Humanity in the Manger
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Read: Luke 1:78-79
Because of our God’s merciful compassion, the Dawn from on high will visit us to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Point: God became human so we would become human. Are we trying to be human or God?
Ever tried to be someone you are not? Or tried to become something that you are not meant to be? I wanted to be like Guy LaFleur as a kid. He was fast, I was fast. He had long hair, I had long hair. He had leather Bauer skates, I had plastic Microns.
He shot right, I shot left. He used a Bauer hockey stick, I used whatever dad could afford. He was a right winger, I was a left winger who wanted to play on the right. He had an amazing slap shot, I did not. He wore the rouge, blanc, and bleu, my team wore the Bruins colors.
One Christmas, mom and dad gave me a Montreal Canadiens jersey with his name and number on the back. The name and numbers were actually the rubberized melton. I went insane. I absolutely loved it. I wore that jersey everywhere and as much as possible. The transformation was complete! I was Guy LaFleur!
Truth is I was an imposter, a fake, a forgery. I never made it to the NHL, I never scored hundreds of goals. I never played past Midget. I didn’t play hockey again, for seven years, until I was first married. A single mom raising her only son, on her own, meant no hockey. So what do you do? Look for a new sport, a new mentor, a new idol…I became Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics!
What number do we wear on our backs? What name is on our jersey? Who is it that we want to be? Who do we want to be like, immulate, become? The truth is, we were never meant to be someone else, or be like someone else. We were meant to be us, whom God created, talented, skilled and hearted us to be. His unique creation, unlike anyone else. But…we have been made in God’s image. To reflect Him, His thinking, love, care, joy, sorrow, empathy, trust, justice, faithfulness, righteousness, holiness, etc…
I remember trying to find my voice as a pastor. Phrasing, voicing, thinking, sentence structure, pace and pause, eloquence, rehtoric. Do I speak hard, do I speak soft? Do I challenge, do I not? What do the “successful” pastors do? What fills the building? What draws the crowd (Obviously not what I am doing)? What I have come to realize is that it is not the presentation that matters, but the preparation of the Word in my heart. Am I soaked in the Word? Am I soaked in my relationship with God? Do I care more about representing Him, or myself. I need to be whom God has created me to be with all my talents, skills, heart, desires, likes, dislikes, experiences directed to proclaim Him and His truth.
God has created each person, in the place they are, at the time they are, with whom they are for His purpose and glory. You are the person you are, in the place you are, at the time you are for His purpose and glory. The greatest thing about the Incarnation is that God came down, Jesus, born as a babe, lived as a man, died as a man for His Father purpose and glory…to redeem men and women fallen from their purpose and glory.
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness. You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people have rejoiced before You as they rejoice at harvest time and as they rejoice when dividing spoils.
For You have shattered their oppressive yoke and the rod on their shoulders, the staff of their oppressor, just as You did on the day of Midian. For the trampling boot of battle and the bloodied garments of war will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.
Jesus was born to give us light in the darkness. Man became darkness, Jesus is the light. Man was removed from paradise, Jesus was born to restore man to paradise. The apostle Paul proclaims that man turned, and turns, away from God (Romans 1:20-21, 28). Jesus was born to return man to God. Jesus became human so that we would become human.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, talking about the Incarnation, says this,
“Human being are not transformed into a form that is foreign to them, not into the form of God, but into their own form, a form that belongs to them and is essential to them. Human being become human because God became human, but human beings do not become God.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God is in the Manger, p. 52
In the Garden of Eden, when man doubted God and desired to be God himself, we destroyed human nature, as God created us to be. Humanity came under the curse of sin and death, instead of eternal life and love with God. That one decision changed our mindset for this current age. Therefore, as Paul states, we knew God, we refused to acknowledge God, thinking He is not worth our time and therefore were given over to a worthless, senseless mind, by God, to do what ought not to be done (Romans 1:21, 28). Jesus came to remove that curse, He was born to remove a worthless mind. He was born to restore us, and keep us, as to God’s intended humanness. Humanity is in the manger.
“Human beings do not take on an independent form of their own. Rather, what gives them form and maintains them in their new form is always and only the figure of Jesus Christ himself.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God is in the Manger, p.52
What gives men and women their identity as human beings, is not their acts of kindness, their goodness or their being born of a woman, but the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus was born, lived, and died as a man in order to show us what it is to be truly human, and to restore us to that true identity as God created us to be…and that includes a living relationship with Him.
Life was in Him, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it.
Walking in the humanity of Jesus Christ, one can never be overcome by the darkness. The devil can make no claim stick. Being born to die, Jesus removed the claim of Satan on one’s humanity (Jn. 14:30; Mt 28:18-19). But that claim is removed only if one believes and accepts the gift in the manger…Jesus Christ.
I will not talk with you much longer, because the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over Me.
Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
So, then who’s name is on your back? Your’s, or someone else’s? You belong to Jesus, if you have believed, trusted and follow Him…but your name should be on your back because He created you in His image, to be His image on earth, but in your person, His unique creation.
Sermon in a Sentence: Jesus was born to show us, and redeem us, to be the image of a human, as God created us to be.