The Humble Christ

Luke 2:6-7 ESV

6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

In the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, the mother of the disciples James and John approached Jesus and kneeled before Him, saying that she had a special request for Him. When Jesus told her that she could make her request known to Him, she then made known that it was her desire that her sons would be seated at the right and left hand of the Lord Jesus in His kingdom.

Those two places, the places of the right and left hand of the throne were always reserved for those who were next to the sovereign in dignity and consideration.

Now, this was indeed a noble and a faith-filled request. It shows that James and John and their mother all believed that there was a kingdom still to come, because there was no visible messianic kingdom. It also shows that they held a deep commitment to Jesus and believed in those doctrines that He proclaimed.

But historically, we have looked at this request of the mother of James and John in a negative light. And for good reason too.

The reason why we look at this request in a negative light is because previous to this, Jesus had been telling His disciples at length that the first will be last.

Jesus had said that he who humbles himself and serves God because He is God, because he loves God, because he believes God to be worthy of service and of worship, Jesus said that the one who expects nothing for his service and indeed feels honored that he can serve God; Jesus says that that is the one who will be most honored and prominent in the Kingdom of heaven.

But now comes the mother of James and John, and her request is for Jesus to ignore the criteria that He had just spoken of so that whether James and John meet that criteria or not, they will be those who receive the places of highest honor.

Thus, she, and I’m sure also her sons ignored the mandate to serve God because He is God, to be eternally thankful that He even makes you capable of, or willing to serve Him. They ignored the mandate to be willing to be the least servant in the kingdom of God because the only thing that was on their minds was going straight to the top.

But as Jesus said, to be the greatest in the kingdom of God you must be the servant of all, for the last will be first and the first will be last.

Jesus knew this quite well as He voluntarily made Himself last. He Himself said that the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve. And we see that ultimate act of service to God, love for God, and love for His elect people when He went to the cross and died for His elect people, paying their sin debt in full to the glory of God.

But though Jesus was last on earth, He is indeed first in the kingdom of God as He triumphantly defeated death through His own resurrection and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father, waiting until the time when He will make for the Lord Jesus, His enemies as a footstool for His feet.

But before the exaltation came humiliation. And that humiliation was embraced by the Lord Jesus because He knew that fulfilling the will of His Father was of the utmost importance and thus the highest priority of His.

But it wasn’t just the death of Jesus that was humbling, the birth of Jesus was humbling as well. And today, as we look at our text, we will speak of this humble beginning of the Savior of God’s people.

Last week, we spoke of the immediate context surrounding this narrative when we said that Caesar Augustus decreed that every man and his family be registered for imperial tax purposes.

In order for this to be, every man in the three regions of Israel were to return to their ancestral city to be registered. And we said that those who were of the house of David were to report to Bethlehem for their registration. Well, Joseph and Mary were both of the house of David, and it just so happened that Bethlehem was the prophesied town in which the Messiah was to be born.

We also noted that Mary, who was carrying the Messiah, was very near to giving birth when she and her husband Joseph made their trip to Bethlehem. Now, as we noted last week, this was decreed by Caesar for selfish, self-glorifying purposes; but though that was the case, the overarching providence of God was working this together to bring about His own purposes.

And we see in verse 6 of our reading, God fully bringing His will and His purpose to pass through this decree of Caesar, where it says:

Luke 2:6 ESV

6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.

What we see in this verse is further proofs of the sovereignty of God being active, alive, and effectual. For Joseph and Mary make their trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem and just like Micah 5:2 tells us, so we see here that while Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem, the time came for her to give birth.

There is no heading back up to Nazareth and Galilee, for the Prince of Peace, the Savior of God’s elect, the only begotten Son of God is coming into the very world that He created, and He will be entering the world that He created in the little town of Bethlehem.

Caesar Augustus was the adopted son of Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar was considered by his followers to be a god, thus, Caesar Augustus, the adopted son of Julius Caesar was declared to be “the son of god”. And this “son of god” was emperor and ruler over the Roman Empire when the legitimate Son of God came into the world that He created.

In fact, this man, Caesar Augustus who claimed to be the “son of god” could not have even ruled, could not have even held the position that he held had not the true Son of God, had not the One Who was now being born in Bethlehem granted him the power that he held.

And now the true Son of God humbly comes into the world that He created and humbly sets Himself under the earthly authority of this pretend “son of god”.

But little did this pretend “son of god” know that he had set the stage for the legitimate Son of God to be born in the exact location that the true God of heaven and earth proclaimed that He would be born in.

As Thomas Schreiner, in the ESV Expositional Commentary says in his commentary on this verse: “From the decree of Augustus to the birth pangs of Mary, we see the Lord working out His plan”.

And we see the fulfillment of this God-ordained plan in the first part of verse 7, where it says:

Luke 2:7a ESV

7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son

The time for the Lord Jesus to be born in Bethlehem came, and here we see it coming to pass when it says that while in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to her firstborn Son.

Now, when we see that title, “firstborn Son” our minds probably tell us that this chiefly indicates that Mary gave birth to other sons, but that Jesus was the firstborn among these sons. And yes, Mary did indeed have other sons after Jesus as the scriptures later inform us that Jesus had brothers and sisters. But I don’t believe that this particular definition of “firstborn” is what our text is chiefly indicating.

In Psalm 89:27, when speaking of the coming Messiah, God says:

Psalm 89:27 ESV

27 And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

Over one thousand years before Jesus was born, before He came into the world that He created, God proclaimed that He would indeed bring Him into the world. And God says that He, Jesus, God the Son would be the Firstborn.

While God created all men, there is One Who is the only begotten of God. And have you ever wondered what that word “begotten” means? It means of the same substance.

None of us can say that we are of the same substance as God. We can confidently say that we are of a like substance as our own mother and father, but there is only one God, there are not multiple Gods, therefore, the One Who is begotten of God is indeed God.

And that title of God’s only begotten Son, the title of One being fully man and fully God belongs to One, the Lord Jesus, Who was born in the little town of Bethlehem.

And He is the Firstborn in that though He is the only begotten of God, still through Him, the elect of God become the children of God, adopted into God’s family through the propitiatory offering of the only Begotten of God.

Furthermore, this only Begotten of God has already and will in time be publicly made manifest as the highest of kings of the earth.

This means that the legitimate Son of God is King of all kings, even over the illegitimate “son of god” Casaer Augustus, who the Lord Jesus was born subject under.

Jesus is indeed the King of kings, but as Jesus proclaimed that the greatest in the Kingdom of God would be the servant of all, so did He publicly demonstrate this, first in the manner of His birth as we see in the remainder of our text, as it is written that Mary:

Luke 2:7b ESV

7b wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Here He is! Come into the world! Jesus, the long-awaited Christ. Fully man, fully God, God of all gods, King of all kings.

And being brought into the world that He created, His mother wraps Him in swaddling cloths. I think most, if not all of us are familiar with what swaddling cloths are. They are strips of linen that a mother wraps around her baby.

A newborn baby is used to being in a womb, an obviously very tight place, and swaddling cloths tightly wrapped around a baby helps the baby transition from the womb to the outside world.

This highlights the humanity of Jesus. Jesus is indeed perfectly human, but that does not mean that Jesus did not experience a human experience. He experienced hunger, thirst, fatigue, sadness, anger, joy, and a myriad of other features of the human experience that we all experience.

Thus, we first see the humility of Jesus in that He temporarily left His divine, heavenly abode to experience life as man on earth.

We then see that Mary; the mother of Jesus, took her Son and laid Him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn.

Now, in our message last week, we spoke of the circumstances here. The decree for the census had gone out, calling the man of the house to report to his family’s ancestral town to register for the census. With this being the case, the little town of Bethlehem was jammed packed with descendants of King David.

Because this was the case, Joseph and Mary could not lodge in a family member’s home, for they were already filled to the brim. And because they were already filled, the young couple probably made arrangements with a family in the town to sleep over in a stall that was attached to their home.

Thus, in this setting, the King of kings was brought into the world. He was not born and brought into the world in a magnificent palace, filled with all of the finest amenities, being pampered, and revered as the King that He is. No, the King of kings came to serve, not to be served, thus, He was born in a stable and placed in a manger, a feeding trough for livestock.

In this way, the God-man came into the world that He created, born to serve, born to be obedient to the will of the Father, born to lay down His life for the sake of His elect and for the accomplishment of His own glory.

Now today, what He calls us as His people to is a life of service. A daily humbling of ourselves, a daily sorrow over our sins, a daily longing to please and serve the God Who made us His very own.

And because of what Jesus has accomplished for His elect people on their behalf, it is possible for them to do so.

Oh beloved, may we remember every day, every moment, that it is not about us! God has caused us to be born-again, not for our own sake, but for His sake! Therefore, may we strive to be the lowest servant of God, and in due time, He will lift us up, He will make us great in the Kingdom of heaven.

But let us not strive to be the lowest so that we can later be the greatest, that defeats the whole purpose. Instead, let us seek to be the lowest because we recognize that He is the highest and that we don’t even deserve to be the lowest before Him.

Let us humbly serve.

Amen?