In this lesson we narrow our focus to the Baby born at Bethlehem, examining the miraculous and wonder-inspiring factors surrounding Jesus’ birth.
During the hectic weeks and days of the holiday season, we may talk about the merchandising, and the caroling, and the festivities and the programs and the pageants, and in the process sometimes, even of all the good things—but we lose the wonder of the season. And to lose the wonder of the season is to lose our wonder at the Baby whose birth is commemorated at this time of year.
I. Let Us Wonder at His Birth
II. Let Us Wonder at His Human Family
II. Let Us Wonder at His Hostile Rejection
III. Let Us Wonder at His Hated Worshipers
IV. Let Us Wonder at His Holy Mission
From Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of the New Testament Scriptures, The Message, Luke 2 reads:
About that time, Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.
There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide. A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you are to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.” At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises: “Glory to God in the heavenly heights. Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.”
As the angel choir withdrew to heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. “Let’s go over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.” They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.
The King James says it this way: “And all they that heard it wondered.” They wondered at the story.
The date was December 17, 1903. The place was Kittyhawk, North Carolina. Orville and Wilbur Wright had just made history by keeping their flying invention in the air for a total of 59 seconds. Elated, they rushed to the telegraph office and wired their sister in Dayton, Ohio. Here was the telegram: “First sustained flight today for 59 seconds,” the message read. “Hope to be home by Christmas.” Their sister was thrilled, and she hurried to the local newspaper with the great news and the telegram. And sure enough, the next day there was an article about the Wrights in the Dayton Daily News. The headline read, “Local Bicycle Merchants to be Home for the Holidays.” Not one thing was mentioned about the first airplane flight that anyone ever took.
When I read that story earlier this year I thought, “Isn’t that like Christmas?” We give all the details and we forget the wonder, the most important message of all. For just a little while this year, I have captured that wonder in a way that I cannot remember for a long time. I cannot tell you why it is, but I know that what I have sensed in my heart about all of this, I wish I could package up and convey.
Let Us Wonder at His Birth
Born in Bethlehem. Jesus was born in the meekest and most unobtrusive of places.
History tells us that early in the nineteenth century, the whole world was watching the campaigns of Napoleon. There was talk everywhere of marches, invasions, battles, and bloodshed as the French dictator pushed his way through Europe. Of course, babies were born during that time. But who had time to think about babies or to care about cradles or nurseries when the international scene was as tumultuous as it was? Nevertheless, between Trafalgar and Waterloo there stole into this world a veritable host of heroes whose lives were destined to shape all of humanity.
Take, for example, William Gladstone, born in 1809. Gladstone was destined to become one of the finest statesmen England produced.
Also in 1809, Alfred Tennyson was born to an obscure minister and his wife. Tennyson would one day greatly affect the literary world in a marked manner.
Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1809.
Not far away in Boston, Edgar Allen Poe began his eventful but tragic life.
It was also in that same year that a physician named Darwin and his wife named their child Charles Robert.
And it was that same year that the cries of a newborn infant could be heard from a rugged log cabin in Harlan County, Kentucky. The baby’s name was Abraham Lincoln.
If there had been news broadcasts at that time, I am certain these words would have been heard. “The destiny of the world is being shaped on an Austrian battlefield today.” But today, only a handful of history buffs can name even two of the three Austrian campaigns. Looking back, history was actually being shaped in the cradles of England and America as young mothers held in their arms the movers and shakers of the future.
It was that way with Jesus. No one heralded His coming. The shepherds, the angels, the Magi, a few would-be worshipers. Had you written the story of that year, you would have said, “Nothing really important happened this year.” But that year, the Savior of the world was born, in that humble place called Bethlehem, where Deity would invade eternity, where eternity would invade time, and where royalty would come dressed up as poverty. Only God could have written such a script! Who could have thought of such a humble story for the entrance of our Lord?
Let Us Wonder at His Human Family
I say that advisedly because His family was really a human mother and one who was a stand-in father, for Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit. But consider his human family: Mary, 15 or 16 years of age; Joseph no more than 19; a young, unassuming couple. Yet into their family was to be born the Savior of the world.
The most significant event of the centuries took place in a stable in an insignificant city called Bethlehem. I cannot help but wonder what Mary thought. What went through her mind as she saw that little One? The most significant thing in the history of the world did not happen in Caesar’s court, or in the palace, or in the plans of the Jewish zealots. The most significant thing happened in a manger. As Mary held that Baby, I wonder if she heard ringing in her ears the words of Isaiah the Prophet: “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Mary held Immanuel in her arms. Do we wonder at that? Is that not an awesome thing, that the Savior of the world would be born in such a way?
Let Us Wonder at His Hostile Rejection
The Scriptures record that when they came to Bethlehem, it was an unheralded arrival. There were no signs pointing to the coming of the Messiah. There was no welcome party there to receive Him. In fact, since it was the time of census, there was no place for anyone to stay. Roman soldiers had come to occupy the town to administer the census, so when Mary and Joseph came (while the record does not tell us), it is quite probable that they had tried all of the places along the way. And finally there was nowhere else for them to go. So the innkeeper simply had to say, “We have no place.” Perhaps they could clean out a corner of the stable and at least provide a shelter for this birth.
Let Us Wonder at His Hated Worshipers
The Scriptures tell us that those who gathered to worship Him first were shepherds. In our culture, that loses some of its meaning, and therefore some of its wonder. In that time and culture, however, shepherds would be the last and least to expect the Prince of Peace to come to them. They were shepherds. They were ceremonially unclean. They were not allowed to go into the temple area to worship. They were unaccepted. They were nobodies. They could not be called as witnesses in court, for somebody had written that no one could believe the testimony of a shepherd. They were despised. They were looked down upon and often hated. The Jewish Talmud says of them, “Give no help to a heathen or to a shepherd.” That’s how they were appreciated. What a wonder, that God would choose them to witness the birth of His Son, to be there first to worship the coming of the Messiah. The shepherds!
Out of the whole of Jewish society, He chose shepherds. Out of the entire population of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, these outcasts were the only ones who came to see the Messiah and to spread the news of His coming.
Let Us Wonder at His Holy Mission
This is really the only thing that brings wonder to the rest of the story. Apart from His mission, this is just a good seasonal tale. But when we put all of these things together, and then understand that the purpose for all of this was that He might come to be our Redeemer, we cannot help but be in awe. His purpose in coming was to die—to die for you and for me.
We can sum it up this way:
The Creator in a cradle.
The Savior in a stable.
The Messiah of the world in a mother’s womb.
The Sovereign of history welcomed by shepherds on a hillside.
The Lion of the Tribe of Judah as Mary’s little Lamb.
The Lord of Glory lying upon the straw.
I cannot get my arms around it. It is too wonderful.
He was the Savior of the world, the most awesome person who ever walked on this earth. This is the wonder of Christ.
So how do we express our wonder? It’s not fair to inspire such wonder without talking about how we do it.
We need to discipline ourselves to do it. It won’t happen unless we say, “This is my time with the Lord. This is my time to wonder at Christmas and what He has done for me.” And if we will do that, this will not be just another Christmas season. The wonder of this incredible message will explode upon our hearts. It may cause the irrigation of our eyes. But it will certainly put warmth in our breast and hope in our heart.
1. Read all of Luke, chapters 1–2, adding up the total number of people who apparently recognized who Jesus really was. Do you think this kind of inconspicuous arrival is what the Jews were expecting?
Why do you think God did it this way?
2. From a purely human standpoint, what kinds of things might have been said about Joseph and Mary’s little family as Jesus was growing up?
What most certainly would not have been said about them, particularly in light of Israel’s hope for a Messiah?
3. From what we know about the Herods who ruled over Judea during Jesus’ birth and childhood, what would they have done to a child proclaimed to be the future King of Kings?
What does this help us understand?
4. Why do you think so little of Jesus’ childhood is recorded?
How does John 1:11 help explain this?
5. How do the following passages add to our wonderment at the birth of Jesus?
a. John 1:1–3, 14
b. Colossians 1:9
c. Philippians 2:6–11
d. Isaiah 9:6–7
Did You Know?
Though the genealogical requirements of the coming Messiah were specifically outlined in the Old Testament and carefully documented in the Temple archives, teachers in the years leading up to Jesus’ birth had a problem. While 2 Samuel 7:12–17 clearly indicated that the Messiah must (1) come from David’s own body, and (2) inherit the throne of Israel through Solomon’s line, God’s curse on wicked King Jeconiah (also called Jehoiachin and Coniah) in Jeremiah 22:30 seemed to indicate that no one in the royal line of David through Solomon actually could rule as Messiah over Israel.
That’s why God provides for us two genealogies of Jesus. The one in Luke 3 traces Jesus’ physical line through Heli (Mary’s father) back to David’s own body, not through Solomon, but through David’s son, Nathan. And the one in Matthew 1 traces Jesus’ legal right to the throne through his legal adoptive father Joseph, who was in the legal line of Solomon—but who, by virtue of the virgin birth of Jesus, did not father Jesus, and thus did not violate God’s curse on Jeconiah’s physical descendants.
Complicated? A little—but (wonder of wonders!) it shows that Jesus was the only Person in all of human history who could fulfill the genealogical requirements of Messiahship!
A Place for Baby Jesus
Establish the priority of Jesus’ birthday as the focus of this season of celebration by making your first holiday activity the placement of a nativity scene in your home. It may be as simple as a paper fold-out—or as elaborate as life-size figures on your front lawn. Determine a place for the Holy Family and make it a family event to usher in the Christmas season. Young children learn priorities by what you do, not what you say.
 Jeremiah, D. (1999). Celebrate his love: Study guide (pp. 50–61). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.