We do know that Jesus wasn't born on Christmas day, right? His birth wasn't connected to that date until the 4th century when it was attached to a Roman holiday. The bible doesn't give us any clue as to when He was born, except that whatever happened of significance in His life was always connected to or fulfilled a biblical holiday, and December 25th surely wasn't one of them.
It is unlikely that His birth was celebrated at all by Yeshua's Jewish followers. When Jews celebrated the holy days (holidays) they were God's idea and it was God Himself they celebrated. When He gave them a harvest and called for a Feast, for instance of the harvest, it was a time to rejoice in God's goodness and provision to them, of His faithfulness upon which they relied. Or of the Exodus and the great deliverance He brought to them. Except for the shepherds gleeful response to the angelic announcement and came to find Him, Yeshua as a baby was unlikely to have been cause for celebration, especially considering the significance of all that transpired at the end of His earthly life.
Nevertheless God made it a point to tell us of the various dynamics of the event for a purpose, as everything God does carries with it a message to us. My thoughs went to Miryam/Mary and her deep humility before God in contrast to what appears to be so many self-righteous and outwardly religious folks (though not all) fulfilling one assignment or another related to or in the temple. But God did through Miryam what was entirely unlike anything that anyone with any sense of what was expected of God would have thought of!
Certainly there were expectations in Israel at that time that one day, and hopefully soon, Messiah would come and He would change everything. Their expectations were all based on Scripture, even though there were conflicting expectations of how it would all take place. What was agreed upon was that Messiah would do away with sin and sinners as God's wrath poured out upon them. He would surely free Israel from the oppression of her enemies, which to most Jews surely meant the Romans. To some He would take His place as Messiah King and like David, free Israel entirely to once again be a sovereign nation. Some expected immediate peace, while others were geared up for war like Peter with his dagger, Zealots who were ready to fight alongside Messiah when He revealed Himself at King.Does that give you some insight into some of what Peter did or said?
Others thought of when Messiah would bring peace to the entire earth and all would come to worship in Jerusalem where He would set up His throne and rule the world from there - where, some thought, we know from requests of His own disciples, they would be beside Him
Expectations ran high. They extended to the ways many of the thousands of priests and the 70 men of the Sanhedrin and other religious folk exhibited their holiness by how they dressed, often in elaborate prayer shawls and phylacteries, how scrupulously they washed their hands, even the way they walked, and the many ways they had added to Torah. Add to that their involvement in whatever was going on in the temple that was meant to catch Messiah's attention when He would come. Surely He would take note of all their (outward) religious goings-on in the magnificent temple of which they were so proud when He arrived.
It would not be the am ha eretz, the people of the earth, who were too busy with the mundane things of providing for themselves, often with dirty hands, who never had time or perhaps interest in studying the holy books as they did. Surely Messiah would know who the righteous were and who weren't when He came, when sinners would be done away with when God exhibited His wrath against all unrighteousness.
Can you see then why his hob-nobbing with sinners was so contrary to their religious idea of Messiah? Why when they saw Him tenderly treating lepers and prostitutes as if He was their loving shepherd instead of bringing wrath upon them, that they couldn't understand how He could possibly be the Messiah?
Well, God entirely ignored all of that religious activity and their expectations. He would not entrust His Son to the High Priest, or any priest for that matter. He entrusted His Son instead to a humble young woman of the am ha eretz, to someone who apparently had more understanding of what God honored than most of the temple priesthood did. She seemed to know her God and what He valued far beyond that of the temple officiaries. And God knew it. He knew her heart and she won God's favor and trust to bring His Son to her rather then to any of them. Hear some of her words:
"My very being magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoiced on account of God my savior." God is already her Savior, she understands, which had to have been by the Spirit, how it is that God is her Savior. Yeshua becomes our Savior because His Father is first and foremost our Savior; He is revealing the Father in all He does.
"Because He looked upon the humble station of His servant...." She evidently knew what it was to be humble before God. She had evidently, judging from the rest of her words, seen enough of religiosity that she took a position of her need of and dependence upon God, offering Him herself in whatever way He required of her. When she says to the angel when he comes to tell her of the baby, "Behold the servant of the Lord, may it be unto me according to your word," we get the sense that she has some kind of relationship with God already, that she has humbled herself before Him before, perhaps praying for His will in her life, offering Him only her willing love to do as pleases Him with her life.
She goes on to say things which reveal that she has given much thought to God's mercy - what it really is and how it is manifested: "His mercy is for generation to generation to those who fear (revere) Him...He scatters the proud (according to) the understanding (of their prideful) hearts." She goes on to speak of what will come as if it's already happened. "He pulled down rulers from thrones and He raised up the lowly." She knows that God does not despise the lowly, the am ha eretz, as others do.
There is much more in what she is saying here, but she ends it with, "He helped His child Israel, by remembering His mercy just as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever." To Miryam, she knows what God's calling has been since Abraham upon her people, and quite possibly she has taken that as even being her own calling. She, like Abram, believed God, and apparently God counted it to her as righteousness as He did to Abram's faith and obedience.*
What about you? What are you believing God for in your life? Give yourself a gift in this season and take some time to read this whole Luke 1 passage and consider the character and godliness of this young woman. God had entrusted His most precious Son to her, confident that she would raise Him in a way that would not mar or damage His sensitive and tender soul but that she would bring Him up in an atmosphere of reverential fear and loving obedience to God. The books of two of her other sons, James (Ya'acov/Jacob) and Jude (Yehudah/Judah) fill the pages of the New Testament where you will see what kind of boys she raised besides Yeshua. Judging from the fruit of her labors, God knew well her heart and entrusted her with more than just Yeshua. I can't help but wonder if their passion for truth and for God didn't come from their mother as well as their big Brother.
I want God to entrust me with knowing Him and with an understanding of God's ways so that I am "carrying" His Son within me and I am able to "birth" Him into the lives of others. The first step is in coming to know Him more and more as we spend time with Him.
Thinking about this message has given me cause to rethink where I might be more outwardly religious than inwardly reverential. I so want to be humble before the Lord in the secret places of my life where no one else sees but Him. That's where He works in our hearts and souls to make us more like Yeshua. I suspect,He sees what He can entrust us with, level upon level, as we grow in faith in Him. And happily, it is also the place where He will meet us to reveal more of Himself to us, and to grant us more of the gift of His Son - Yeshua, the gift that keeps on giving!
* All Scriptures from Luke 1:46-55 One New Man Bible, my additions added.
Can you explain, "am ha eretz"?
ReplyDeleteAnd secondly, I know you celebrated Hanakkah, but do you - enter into the Christmas celebration at all?
I always enjoy your writing.