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Monday, December 27, 2004
Have you ever noticed how once Christmas is over...man...it's OVER?
Yesterday at church I was already hearing tales of how Christmas decorations were already down. During our worship for the last month we were inundated with special hymns and music involving the Incarnation and yesterday, after a couple of songs during the prelude, they were gone. The radio station that had been playing holiday music since Thanksgiving was back to the regular jazz format.
Man...it's OVER. In a hurry.
We tend to do the same thing with the Christmas story, too. We watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and we go to church and hear stories of shepherds and virgins and wise men (not at our church on that deal, but I'll speak about them later this week) and then it's back to the same-old, same-old ASAP.
But with your indulgences, I'd like to stick with it for a bit. See, the Word does that. It doesn't end with a bunch of smiles and a baby asleep on the hay and the camera fading out slowly and then the credits rolling. Not at all. The story continues.
In Luke 2: 21--24 we have a short little introduction to what the text highlights as a conversation with Simeon about a month later. However, I don't want to get too terribly far away from this introduction:
"And when eight days were completed before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jersusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, 'Every first-born male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord') and to offer a sacrifice adcording to what was said in the Law of the Lord, 'A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.')."
Like I said, it's an introduction to a major portion of the story.
But this introduction highlights what was like for a first century Jewish person who wanted to serve the Lord and grow in their relationship with Him.
Obedience.
Obedience to The Law...and all aspects of it, too.
The Law told them that the proper way to bring a son into the covenant relationship with the Lord was to take the child to the Temple, circumcise him, and name him.
So, that's what this young, Jewish couple did.
The mother of a male child was considered "unclean" for the ceremonies for 33 days after the circumcision. In order to become ceremonially clean, she would offer a burnt offering and a sin offering in the Temple.
In fact, Luke makes sure we know that the verses to support these actions were found in Leviticus 5: 11 & 12: 8 as well as Exodus 13: 2, 12). There's no escaping the reality that first century Jewish life was somewhat of a burden.
They would fluctuate in and out of "cleanliness" and then would have to follow the prescription for a temporary covering of sin. It only lasted as long as the time between going to the Temple.The theological word for that is atonement.
They would go to the Temple, which is some cases would take a bit of time...but even if you lived in the hub of Jerusalem it would still take some amount of time to go and do this every so often.
They would then make an offering prescribed by the Law. This would come at some personal financial cost as well. Even if you were poor it would still cost you a couple of pigeons.
Oh yeah, and it was going to be gruesome and bloody, too. Can you imagine the stench at the Temple due to the continual practice of atonement.
On top of all this, your sacrifice was only acceptable to the Lord if your heart desired the relationship with the Lord.
Did I mention that it was only a temporary deal, too? That you'd have to repeat it as often as the Law prescribed to stay "current?"
Can you imagine what this would do to your life psychologically if you had a desire to walk with God? Let me see if I can help with a true story:
There was a drunk driver convicted of killing someone and was given a huge financial payment in damages...somewhere in the millions. The parents of the deceased waived that huge unpayable sum if the driver would mail in one dollar each once a week for 18 years. He readily accepted as it was financially beneficial for him. After four years, he sued the people for cruel and unusual punishment. Apparently, the constant reminder of his "sin" that came when he wrote out a check for $1 and had to go to the post office each week to mail it (one of the stipulations was that he couldn't do it in advance or arrears, but each and every week) was more than he could bear after completing nearly 1/4th of his punishment.
I imagine it weighed on this young couple, too. We've already learned that Mary and Joseph were righteous...one of the few remnant among Israel after 400 years of prophetic silence from God. And their righteousness was show to us in spades here. We catch a small glimpse of atonement, don't we?
The young couple sacrifices their time to go to the Temple 8 days after the birth. The baby is given a name and circumcised. 33 days later they have to take more time to go to the Temple, make a purchase the poor had to make of two birds, and then physcially sacrifice them and then burn them.
Why did they do this?
Because it was written. And they wanted to be righteous and obedient. This was their lifestyle, and that's what it took. Physical and psychological burdens. But well worth it to them as they could maintain their walk with Him.
Little did they know how different life would become for those that follow God because of the little baby on whose account they were going through all of this additional burden (there were other portions of the Law that didn't go away just because you had a new baby in the house) would change the way people walked with God on a daily basis.
Remember that baby?
The one born in Bethlehem in which the angels told the shepherds they were bringing Good News for all the people?
The one that John, the forerunner, would tell us to "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Remember?
Well, "takes away" has a theological word, too. Propitiation. Takes sin away just like the trash man takes away your trash to the dump. Removes it far from you.
Atonement simply puts a lid over the trash can while it stays in your yard, on your curb, waiting for the trash man.
And that baby would "take away" our sin.
And remove the burden...the yoke.
And yet, sometimes we'd rather try modern-day methods of atonement. As if a modern yoke made of some polyurethane space-age fiber would be any less burdensome.
We're free from that 1st century walk with God thanks to that baby. My encouragement to you as we head to the new year and focus on resolutions, that you'd resolve to walk in that freedom...and enjoy that walk with your Lord and Savior, who brought us Good News.
And it really would've been Good News to them. It should be to us.
Brent 4:56 AM
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