Brings Us Love

A few years ago the Muppets and CeeLo Green co- performed a Christmas song called “All I Need Is Love” Here is a short clip of their video. [Video]

If we had time to watch the whole video we would see that it is full of action and humor. CeeLo and the crew sing all about Christmas presents they could get - fancy toys and the latest technology. But—perhaps ironically—at its core, the song captures the true message of Christmas. The Muppets and CeeLo don’t want all that stuff. All they want or need for Christmas is love. Well, maybe all of them but Miss Piggy anyway. She’s always been quite the material pig.

I’m quite sure the Muppets never set out to make any grand theological statements with their Christmas song, but the song taps into the truth that all we do need is love. Today as we celebrate together the second Sunday on our Advent journey of God with Us, we are celebrating love. When Jesus came into our world as a baby, He was the human embodiment of the gift of God’s love. When He came as Immanuel, God with Us, He came as God incarnate—He came as love incarnate.

Advent looks back in celebration at the hope fulfilled in Jesus Christ’s coming, while at the same time looking forward in hopeful and eager anticipation to the coming of Christ’s kingdom when He returns for His people. During Advent we wait for both—it’s an active, assured, and hopeful waiting. And each week, we focus on a different attribute of God represented in the coming of Jesus: hope, love, joy, and peace.

Mary and Joseph: A Love Story

We’ve already begun today talking about a love song. Let’s talk now about a love story.

Have you ever thought about the story of Mary and Joseph as a love story? I mean, sure, you know the Christmas story. You’ve probably heard it many, many times before. But think about it: Mary and Joseph, a love story.

Really?

Absolutely.

Imagine with me and place yourself back in the ancient, dusty days of Israel under the Roman Empire.

In a small village called Nazareth lives a carpenter named Joseph.

He has noble ancestry; he’s distantly related to King David himself, but he lives a humble life working with his hands as a tradesman. He probably learned to build things from his father, who was probably a carpenter before him.

Some scholars think Joseph grew up in Bethlehem, but at some point moved to Nazareth, about seventy miles north as the crow flies. Maybe this was so he could build his own carpentry business. We don’t know for sure, but we can speculate that Joseph had probably been working long enough to establish himself as an honorable and fairly successful craftsman.

That would have made him an eligible bachelor, probably around twenty years old, who was ready to marry and establish his own family.

The younger girls of the village—or more likely their fathers—would have noticed.

You have to remember that the Jewish marriage customs of the day were quite different from ours. They followed clearly defined legal guidelines and took place in three stages: the contract, the consummation, and the celebration.

First, Mary’s father would have gone to Joseph to propose and arrange the marriage. A cash price, like a dowry, would be set that Joseph would pay to Mary’s family, maybe along with some gifts, and a contract, would be signed. And at that point, Joseph and Mary were married 100 percent. He was her husband. She was his wife.

Even though they were married they still did not live together rather over the next year or so they spent time getting to know each other, more like the dating stage we’re used to—minus the dinner-and-a-movie outings.

During this time Joseph would be busy building a home for him and Mary to live. In case you were wondering he could just through up a few boards and say it was a home so that he and Mary could move in together. It had to meet with the approval of his father.

Stage two of the marriage would take place when all was ready. Joseph would lead a procession of his friends to Mary’s house, where she would be waiting with a group of her friends. Then while everyone waited in the house, the couple would consummate their marriage.

And then everyone would go together and have a marriage feast to celebrate the final stage of the process.

Very different from what we’re used to. And it probably sounds quite awkward to most of us in our day. You’re also probably thinking, How unromantic!

During the time between the signing of the marriage contract and the Wedding day, this young couple learned more about each other: what made each other laugh, how they handled challenges and hard days, the strengths of their personalities that shone and the imperfections where they failed, their hopes and fears and dreams for the future, how many children they hoped to have one day, what kind of home Joseph could one day build for his wife and family, how they longed for the day to come when the time was right to consummate their marriage. Each day that passed, Mary and Joseph chose love, and that love continued to deepen and grow.

So imagine the emotional bombshell that went off when Joseph heard the news. Mary came and told him the news. “Joseph, I know this sounds crazy, but an angel visited me and told me I’m going to have a baby. And the angel said His name will be Jesus, and ‘He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.’ He’s the Messiah, Joseph! You have to believe me. It’s a miracle, but it’s true because . . . because . . . I’m pregnant.”

If you have ever experienced the betrayal of adultery or been close to someone who has, you know the devastation of betrayal.

Maybe he tried to listen to those first words—an angel, a miracle, the Messiah—but all he must have felt was the weight of the word pregnant. Everybody knows there is only one way to get pregnant, and Joseph knew he had not been involved. Everyone would have known he had not been involved—unless he dishonored Mary and her family and all he held to be true. And if he had, then he too would be a disgrace to all their society.

This was all too much for Joseph. Maybe he walked away in silence, broken and speechless. Maybe he shouted and stormed and sent Mary away in tears. Things did not go smoothly.

And maybe this was part of why Mary went to spend three months with her aunt Elizabeth, away from her own village in the hill country of Judea. It would buy time for Mary’s family to figure out what to do—how would people ever believe this story from Mary? Could they even believe it? Maybe it would give Joseph time to accept it.

So the lovers parted, with pain and anger and distrust swirling in and around them, and young Mary was clinging desperately to the encouraging words of an angel and a knowledge deep in her soul that for whatever reason, no matter how incredulous it sounded and how miraculous it was, God’s very Son had sprung to life within her. Somehow God would make a way.

God Gives Love

Mary’s journey to her cousin Elizabeth’s house couldn’t have been easy. The walk would have been long and hot. The road must have been lonely, and the miles must have echoed in her brain with the recent conversations: the pain and hurt in Joseph’s eyes and words, the disbelief and confusion from her family, and always the hope and promise delivered by the angel. She knew the truth, but how would everyone else see? What was going to happen to her?

But as soon as Mary arrived, she was greeted with love. “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” Elizabeth exclaimed.

Can you imagine the relief? Immediately Elizabeth, who was carrying her own miracle child, knew and confirmed to Mary that love was here, that God was here, and that everything was going to be all right.

In the midst of Mary’s human crisis, God provided just the love she needed through another person who understood and supported her. That’s often the way God’s love works. As we walk in His love, He knows just what we need, and He brings us support from other people around us. On the flip side, He often uses us to provide that love and support for others.

In Joseph’s case, his needs were a little different. Back in Nazareth in his pain and confusion, Joseph decided he was going to divorce Mary. The pain was too much. He couldn’t believe this was happening. And while legally he could have taken Mary to the courts and had her tried and potentially stoned to death, he still loved her. He couldn’t do that, but he couldn’t handle this breach of trust. And the law allowed him to divorce her quietly and to try not to make a public disgrace of her.

That’s when, in this supernatural love story, God knew that Joseph needed some supernatural love. So Joseph, too, got a visit from an angel with this message: “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20–21).

Notice how God knew exactly what was at the heart of Joseph’s hurt: fear. And God gave Joseph the reassurance he needed to trust Mary and her love—and ultimately to trust God and His love to make a way in their amazing, unbelievable, and ultimately triumphant love story that was looking like nothing either one of them could have ever imagined.

Joseph chose love and trust, even though the law told him he could do otherwise. And it’s a beautiful reflection of God’s own choice to love and foster relationship with us. Even though our sin means death and separation from the holy, perfect God, in His nature of pure love, He chose us—even at the terrible price of His Son’s life. John 3:16 tells us that it was because of love that God sent Jesus to earth to give His life for us.

As mind-blowing as it is, God’s love is eternal. It’s as never-ending as God Himself. It was. It is now. It will be. And He will never stop demonstrating His love in tangible ways that are both daily occurrences and history-changing events like Christ’s birth.

God’s Love Flows Through Us

Like any true, God-written love story, Mary and Joseph’s love didn’t end with themselves.

Mary and Joseph were in it together: the long journey to Bethlehem, the seemingly desperate night with Mary about to give birth and no place to even rest, the birth and first cry of the Messiah held in their arms in a stable. And then the joy of the others: the shepherds; the exotic wise men; Simeon and Anna, the prophets in the temple who recognized their Savior in this tiny baby; the angelic visits and warnings to flee to another country to protect their child and then to return.

In this Advent season, we have the opportunity to reflect on how we can allow God’s love to flow through us.

Jesus taught, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34–35).

The ability to do so begins as we open ourselves to God’s love. It then grows and overflows as we extend kindness and care and support to others around us. Sometimes it takes a small step. Sometimes it requires a bigger leap. But through it all, we can trust and know that it is love that holds us. Because God is with us, love is with us. It is an eternal, vast, and powerful love—yet at the same time a gentle, tender, and personal love. And it is love that will make a way, no matter what we are facing in this season or in the days ahead.

Benediction

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” —Ephesians 3:17–19