Make Way For Realism

There are many ways of diminishing the power of the Gospel. One of them is to sentimentalize it. We are most susceptible to this danger during the Christmas season. We adorn our coffee tables with cute angels and the barnyard animals are sanitized and scented with lilacs.

What parent can resist shedding at least a small tear when they hear the words read “they wrapped him in swaddling clothes” because they can remember that day in the hospital when they also held their first born.

I remember watching a 60 Minutes show several years ago. Chris Wallace was interviewing Martha Stewart. They were walking through her estate and past the animal stalls. Wallace commented that had he not seen the animals with his own eyes, he would have never known that he was walking past a stable filled with animals. Stewart thanked him for the compliment and then told him that they do their best to reduce and even eliminate offensive smells. Now that’s the kind of Christmas we would prefer.

Luke allows us to enjoy the innocent beauty of the moment. He describes in detail the non-essentials to the story. Thee is the 90 mile journey of a pregnant young girl; the disappointment of hearing relative after relative say that he had no room; then comes the birth, always a joyous occasion; and the description of a wrapped baby and the manger. We want to picture donkeys and cattle, sheep and goats, ducks and chickens in a Mary Stewart dazzling scenario.

Then there is Matthew. He sticks the details of the story right in our face. First we read are about Mary’s illegitimate pregnancy and a dream that Joseph has. Then Joseph decides to spare Mary public embarrassment so he takes her as his wife but has no union with her.

Matthew 1:5 NIV84

Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse,

Matthew 1:25 NIV84

But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

mt 1

He tells us Jesus was born in Bethlehem but he does not give the how or the why. We must use our imagination. I suppose we could sentimentalize the details in our imagination but Matthew is not going to help us our until some scholar from the east arrive. They have been guided by a star in the east. What a story line. Three reputable witnesses who all saw the same thing—a star.

mt 1:25

He tells us Jesus was born in Bethlehem but he does not give the how or the why. We must use our imagination. I suppose we could sentimentalize the details in our imagination but Matthew is not going to help us our until some scholar from the east arrive. They have been guided by a star in the east. What a story line. Three reputable witnesses who all saw the same thing—a star.

Matthew 2:2 NIV84

and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

mt2:2

T

We can adorn our living rooms with a star. Stars car be any shape or any size or any color we want. We can finally shape the story to our own personal preference. But the visit of these ancient scholars, referred to as Magi in our Pew Bible, is not complete until you read past the last verse of the lectionary selection. That is when Matthew smashes any sentimental display that we might have. Matthew does give us the journey of Joseph and Mary to Egypt. We see Mary riding on a donkey, although she probably walked. We she Joseph slightly ahead of her. On his face was a mixture of worry and hope. He and his wife and the Child have narrowly escaped Herod’s wrath. He is grateful for God’s protective care.

We can adorn our living rooms with a star. Stars car be any shape or any size or any color we want. We can finally shape the story to our own personal preference. But the visit of these ancient scholars, referred to as Magi in our Pew Bible, is not complete until you read past the last verse of the lectionary selection. That is when Matthew smashes any sentimental display that we might have. Matthew does give us the journey of Joseph and Mary to Egypt. We see Mary riding on a donkey, although she probably walked. We she Joseph slightly ahead of her. The mixed looking of doom and confidence. He and his wife and the Child have narrowly escaped Herod’s wrath. He is grateful for God’s protective care.

The flight into Egypt is pregnant with irony. The infant Jesus, the son of God, journeys as a refugee to a foreign land but not any land, Mary and Joseph take the baby Jesus to Egypt, Israel’s sworn and symbolic enemy. Israel spent several hundred year under the oppressive rule of Egypt.

Exodus 12:40 NIV84

Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years.

The Egypt monarch unleashed his own infanticide against the male babies

Exodus 1:16 NIV84

“When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.”

ex 1:

But back in Jerusalem the ugliness of human nature is exposed. Our sentimental Hallmark image of Bethlehem becomes blood stained. Why did Matthew include the Slaughter of the Innocents. Why couldn’t he just gloss over it. We would have wondered why Rachel was weeping for her children? Why did Rachel refuse to be comforted? This should not be part of the story. This is Christmas. It is a story about a young mother and her child. It is a story of joy. Why did Mathew have to reveal the hideous cruelty of Herod. That could have easily stayed confined to the history books. Matthew did not have to shatter our sentimental dreams of that night when our Savior was born.

Actually Matthew did have to shatter our sentimental dreams to show how God completed the ironic comes full circle for just as the Egyptian pharoah died and Moses led his people to the door step of the promised land, so to, King Herod died and Joseph and Mary returned to the promised Land with the now young boy, named Jesus. They did however, keep a safe distance from Archelaus, Herod’s son who now sat on the throne in place of his deceased father.

If Jesus is Lord then ceasar or Bush or Obama or Trump is not.

Both father and son and other relatives who became king of their own small region had one thing in common--”they work hard to make the subversive kingdom of Jesus subservient to the political power of the state.” These ancient Herods were right about one thing—only one person can sit on the throne.

The story of the Magi is the counter to any story about God the Father sending His Son into the world solely to bring cheap, tranquilizing comfort to his people.

Both father and son and other relatives who became king of their own small region had one thing in common--”they work hard to make the subversive kingdom of Jesus subservient to the political power of the state.” These ancient Herods were right about one thing—only one person can sit on the throne.

cient Herods were right about one thing—only one person can sit on the throne.

Jesus was born into a world of suffering. He shared in that suffering from the moment he left Mary’s womb. He knows the pain of going without a meal during a draught or crop failure and he knows the suffering of over 300,000 deaths in Darfur from war and starvation.

The story of the Magi is the counter to any story about God the Father sending His Son into the world solely to bring cheap, tranquilizing comfort to his people.

The story of the Magi is also the story that compels us to reach out in our own way to the suffering around us and compel our political leaders to wisely use our tax $ to relief the suffering of due to military conflicts, climate change, inadequate farming methods and low wages.

Make Way For Realism

Avoiding Sentimentalism