While Christmas is full of surprises, there are also a lot of familiar aspects to it. Sometimes, familiarity can breed contempt! You might find yourself asking, “What is left to be said that hasn’t been said before?” When you hear biblical Christmas stories, sometimes you really don’t hear them at all…because you’ve heard them so many times before! This is indeed a problem. Familiarity can breed, if not contempt, at least a kind of casual disinterest. You hear but you don’t hear!
I want you to take a look at Luke 2:12 but in a few different translations. “This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger” (NIV). “This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger” (MSG). And then the one that made me sit up and really take notice: “You will know who he is, because you will find him dressed in baby clothes and lying on a bed of hay” (CEV). You can see how looking at things from a different perspective, in this case in different translations, makes the message come across clearer. Why was this a sign like no other? Because it was more about WHO HE IS than WHAT WE SEE!
Remember to put things in context. What happened before Luke 2:12. You got it—Luke 2:11! “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (NIV). This is where the good news is heard. And even though it was prophesied, the shepherds were still not prepared for what they saw. How was the birth of Jesus out of the ordinary? In many ways, it wasn’t. The key is to realize that something ordinary (such as a birth) was needed to fulfill prophecy and convey what God needed to tell the world.
What are signs for? They give you the following: direction (so you arrive where you need to be), diagnosis (so you address illness properly), and timing (so you’re moving forward when it counts). In the story of Jesus’ birth, the star is what points the way and gives the magi directions to Jesus. The world needed (needs) Jesus because of its diagnosis—sinfulness which leads to death. A sinless Savior was needed to save people walking in sinfulness. And all of this happened during the perfect time, right when God intended it. Don’t miss the extraordinary found in the ordinary! In this case, an extraordinary event occurred in seemingly ordinary circumstances. But as I’ll touch on later this week, the birth of Jesus only appeared ordinary to those who didn’t know what they were seeing.