Meaningful Method and Powerful Purpose

Verses

Matthew 1:19–21 NIV

Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “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.”

Introduction

Today is the second Sunday of Advent. During Advent we find ourselves longing for Jesus. We find ourselves straining to catch a glimpse of the Christ Child. We find ourselves experiencing a building excitement about Christmas. As children we think of the gifts we will receive. As adults, we understand that Christmas itself is the gift. The birth of Jesus is the gift.

This gift of Jesus is THE gift! Like all things from God, the gift of Jesus was delivered with a meaningful method and a powerful purpose. When God’s spirit moves, He does so using a meaningful method for a powerful purpose.

In today’s verses we see both the method and the purpose.

Meaningful Method

The gift of Jesus is wrapped in some very unconventional wrapping paper. God could have chosen a power couple to be Jesus’s parents. God could have chosen a heroic, model couple that everyone respected and listened to.

But God went a different direction. He chose a method that, on the surface, seems shameful and of questionable wisdom. God chose to use a single, unwed mother. Now you may ask, if she is not yet married, then why did Joseph consider divorce…?

The Jewish wedding custom:

Engagement - Made very early; Often when children

Betrothal - “Ratification of the engagement” - Person either commits to the marriage or breaks the engagement. Once Betrothed then they were married before the law but not in function. Since married before the law the betrothal could only be broken by divorce. Lasted a year.

Marriage Proper - The couple’s marriage is finalized and they begin living as man and wife

The real issue is not if Mary was physically a virgin. The issue is that Jesus is the result of the action of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is conceived, born, lived, was murdered, and rose again all through the action of the Holy Spirit. Humanity is part of the drama - in fact, is the focus of the drama - but the God is the driving force.

Joseph and Mary

What is God showing us by using Joseph and Mary?

You can find a lot of material about the qualities of Mary and why that made her the choice of God to be the mother of Jesus. They include her faith in God, her openness to being used by God, her humble attitude, and her confidence in God. All of these make sense.

There is also a lot of material available about the qualities of Joseph that made him a good choice for God. Joseph was merciful, humble, pious, and respectful. Those traits also make sense in terms of qualifying Joseph to be Jesus’s stepfather.

But my question really isn’t about why Mary and Joseph were picked specifically. My question is more about the meaning behind God’s method. God doesn’t do things randomly, haphazardly, or impulsively. God has a meaning behind his method.

So what is the meaning behind this method?

I would suggest three things:

God is Not Limited by Circumstances

Let’s say we are at a weekend faith retreat the year before Jesus was born. And let’s say we are not biblical scholars and are unfamiliar with any of the prophesies about the messiah. At this retreat we are given a group project - I hate those group projects … But let’s say we are given this group project to put together a plan for the birth of the messiah that would have the highest chance of success and that honored God the most. We would no likely build a plan involving a scandalous unwed pregnancy, a poor family, a long donkey ride, and delivery in a cave. I am certain we would not have a plan that uses a feed trough for a crib. Why not? Because we focus on circumstances and become trapped in them. God doesn’t let his spirit get trapped in the circumstances.

This leads to my second point.

God Avoids Confusion About the Power

In our hypothetical pre-Jesus group project, we would likely have several elements that reflect power and opportunity. Maybe we would have the messiah born to a wealthy family. Or a powerful political family. Perhaps our plan would involve a a strong military community where the messiah could launch his campaign of restoration for Isreal. We would likely have him born in a respectable hospital with comfortable surroundings, covered by a prearranged news team to make sure the word got out. But in that scenario, where would the power come from for the birth and life of the messiah? Would it be God? Or would it be the family the messiah grew up in? Or the opportunities afforded by his family or community connections? There would be confusion.

But God chooses methods where it is clear that the only explanation for the success is God’s presence and action. God brought the messiah to us in circumstances that made it clear where the power was. Jesus would not have been the product of a well-planned campaign for success. Jesus was clearly the product of a God that is not limited. Jesus is the messiah born in a cave, to an unwed teenager, and given a feed trough for a bed. Jesus is the messiah born with no human fanfare and who’s claim to fame, prior to his ministry, was that he was “the carpenter’s son.”

There is no doubt about the divine origin and nature of Jesus. The circumstances make that clear.

God Uses Our Discomfort to Grow Us

The reality is that we need to have painfully difficult experience to grow. One problem with the church in industrialized, politically free societies is that we are too comfortable. Where does the church flourish? Faith flourishes where there is resistance and oppression to faith. The more aggressive the Chinese government is in attacking the christian church, the more the church grows. When we are comfortable, we relay on ourselves. Back to our hypothetical group project to put together a messiah plan. If Mary and Joseph were part of a wealthy family, or a politically powerful community, or a militarized strong community, would they have been as dependent on God? Would they have sought God? God uses our discomfort to push us to seek him and depend on him. Our discomfort is the water and sunlight that grows our faith. But we complain and try to flourish in the shade of comfortable circumstances.

Christian author Sarah Walton writes:

However, despite how helpless we may feel in these moments, we are never truly helpless, and it’s never a surprise to God. In fact, it’s in these very moments that we are driven into a deeper trust in God’s sovereignty, goodness, faithfulness, and power, and have the opportunity to watch him work in ways that only he can.

Powerful Purpose

We are better at understanding God’s purpose than we are at understanding God’s method. We are much more comfortable with the purpose.

God’s action always has purpose. And his purpose is powerful. The purpose of Jesus, the messiah, brought to us through such difficult circumstances, is the reconciliation of all of humanity to God. Keep in mind, that this reconciliation is not achieved at Christmas. The powerful purpose of Christmas is not revealed until Easter morning. Which, by the way, is brought to us through the difficult circumstances of Good Friday.

And we need this reconciliation. We are hopelessly separated from God without this thirty-three year gift of Christmas/Easter that was millenniums in the making. We need Christ because we are lost.

Charles Spurgeon writes:

The first link between my soul and Christ is not my goodness but my badness, not my merit but my misery, not my standing but my falling, not my riches but my need.

We need Christ!

And what does Christ do in this process of reconciliation?

William Barclay writes:

Jesus enables us to see what God is and what man ought to be; Jesus opens the eyes of our mind so that we can see the truth of God for us: Jesus is the creating power come amongst men; Jesus is the re-creating power which can release the souls of [humanity] from the death of sin.

There is power in God’s purpose!

Conclusion

As we journey towards Bethlehem this Advent season, don’t get distracted by how we have cleaned up everything, partly so we are more comfortable with the circumstances. Remember that God chose difficult and ugly circumstance for the messianic gift precisely so that we could understand that God is not limited by circumstances and that he is the only power behind it all. No acts of humanity brought Christ to us. Let us fully embrace how uncomfortable those circumstances were so we can grow. And let us never forget the powerful purpose of reconciliation achieved through the torture, murder, and resurrection of this infant thirty-three years later.

Pray with me.