheapest clothes. And that she, Mary, and Joseph, couldn't find anywhere to stay even despite her advanced state of pregnancy, confirms their poverty. Where was the spirit of Christmas then?

We hear a lot about that at this time of the year, don't we? But, congregation, isn't the spirit of Christmas 'loving those who can least help themselves'? That's what they say, isn't it? When there are all those appeals for presents, and for money for presents. That's for those, they say, who otherwise wouldn't have a happy Christmas.

But that kind of compassion is only for this moment. It's an emotional pull on our heartstrings because it's this time of the year. Compare that with the spirit of the Son of God, who came as a helpless babe, who was born to parents so poor, so despised, they couldn't find a decent place to stay. He had that spirit for all of His life and in every possible way!

Though, friends, this sacrifice of love means there is a believing mother. She's the one so lovingly wrapping her child with those cloths. This child isn't treated like the one mentioned in Ezekiel 16 verse 4, who was thrown out and left to die by his own family. Because that was when God's people didn't love Him.

And if God hadn't helped that child, who represents His people, there would've been no hope, just as today there are many children who have no one to love and care for them. Then God's people were unfaithful, but here the faithful ones look after their Saviour God.

Congregation, does it take that much imagination to see Joseph placing some straw in that manger, making it as comfortable as he could? Yes, what could be more of a sign than the king needing poor people?

We think here of the words of this hymn,

Once in royal David's city.

He came down to earth from heaven

who is God and Lord of all;

and His shelter was a stable

and His cradle was a stall:

with the poor and meek and lowly

lived on earth our Saviour holy.

2. What could be more of a sign that the king laid in a stable?

Consider the words, "She...placed him in a manager." And as these words are studied, the commentaries consulted, the language lexicons checked, it soon becomes apparent that there's not much agreement about the actual place of Jesus' birth.

There seem to be three possibilities. One is that this is the ground floor of a two storey building, with the guests upstairs, and the servants and animals downstairs. The second possibility is that this was a cave connected to the inn. And the third is that it was a separate shed altogether.

Traditionally, the cave is a favourite, especially when you go to Bethlehem and see the historical church at the supposed site of Christ's birth. There you have to go into the hill itself. And so there are always candles burning there, just to help you see in the dark of the cave.

Whatever the exact situation, however, our second point puts the position very clear. For - what could be more of a sign than the king laid in a stable?

Congregation, if the poverty of the people caring for the King wasn't a clear enough sign, then how much wouldn't this prick any semblance of pride they might still have? You see, animals could be so unclean, and then to sleep with them! Yuck! If the shepherds, for instance, were amongst the dregs of Jewish society, because that was what that society thought about caring for their animals, how much different would it be living and sleeping amongst those kind of people?

The smell would have been dreadful! But people they were, and as people they slept there. If it had been up to any so-called respectable Jew, he would have had his future King born in Jerusalem, the greatest capital, in a big palace, and not this pithy little village, and in this filthy stable. If Micah had not prophesied it so, no one could possibly have believed it, nor would King Herod have done his gruesome infanticide - that mass-murder of those babies - just a short while later.

But just as Bethlehem was and is a small insignificant place - even today it's of little religious or political worth to the Jews - so too was the place where the Christ-child was born. No one would ever pick it!

And that's exactly it! Because then it wouldn't be anything like a sign. Or let me put it this way: Boys and girls, if you know a sign is coming up on the side of the road, is it really a sign anymore? It sounds like a riddle, doesn't it? But you think about it - is that sign a sign anymore?

What's your answer? Have you realised that if we expect a sign to come up, and because we expected it to come up, we know what is on that sign, then it's not a sign to us, is it? Though if each time you see that sign you find out something new, then it's still a sign.

That's what the stable does! We keep learning from it! It hurts us; it shames us; it stirs us. We wouldn't want to think of anyone living there - let alone being born there, ever! That's the only place left for the Son of God to be born.

So, we are humbled. Every time we look at this sign we realise more of what it cost God to send Jesus. We can't stay the same!

Friends, we have heaps of room for Christmas, but do we any room for the Christ in Christmas? After the Christmas tree has been put up, the tinsel and trimmings spread around, the pretty lights have sparkled away, and there's been yet another party, could we be putting up the NO VACANCY notice for Christ?

There's room enough for what we want to do, but for the One who has to have the room? But He was here. The King had come! And though His own may not have found Him room, yet He already had all the room!

You see, to save something, it first has to be lost. And because this world knew Him not, shows how lost it was. That's why it was at the very bottom that He began. He started from scratch! This is proving in the most vivid way what He taught later about starting at the humblest place and deserving to be put up. But then His life was the sermon. He is the Living Word, in Person. Even there in a manger. Yes, what could be more of a sign than the king laid in the stable?

3. What could be more of a sign than the king with nowhere to stay?

Congregation, with this third part we see further why Jesus was born in the stable. The phrase "because there was no room for them in the inn", tells us that they had tried elsewhere before they got to the last resort of bedding in with the animals.

So why couldn't they find anywhere else to stay? Well, who was in control of Bethlehem then? Which political power ruled there? It wasn't the Jews themselves. They hadn't ruled their own country for a long time. And ever since Jesus' time it has been the same story. There have always been occupying powers of one empire or another. Even today Yasser Arafat will have to pass through Israeli checkpoints to get there. If they'll let him of course!

Two thousand years ago it was Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor, who had ordered the census to take place. That's why Joseph had had to come here. It may have been because of those officials and soldiers conducting the census that there was no lodging available. We need to remember the Jews were very careful about coming into contact with non-Jews. And if those non-Jews had taken over the inns, the public places in the town, it meant Jews had to look elsewhere.

Whatever the reason, it still meant the King of kings had nowhere to stay, at least with people anyway. And that's the point which bring all this to a head. For... what could be more of a sign than the king with nowhere to stay?

Can you see where the text is taking us? Bit by bit we are taken down and down until we can't go any lower. And you really can't go any lower than this. In the words of John 1 verse 11, "He came to that which was His own, but His own did not received Him."

The cost to this King to visit His own Kingdom was that He wasn't recognised for His Kingship. The first Christmas Day was the first step to the Cross. And every other day, so all along the way, there was nowhere for Him to stay.

We see that with one example in Jesus' ministry. In Luke 9 a potential disciple says to Jesus, "I will follow you wherever you go" (vs 57 f). A real commitment, we would think. Here's someone determined to go the right way. You have to admire him.

But notice how Jesus responded to him, because He said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

What was there at the beginning of His earthly life is right throughout His whole earthly life. It was something no one could know, and certainly something they couldn't share! No earthly place to call home.

Not in Bethlehem from where Joseph and Mary had to flee soon enough because Herod was about to kill all her infants. Not in Nazareth where the crowd joined against Him to throw Him out. Not at Gerasenes where, despite the mighty deeds He did, they pleaded with Him to leave. Not in Samaria when He passed through.

And then definitely not in Jerusalem. Though she might be called Zion - the city of God - she would crucify her God outside her city walls! Yes, what could be more of a sign than the king with nowhere to stay?

In fact, dear friends, the only place Jesus was ever meant to stay was hanging upon the cursed cross! That is the real meaning of the Christ-child being wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

It was Jesus Himself, who, during His ministry said there was only one sign He would give. In that one sign, congregation, there's all the meaning to what's happening here. As the Lord Jesus responds to the repeated Jewish request for a sign in Luke 12, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." (Luke 12:39 ff)

Look to that sign! In the words of John 3, verses 14 and 15, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

Friends - have you seen how awful Christmas really is? Or is it still that the Nativity scene is just that - mild, harmless, a lovely family picture. Which Christmas is it for you?

Jesus Christ was born there, congregation, because there was nowhere. It's completely different than the Christmas you'll probably enjoy with family and friends today.

It was a sign. A sign shows the way. And what could be more of a sign that the King of kings being born this way. After all, isn't He the only way? Through whom else can we pray? You have to see that by faith today!

Amen.

PRAYER:

 

O LORD God, as we see your Son humble in the stable, may His example inspire us to look beyond what this world is and has. May we look instead to when He'll come again. Make us ready for that time when not only shepherds will hear the angelic voices, but the whole world will bow in homage to the great and glorious One.

 

Amen.