Matthew 1: 18-23
This
is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
The Lord, who created everything with just a breath, decided
to dwell among his people as one of us. He did not come is splendor or majesty
fitting the greatest king ever to walk the planet. He came to us as a defenseless
baby born to poor parents in a barn. He came to us as one of us, as one of the
lowliest of us.
Jesus came up through the family business. He was a techton,
a day laborer. He was very much like the immigrants who gather outside of Home
Depot waiting for someone to offer them work. He went to work each day with his
foster father Joseph. “Got any work for me today, boss?”
Nothing in Jesus earthly life stood out as anything special.
He was common. Even the name Jesus was among the most popular names for boys in
the year 1 AD. Mary and Joseph were among the most common names of people of
that day. Jesus was ordinary. I have heard it said that you couldn’t pick him
out of a crowd of two.
God came to be like us in all things. He came to be
ordinary. He came to understand the human condition the way only a human could.
This is what makes Jesus the ultimate mediator for the human cause. He can
speak humanly as God and divinely as man. He bridges the gap between the two
worlds and makes perfect our relationship with God.
God reached across the chasm of infinity to be with us. We
need to reach back to him in the godly way Jesus taught us. God pines for us to
love him as he loves us. Let us put the love of ourselves aside and love God
back, a God who humbled himself to the point of becoming one of us.
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