Welcome!
To Week 2 of the Sunday School in a Bag Advent and Christmas program – six weeks devoted to Immanuel and the question: What does it really mean to say “God Is With Us”?
If you have not already, check out Week 1’s Lesson, Zachariah and Elizabeth’s story, here.
IMMANUEL
That term sums up the guiding themes of these 6 Christmas lessons.
What does Immanuel really mean? What do we really mean when we, as individuals, as Christians, as a Church, make this rather audacious claim that “God Is With Us”?
As mentioned last week, my obsession with this question began while translating Psalm 46, with its repeated refrain, “The Lord of Hosts Is With Us,” which, in Hebrew, is “Adonai Tsavaoth Immanu.”
Immanu, yes. The same Immanu as in the name Immanu-El. And the “Lord of Hosts” in Psalm 46 is, of course, the same God as the El (God) of that name, Immanu-El.
Take a second look at this Christmas edition of Psalm 46.
(Something you might need to know: The Bible is NOT rated PG. The following story and lesson materials include references to harm done to children – a story in Matthew 2 traditionally referred to as “the massacre of the innocents.” Nothing explicit or graphic is either stated or shown, but there is no getting around the fact that we are talking about a massacre – an extremely evil event, that, moreover, involves children. I, personally, read all of these stories at a very young age – and am glad I did. However, not all children are like me. You know best what the children in your life are ready to handle. And always, always, please view these stories first before showing them to children – just to be sure. Again, the Bible is NOT a collection of children’s stories, and is NOT rated PG.)
Now… On to Joseph
You know Joseph, right? The Christmas character who was famously… well… married to Mary…
Yeah, that really is Joseph’s claim to fame, isn’t it.
On closer inspection, though, there might be a bit more to this man than just a famous wife – and really famous step-son.
Joseph’s part of the Christmas story forces us to confront the reality of power and its appropriate uses. We begin with Joseph in the powerful position, able legally to ruin the life of his intended wife, Mary, because she is found to be with child by – he had can only assume – another man.
In the ancient world, husbands had near total control over their wives and the legal ability to punish adultery in extreme ways – up to and including execution. Joseph however chooses to show mercy, a quiet and private ending to their engagement, allowing them both to simply go on with their lives (Mat 1:19).
And that’s when the Angel shows up.
Act Two
Joseph’s choice not to act on his own power is contrasted sharply in the second half of his story, found in Matthew chapter 2. In this “second act” of the Christmas story – Joseph’s version – Herod, king of Judea, hears a troubling rumor, that some newborn “king of the Jews” might be living in the little town of Bethlehem. Terrified about what this rumor could mean for his own power and authority, Herod goes on to order the massacre of all baby boys under the age of two in Bethlehem.
This horrendous abuse of power, however, does not even achieve the desired results. By divine intervention, Jesus escapes the massacre with his family. The “threat” to Herod’s power lives on.
Ultimately, Herod would die as the despised king of a people who never wanted him to be their ruler in the first place. The power he clung to so desperately, bolstered by paranoia and enforced through brutality, came to nothing.
Meanwhile, Joseph the simple carpenter from Bethlehem and later Nazareth, has gone down in history as the father, or at least stepfather, of Jesus – a man whom Christians believe to be literally God in flesh. Jesus, regarded even by secular history as one of the most important and influential human beings to have ever lived on this planet.
The takeaway from all of this is not that power is evil. Power is simply a reality of this world. Some people have it, and some people don’t. Some people have it in certain situations, and others in other situations. Eventually in this life, all of us will be the powerful party in one situation or another. But Joseph’s story shows us that those who abuse their power when they have it are never on the right side of history.
Now, let’s take a closer look at Joseph’s story, the man who has gone down in history as the husband of Mary. You can read his story in Matthew 1:18-25 and Matthew 2:13-23. Then watch Joseph’s whole story below.
A Mother’s Tears
Rachel, Jacob’s second wife and the love of his life, died in childbirth while her family was traveling to a place called Ephrath. There, on the road to Ephrath, she was buried, in an area that would one day come to be inhabited by the descendants of a man named Benjamin – vary son Rachel died giving birth to.
Another name for Ephrath is Bethlehem.
(You can read all about this in Genesis 35.)
In Matthew chapter 2, we are told of an almost unfathomable atrocity, when a rumor about a “newborn king” so frightens Herod the king of Judah that he has all of the baby boys in Bethlehem killed…
We are then told the resulting uproar in Bethlehem was like “Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they were no more,” (Mat. 2:18; Jer. 31:15) The mother who succumbed to the natural human weakness of her own body and died giving birth her second son – the woman who’s bones lay buried somewhere on the way to Bethlehem – rises in spirit from her grave to give testimony against the brutal and tyrannical king who took it as his right to murder her children – the children of her distant descendants, in the land where she herself died and was buried.
I am reminded here of something Jesus once said to the religious leaders who tried to silence him and his followers: “I tell you that if these [people] should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out [instead],” (Luke 19:40). Evil will always try to silence those who speak the truth. But the truth will always be spoken, eventually – even if the only ones left to speak it are stones, or ghosts.
Some people with great power in this world will always believe they have the right to do whatever they want. That no one sees them, or hears the cry of their victims. That no one will hold them to account.
But God sees. God hears. God holds all things to account.
Because God Is With Us – here, now, always.
In this life, the weak may be able to do nothing more than weep and mourn and “refuse to be comforted.” But their comfort is coming. God is listening. Evil will not endure
That’s all for this week folks!
But before you go, check out the promo for next week below!
