Jesus: Superhero or Regular Guy?
Elaine Poproski Download: Audio
Scripture Reading: Matthew 1:18-25(NRSV)
Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Read more…
Looking to Sunday
by Elaine Poproski
It’s the fourth Sunday of Advent, otherwise known as Christmas Sunday! We’ll light the fourth candle: the Candle of LOVE. We’ll also light the fifth candle – the CHRIST candle (that tall white candle in the middle of the wreath) – because we won’t be lighting advent candles at our Christmas Eve service, which is traditionally when we’d light that one. (When I apply for the park permit so we can gather outside on Christmas Eve, the city is pretty clear that they frown on fire in the park.)
This is the Sunday we sing Christmas carols and read the Christmas story. It’s the Sunday someone inevitably brings Christmas cookies to go with the coffee and tea. (No pressure…) It’s the Sunday some of us will show up wearing red or green or showing off our Christmas ties or socks or sweaters. It’s a Sunday when some of our people will worship elsewhere, perhaps at the church in which they grew up, while we’ll likely host at least a few visitors in our mix.
Christmas Sunday always feels to me like the apex or climax of the Advent season. Over Advent we focused, not just on the coming of Christmas, but on the way Jesus’ birth all those years ago foreshadows His return and the long-awaited consummation of God’s kingdom. On Christmas Sunday, we finally get to the story of Jesus’ birth.
It’s a funny thing about the New Testament – as much energy and attention as we 21st century, North American Christians give to Christmas, the New Testament actually spends very little time on the story. In Matthew’s Gospel, which is the gospel we’ve been reading these past weeks, there are only really 2 verses about the birth. (There are another 6 that tell the lead-up story; and 23 verses that tell the story of the wise men, Herod’s evil attempt to rid the world of the prophesied king of the Jews, and Jesus’ family’s flight to Egypt, but technically, none of that story is really part of the Christmas story, as it most likely occurred a year or two after Jesus was born.) Compare that to the 94 verses Matthew dedicates to telling the story of Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion, and death. Even in Luke’s Gospel, which has the most comprehensive account of Jesus’ birth, there are only 20 verses that tell the Christmas story, compared to 78 verse that tell the story of Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion, and death. And in Mark’s and John’s Gospels there’s nothing at all about Jesus’ birth, but there’s a LOT about His death.
I tell you all of that because even as we gather on Sunday to celebrate Jesus and to remember the story of His birth, we must not lose sight of the reason He was born in the first place. This Christmas story that inspires lullabies and twinkling lights is necessary because of all the ugly horrors represented in the later story of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion, and death. The story we’ll be surrounded by on Sunday is not simply a feel-good, Disney-esque, stand-alone fable. It is instead an entry point into a bigger story – the story of God healing His fractured creation, restoring His divided children, and establishing His kingdom. That, ultimately, is what we celebrate on Sunday. That is what we sing about next Tuesday in the park in front of the church. That is the story of HOPE that promises PEACE, inspires JOY, and is defined by LOVE.
As you prepare for Sunday (and for Tuesday) perhaps it’s worth reading the end of Matthew’s gospel. Perhaps, with your favourite Christmas music playing in the background, you might read aloud to yourself the words from Matthew 26:47 through to Matthew 28:10.