Anticipation (part 4) - the rest of the story

Maybe you remember who Paul Harvey is.  If you are younger then chances are you have never even heard of Paul Harvey.  He was a radio broadcaster who reported news on syndicated radio for many, many years.  But besides reporting the news each day, Paul Harvey also told stories.  He would take a famous person from American history and tell the story of his or her life before they were famous—but he wouldn’t tell us the name.  And by the time he got to the end of his biographical piece—and it would by then become somewhat obvious whom he was talking about—Paul Harvey would give the name of the person and then he would always say…and now you know the rest of the story.

This week we get to a place in our journey through Micah where we start to see glimpses of Jesus coming long before the story ever takes place.  Or maybe I should say that just a bit differently; the story that we know, the story we see performed in Christmas programs gives us the main action…we see the main event; but there’s more…it’s not the rest of the story.

Micah 5:1–5a (NIV)

Micah 5:1–5 (NIV)

1 Marshal your troops now, city of troops,

for a siege is laid against us.

They will strike Israel’s ruler

on the cheek with a rod.

2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

though you are small among the clans of Judah,

out of you will come for me

one who will be ruler over Israel,

whose origins are from of old,

from ancient times.”

3 Therefore Israel will be abandoned

until the time when she who is in labor bears a son,

and the rest of his brothers return

to join the Israelites.

4 He will stand and shepherd his flock

in the strength of the Lord,

in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And they will live securely, for then his greatness

will reach to the ends of the earth.

5 And he will be our peace

Matthew 3:13–17 NIV

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Long before there was ever a census in the Roman Empire—in fact, long before there was even a Roman Empire at all—there was a plan.  God knew that there would be a savior—he himself would be the savior.  But this plan is no Disney fairytale.  This plan of God we see in scripture and watch acted out at Christmastime—this is no picnic. In real life, God’s plan is earthy, it’s human, it comes to an ordinary world going about life in ordinary ways.

Mary and Joseph faced everyday life filled with all the hassles and anxieties that a busy life in a messed up world can bring

You see, the Jewish people living during the time of the Roman Empire carried the everyday inconveniences of being an occupied land.  They were ruled by a foreign power, and their everyday activities had to adjust to what that meant—to how they functioned—to rules they had to follow.  There may not have been anything extraordinary about the Roman census that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.  It was everyday life filled with all the hassles and anxieties that a busy life in a messed up world can bring.  But we know there’s something else going on.  And we dramatize it, we glorify it, we idealize it.  But underneath it all is a world full of people going about their business.

most of the world went on functioning as normal that first Christmas day

Sure, there were the select few that we know about who saw something special.  There were those shepherds who heard the announcement from the angels.  There were those kings—magi—who came from a far away land.  But really—most of the world went on functioning as normal that day.

A normal world for us is a world that has its ups and downs.  We have our highs and lows.  We watch the news or read the paper and are reminded of horrible tragedies and extraordinary accomplishments.  We mourn losses and deal with setbacks.  But we also cherish close relationships and take joy in reaching our own accomplishments.  Its normal, its everyday life.

This is the world into which God comes.  It’s earthy, it’s real, it’s human.  It’s no Disney fairytale.  The grand announcements are for a very select few.  But for most of us, life has its normal rhythms and patterns.  We go on about our business.  And this is the world God comes to.  This is the world God inhabits.

Micah points to Bethlehem — a very ordinary place with very ordinary people

Look at how Micah reminds us of this today in chapter five.  “Bethlehem, though you are small…”  Bethlehem, the normal town with normal people doing normal things.  Coming out from the ordinary, there is something greater.  From the places where we would least expect to find it, comes exactly what we all need.  Micah says, “He will be their peace.”  Micah’s world needed a heavy dose of peace.  The northern kingdom of Israel has already fallen to the Assyrians and things were not looking too good for the remnant of Judah that was left in the land.  So where is the answer going to come from?  Everybody is looking to the capital city—they are looking to Jerusalem.  They are leaning all their hopes on their “Washington DC.”  But the answer does not come from the capitol.  It does not come from headquarters.  It does not come from Jerusalem.  It does not come from Washington.  The answer comes from Pella Iowa; Ogalalla Nebraska.  It comes from normal-town USA.  It comes from Bethlehem.  God comes where we least expect to see him.  He comes to our world.  He comes to you and to me.

John was baptizing ordinary people in an ordinary river Jesus insists on being included

This has always been the pattern.  This has always been God’s plan.  In the story of Jesus we read today from Matthew we see Jesus insisting that he be baptized.  John refuses because he thinks Jesus is too great for him to baptize.  But Jesus maintains at that moment, he must enter into the ordinary everyday existence that we all experience.  It’s earthy, it’s human, it’s real.  But at the same time, there’s a glimpse of something much greater going on, isn’t there?  Because we also see that moment when God is revealed.  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit come together in a perfect moment reminding us that in the plain everyday ordinary rhythms of life, God comes and does extraordinary things.

contrast in Micah 5 highlights application for us today too

Maybe we miss this pattern as it unfolds in Micah’s writing. Chapter 5 sets up a contrast which highlights a particular application of this into the world in which the people of Judah were living back in that day. And I think the same application fits with our world today as well. So then, spend a little time with me unfolding what this would have looked like in the world of the prophet Micah; and then let’s see how this also shows us a message from God that fits into our world right now as well.

vs 1 points to a crisis mode — automatic response is to look for our own response with our own resources

We see from the beginning of Micah 5 that God’s people must have been living in some kind of crisis mode. Micah is not the one calling for assembling of the army in verse 1. Rather, this is Micah echoing what he hears others in Judah calling for. Micah is giving voice here to what he hears the people saying when crisis mode kicks in. The people immediately go to a call-to-arms which looks to their own strength and their own resources as an answer. It is an attempt to draw upon their own abilities in order to take charge and control their own destiny and their own preferred future.

“One factor that determines how people respond to a crisis is their belief about God’s sovereign plans in relation to ‘our' plans for the future.” - Gary Smith

they had very particular expectations about how God was going to show up and deal with the crisis they were facing

Bible commentator Gary Smith says this about it, “One factor that determines how people respond to a crisis is their belief about God’s sovereign plans in relation to ‘our' plans for the future.” For those of us who are people of faith, we might have very specific expectations of how God is going to show up in our lives—particularly in times of crisis. This describes the kingdom of Judah during the time of the prophet Micah. They had very particular expectations about how God was going to show up and deal with the crisis they were facing.

Israel was looking for God to send another king David one who could single-handedly face a giant like Goliath and win on the people’s behalf

We can fill in the blacks around this passage with what we know about Israel’s history in other parts of the Bible. The quick answer here is that they were looking for God to send another king David—in fact, someone with the heroic quality of David that made him legendary in Israel’s history. They expected God to send one who could single-handedly face a giant like Goliath and win all by himself. Micah does not need to specifically say so in his words; it is assumed that this is common knowledge that everybody knows.

Micah reminds them in verses 2 and 4 of the context from which David came

that Bethlehem was just another village like all the rest that shepherds were common workers like all the rest

But now look what Micah does with this expectation of a warrior king anointed by God who would slay the enemies and cut down the foes and avert the crisis. Micah reminds them in verses 2 and 4 of the context from which David came. He calls out David’s humble ordinary origins as a shepherd from Bethlehem. Micah reminds them that Bethlehem was just another village like all the rest. And since the economy during the days of the Bible assumed that most families have livestock, just about every household would have shepherds who tended the flocks. It is as though Micah is reading their minds and slices right down the middle of their thoughts of a warrior king with the reminder that God raised up David from within a very ordinary world. Back in the time of king Saul and the crisis of invading Philistines, nobody expected a boy like David to be the one God would send. At that time David was a nobody who came from a nobody family living in a nowhere-special village. David was not born as a king, he was not born into a palace.

Micah points back to David’s ordinary origins — also points forward to Jesus

It is as though Micah is using Israel’s own memories as a wake up call to remind them of the way God’s salvation for his people comes into the world. It wasn’t the first time God would do things this way, and it wouldn’t be the last time either. In fact, God would do that very same thing again from that very same town using the very same family lineage. It is entirely unlikely that Micah knew when he was writing these words to remind God’s people about the origins of David that these same words would point forward to the Christ who would be born in Bethlehem. But Micah would not have to know the deeper meaning when he wrote these words, because it is not Micah’s plan. It’s God’s plan. And God is the one who planted the thoughts in Micah’s head to write this letter even if Micah was not completely aware of the way this prophecy points forward to Jesus. But it does; and it stands today as a reminder for God’s people in this time as we anticipate the celebration of Christmas this season.

reminder for us that God’s plan of bringing peace into the world arises from ordinary humble beginnings and does not depend on the might and power of our own resources and our own ideas

It is the reminder for us too that God’s plan of bringing peace into the world arises from ordinary humble beginnings and does not depend on the might and power of our own resources and our own ideas. How often isn’t it true that we look for God to show up and respond in our world with some kind of warrior king who will accomplish exactly what we want accomplished according to our own plans and ideas? When we think of God’s salvation we look for the big and amazing events which show up in indisputable miraculous fashion.

we forget and we miss the way that God shows up in plain ordinary everyday life

And when that becomes our expectation, we forget and we miss the way that God shows up in plain ordinary everyday life—ways which are also miraculous, but so often are overlooked. We celebrate the amazing gift of Jesus coming into the world at Christmas, but we overlook the ways in which it was an ordinary family in an ordinary village full of ordinary people going on about their ordinary lives. We anticipate everything amazing at Christmas, but we forget the rest of the story. We forget to anticipate the ways in which God shows up into everyday ordinary life. Like Old Testament Israel, we forget to lay aside our own plans and ideas that we want from God. Like Old Testament Israel, we lose sight of the ways that God inhabits all the ordinary and unlikely spaces of our world.

look for God to show up in ordinary places

Spaces like a stable. I know, we don’t live in a world anymore in which stables and mangers are ordinary common structures. It takes a little imagination to bring the common ordinary scene of that first Christmas forward into our world today. I think our equivalent would be the backyard tool shed with a lawnmower and garden tools. I imagine that if the Christmas story occurred in today’s world as it did in the Bible, then Jesus would have been born in somebody’s backyard tool shed and he would have been placed in a wheelbarrow instead of a manger. Or perhaps today’s equivalent of the Christmas story would unfold in a parking lot in which at any time a number of homeless people are present living in their cars. In today’s version of Christmas, Jesus shows up in the backseat of a rundown sedan parked out in the corner of the Walmart parking lot. That’s how God chose to send his salvation into the world. Those are the places where God shows up. We lose sight of that, don’t we? We don’t first go looking for Jesus in places like that, do we?

the ordinary places of the world is where God meets us

In that first Christmas story, God became incarnate and entered our world, and it was extraordinary and amazing. But the rest of the story is that at the same time that first Christmas was very very ordinary. If it feels like you struggle to see where God exists in our world today, start by looking in the most unlikely ordinary places where you would least expect to find God. That is the place in the world where you will find God because it is in those ordinary places of the world where God meets us.