CityPoint Advent 3 Discussion Review
This past Sunday we spent time reading through the birth narratives as a group and discussing things that stood out. It’s nice to just read straight through, slowly and intentionally, when it’s a passage we’re very familiar with. It’s especially helpful to have the opportunity to ask questions or share comments in a group, because this gets us to slow down enough to really look at something we’re almost numb to hearing. The two sections are Matthew 1:18-2:23 and Luke 1:26-56; 2:1-40. We read them in two groups, with the intention to look for elements of humility in their situation, situations that might subvert religious and worldly assumptions regarding a Messiah or King, and surprising or subtle God ordained things. You can hear a report of the two groups' thoughts on the video of our Sunday discussion. If you want to do a little extra reading, this is the full extent of the Birth Narrative:
The Promise of John the Baptist's birth: Luke 1:5-25
Gabriel appears to Mary; Joseph's angelic dream: Luke 1:26-38, Matthew 1:18-25
Mary visits Elizabeth: Luke 1:39-56
The Birth of Christ, Visit of the Shepherds: Luke 2:1-20
Circumcision of Jesus; Presentation in the Temple; Blessings of Simeon and Anna: Luke 2:21-38
Visit of the Wise Men: Matthew 2:1-12
Flight into Egypt; Herod slays the babies of Bethlehem: Matthew 2:13-18
Death of Herod, return from Egypt to Nazareth: Matthew 2:19-23, Luke 2:39-40
To really slow down and mentally place yourself in the story, not just as the hero or main characters, but as a confused bystander having no extra information, really helps to get perspective on it. Would this unexpected unfavorable scenario have filled you with confidence in the moment? The whole scenario of the birth narrative is one of humility. To start, the social implications of Mary’s pregnancy are not to be glossed over. Following that, they were weary travelers. They were poor. Their humble situation led them to an inn late at night, only to be turned away. How different would the inn keeper’s response be, had they been nobility? But they weren’t, so the Messiah was born in a stable and laid in an animal feeding trough. The first public announcement was to low status shepherds. The only people who really were aware of His birth were the poor, the old, the ignored, or Gentile foreigners (the Magi), which ended up drawing attention to Him from the illegitimate clown-king Herod who tried to erase Jesus as a threat by murdering all boys under 2 in the region. This sent their family on the run as refugees.
Looking at Matthew 2:1-12 with the Magi seeking out the new King and the religious leaders properly identifying the pieces of the prophecies they were referring to, and just thinking through that scenario through a fresh lens is very enlightening. It’s easy to understand that the human assumption is that if the Son of God, the King of the universe, was born that He would receive as much ceremony as possible, and that would seem to be what the Jews expected, but that is far from what God had planned. John 1:10–11 (NLT) says that “He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.” Matthew Henry’s commentary says this, “It was a mark of humiliation put upon the Lord Jesus that, though he was the Desire of all nations, yet his coming into the world was little observed and taken notice of, his birth was obscure and unregarded: herein he emptied himself, and made himself of no reputation.” Paul follows this Gospel reality in Philippians 2:5-11, saying that because Jesus humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross in our place, God exalted His name above every name.
Going back to Matthew’s birth narrative, “The magi were seeking the King; Herod was opposing the King; and the Jewish priests were ignoring the King. These priests knew the Scriptures and pointed others to the Saviour, but they would not go to worship Him themselves! They quoted Micah 5:2 but did not obey it. They were five miles from the very Son of God, yet they did not go to see Him! The Gentiles sought and found Him, but the Jews did not.” [BEC] From the beginning, many that had the right info and means were the ones who missed it, but those who were unlikely to recognize the Messiah were the ones who caught it, whether it’s outsiders who earnestly sought, or the lowly shepherds being invited directly by the heavenly hosts. The birth narrative gives us a picture of varied human responses to the Gospel.
Where we as humans get into trouble is when we take things into our own hands, as if we could, and assume we know best, we know what God should or would do in a situation, and we end up missing out. But assuming is “supposing to be the case without proof” and that is what we see responses to Jesus in the Gospel narratives look like. That is what we are still guilty of today if we’re honest. How often is the reality and the focus of the gospel message missed by us in our day to day lives when we wrongly assume what holds the highest importance in the moment? Or when we assume God’s intentions and what we think He should do on our behalf? How often do our assumptions line up with human values instead of humble Christ-like Kingdom values? Honestly, I have to admit I often operate from the starting point of my own assumptions and personal conclusions of how I think God should work instead of allowing God to be God and myself to be surprised.
This past year, how have you stubbornly stuck to your assumptions and been disappointed, confused, or angry when God doesn’t move the way you think He should? How often have you overlooked His hand at work, like a Pharisee angry Jesus would heal on the Sabbath? When have you shoehorned Scripture into your current situations, making you the center of the story instead of God’s will? What assumptions do we need to lay aside to better enable us to take the right posture before the Lord so we don’t miss His still small voice?