December 18, 2011 Luke 1:47-55 Luke 1:26-38 God as a Baby: Why? Dr. Ted H.

Sandberg Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webbers once controversial rock opera of the early 70's, Jesus Christ Superstar, portrays the final 6 days leading up to, and including, Jesus crucifixion. Just before the crucifixion scene, Webber and Rice have Judas Iscariot reflect upon the time he spent with Jesus, and then ask questions about who Jesus was and what Jesus was all about. Judas, who is shown still loving Jesus even though hes betrayed him, eventually speaks from a 21st Century perspective. In one of the great songs of the musical, Judas asks of the Jesus he himself has sent to the cross, Every time I look at you I dont understand, Why you let the things you do get so out of hand. Youd have managed better if youd had it planned. Whyd you choose such a backward time in such a strange land? If youd come today you would have reached the whole nation. Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication.1 I suspect all of us at one time or another, have asked similar questions. Why did you send your Son to the Jews, God? They were already on your side. Why not send Jesus today when he couldve jetted around the globe, preaching to the whole world in just a few years, or even gone on-line? Oh, and since this is the Christmas season, why did Jesus have to come as a baby anyway? It wouldve been much more impressive if hed come as a King, or the President, rather than as a baby. Ever asked questions like that? When we start asking questions like Judas asked in the rock opera, when we start asking questions like Why did Jesus come into the world as a baby when he couldve come as an archangel in glory and power, then we may well decide that God does things much differently from the way wed do them if we were in charge. Maybe we even think that God is just plain weird. Its possible to think this way, because if it was up to us, we wouldnt have done it this way. Jesus wouldnt have been crucified. Hed have defeated the armies of Rome single handedly after all he was Gods own son. Or if he was crucified, hed have been bodily lifted off the cross so that every one there wouldve known that theyd tried to kill the Son of God. Jesus certainly wouldnt have been born illegitimately to a young teenage mother. Hed have come in power and glory. Those angels who sang to the shepherds wouldve sung to the whole world, and people everywhere wouldve known that something special had occurred. If Id been in charge of planning the entry of Gods own son into the world, things wouldve been done differently. Which simply means that we dont understand what God was doing when God sent Jesus to earth. To ask why Jesus was born of Mary as Luke clearly tells us Jesus was, is to miss the theological meaning of Christmas. To begin asking why God acted as God did opens us to the theology of Christmas and thats good! Too often Christmas is more sentimentality than it is theology. While its often good to enjoy the beauty and wonder and awe involved in Christmas, its also good to understand that Jesus came into the world as he did for a reason, or for a number of reasons, not just so that we can look at the nativity scene and get a warm tingly feeling inside us. I want to explore a couple of reason why God come into the world as a baby. The first reason is suggested by the prophet Isaiah when he proclaims Gods word to us: For my

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Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Superstar, from Jesus Christ Superstar.

thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.2 While as humans we pride ourselves in our intelligence, we fool ourselves if we think we can even begin to comprehend the ways of God. The enormity of our human pride is revealed when we rely upon our human intellect, our human reason, and conclude there is no God. There are those who think that because they cant comprehend God, cant imagine God is, then there isnt God. They can believe in the enormity of the universe, even multiple universes (which is the latest thing), they can believe in quarks and strings and other dimensions, but they dont believe there is a God. Its because of this human pride that God came to earth in human form, came to earth to teach us about God. There are many stories around that seek to explain this to us. Perhaps the simplest is of the two men who were talking about this very question of why God came to earth in Jesus as they walked down the sidewalk together. One of the men just couldnt understand. As they were walking along, they noticed an anthill in one of the sidewalk cracks. The first man said to his friend, If you wanted to get those ants to build their anthill in a safer location, how would you do it? The friend offered a number of suggestions, all with obvious flaws. Finally, he decided that the only way to accomplish the task would be to talk with the ants and explain the situation which he certainly couldnt do as a human being. To truly communicate with the ants, hed have to become an ant. Thats exactly what God did in Jesus Christ, his friend said. God came to earth in the infant Jesus Christ in order to communicate with us. God spoke through the 10 Commandments, but humanity chose to ignore Gods law. God spoke through the prophets, but humanity didnt listen to other humans. So God came to us in the person of Jesus Christ, as a human being like you and me, to show us Gods love for all people. By coming as a human being, God also shows us that God understands what it means to be limited as we humans are limited. God knows what its like to watch His son die, just as we know what its like to watch loved ones die. God knows, through Jesus Christ, what its like not to know whats going to happen tomorrow. God knows, through Jesus Christ, what its like to be rejected by family and friends and neighbors. God knows what it is to be truly human, just like us. Now because God created us, God already knew what it was to be human before God sent Jesus to earth. It wasnt for Gods understanding that Jesus came to earth, but for ours so that wed be able to see that God knows what it is to be human, so that wed know that God knows our human limitations, so that wed know that God knows what its like to be tempted. Christmas is a great reminder to us that God took human form, with all our human limitations, when Jesus entered the world as an infant. Theres one more important lesson to learn here, a lesson we Baptists often miss because we dont like to have much to do with Mary. Historically, Baptists have paid little attention to Mary because Roman Catholics have paid so much attention to her. But basically in ignoring Mary, weve missed Marys vital role in the Christmas story and to a lesser extent Josephs role as well. By ignoring Mary, we fail to understand how God works in the world. Listen again to how Luke describes what happened to Mary.

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Isaiah 55:8-9

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgins name was Mary. And he came to her and said, Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I am a virgin? The angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. Then Mary said, Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word. Then the angel departed from her. So often we focus here on Marys virginity when thats not really the focus of attention in this passage at all. The true miracle is Marys willingness to bear Jesus, the Son of God. Mary couldve said, No to Gabriel, after all. She couldve said, Thats not for me Gabriel. Find someone else. Find someone else whos willing to become pregnant when shes not married and suffer the whispers and the ridicule of family and friends. Find someone else whos more gullible than me. Mary couldve said No to God. Thats important for us to remember here. Thats important for us to understand. Its important because this is how God works in the world even today. This is why God came as a baby and not as a warrior King. God came in human form so that we can say yes or no to Gods love. God doesnt force us to accept Gods love, just as God didnt force Mary to become the mother of Jesus. We can say No, just as Mary couldve said no. If Jesus had been a warrior King, had forced all humanity to bow before him, what kind of choice would that have presented humanity? Bow or die, is not a choice, and evidently, God wants to give us the choice of believing and worshiping God or not. Indeed, it would seem that this is what God is all about, giving you and me to opportunity to believe or not believe, the opportunity to follow Gods teachings or do our own thing even if that means screwing things up. God gives us the opportunity to say Yes or No, just as God gave Mary that opportunity. Christmas, as the rest of the Christian year, is about saying yes to God. Do we believe that Jesus was the Son of God? Do we believe that Jesus came to earth to show us Gods love, to offer us Gods forgiveness, to proclaim the coming of Gods Kingdom? Do we believe that Jesus left us the Holy Spirit to strengthen and guide us as we seek to minister to hungry, the homeless, and as we seek to proclaim the Good News of Gods love? Do we believe? God doesnt force us to say Yes, but rather God asks us to say Yes. Thats why Jesus came as a baby to offer us the opportunity to say Yes to God.