One wonders where all the important people are at Christmas. They seem to be missing from the Bible's accounts of the birth of Jesus. Just AWOL. What's that about? When reading the narratives of Jesus' birth, there are no "important" people in them. No important or significant business people, no significant religious leaders - no high priests. Those people were around of course, but apparently God did not use them to bring Christ into the world. The most "important" person in the accounts is a priest named Zechariah and he, the "most religious" one in the accounts is the one who least believes God. The religious leader is the one who indicates the least faith in God. Upside down #1.
Then the angel Gabriel goes to Mary, a modest young woman. She will bear the Christ child into the world. In a man's world, many thought the messiah would come with an army, on the clouds. No, God will use a woman for this work; in a man's world. Upside down #2. Mary and Elizabeth are the towers of belief in the Bible's account. The priest wasn't. Men weren't. At Jesus' resurrection it was women who were first at the empty tomb of Jesus too. So God used a woman to bring Jesus into the world, and He used women as the first witnesses that he had been raised from the dead. His birth and resurrection - both ushered in by women.
Mary who is single is informed that she will have a child without being married and without having been together with Joseph. The penalty for such adultery was death. When Mary is informed that she will bear this child, she cries out, "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior." Upon receiving such news, would you have said that? Most people do not receive news that may well be a death notice by saying "My soul glorifies the Lord." Upside down #3. For all practical purposes, most people would have received this news from God as a curse. They would have wondered, "Why me?" "Why are you against me God?" "Why am I cursed?" Not Mary. She appears to be completely without self regard. She never says or apparently thinks, "What about MY life?" Her lack of self interest is remarkable. It is the essence of humility. She doesn't think less of herself, she simply doesn't think of herself. The Bible says "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." At the birth of Jesus, the most pride, the most self regard and self-oriented perspective comes from the priest Zechariah. He is humbled with the loss of speech, until the day he affirms God's work and agrees to naming his child John, as the angel had said. So when he didn't receive God, he was humbled. When he did, his stature was restored. Let's say it another way, more plainly. When Zecharia's life was about him, he was humbled through a hard and confusing experience. When he came to make it about God, he was restored.
Okay, then Jerusalem was near by - a place kind of like Washington or New York - where all the "important" people and events are happening. That's where the money is and those are the places considered important. For all worldly accounts, Jesus should have been born in Jerusalem. Bethlehem was a small place. This means the most important event in the world was happening in a very unimportant location. Upside down #4. So while the "important" commerce and politics and religion were happening in Jerusalem and Rome (New York and Washington) and all the "important" people were doing all the "important" things there - Christ was born - in an unimportant place to unimportant people. It makes sense, because in reality only the humble really receive Jesus. Only the humble are really of use for His kingdom. The proud might acknowledge Him, but only the humble receive Him. There's a big difference between acknowledging Him and receiving Him. I'd encourage you to think about it. Receiving Him is the biblical matter of being a Christian - the gospel of John describes being a Christian this way; "to all who received him... he gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:12)
This Christmas, right now, there are lots of things on people's minds. There are big issues in the news that feel concerning. There are things like "fiscal cliffs" in politics and government that feel important and threatening. Guess what, compared to what's happening at the first Christmas - there in the small town, none of what we're thinking is important is important. In the humble and the small, God is doing something that trumps all else in importance. None of the rest compares. "And the government will be upon HIS shoulders," the bible says.
So the question for us this Christmas is "am I humble enough?" Not "am I lowly enough," not "have I sufficiently beaten myself up enough," but am I a person with so little regard for my self importance and my rights, that I could be useful to God? Most of us are trying hard to be important. Most of us desperately want to be important. But when Jesus was born, the important people appear to be, well, useless.
