Mark Johnson | November 25, 2015
The birth of Jesus is a story about peace and the long road it takes to get there.
Matthew starts his account of Jesus’ birth with an angel who tells Joseph to not be afraid of the mysteries getting ready to overwhelm his life. I wonder. Shouldn’t he be? Called upon to take Mary as his wife, as promised to him, he discovers she is “with child,” but not of his own doing. A scandal in any age, but especially then and there. And just as he might get settled into this new life with a newborn, three wealthy strangers, loaded down with enough equipment and supplies to survive a long journey across the desert, seek out the small family and offer them valuable gifts. But there’s no time to count your treasure or your blessings. Before they know it, they are fleeing for their very lives. How quickly things can move from the strange and weird to the dangerous and desperate.
Luke’s story concerns itself with other details. Focusing on Mary and her family, we learn of this child’s great promise for deliverance, justice and social reversal. She sings, “The rich, the proud and the full will be sent away empty, but the humble, the hurting and the hungry will experience good things.” The angel also tells her not to be afraid. What’s up with these angels anyway? They either don’t understand our weak human predispositions to worry or they are so acutely aware of them that they know we require constant reminding. Me: “Have you seen what’s happening out there?” Angel: “Be not afraid.”
Why should we not fear? By the time the angels make their midnight debut on that most storied of all nights, they’ve added another piece to the puzzle. “Peace on Earth to those God favors!” (That's everybody on the planet, by the way). The elusive dream of Christmas peace has begun.
The one born and confessed later as the “prince of peace” will spend his life teaching about peace, even when it costs him his very life. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” will hit the top ten of his most notable sermons. Yet, fully aware of the public’s weariness concerning sermons, he’ll also tell stories. They will focus on themes of forgiveness, reconciliation and justice, pointing out in subtle ways the prejudices and predetermined judgments that keep us from experiencing God’s true kingdom.
Jesus will not be content about mere lip-service. What good are words about peace without the accompanying works? His care, kindness and power to change will be showered upon the outcasts and the marginalized, the diseased and the demonized, the foreigners and the strangers. The boy who started life as a poor refugee will not forget the dispossessed.
He will reach out his arms, open his palms, a universal gesture that says “I mean you no harm,” and invite all who will come to gather under his protection. With arm’s wide and welcoming, he says, “Here are my people, here’s my true family.”
They are a motley crew. Broken and bandaged, bruised and battered, banged up and left for dead. They are an anti-army. Not the kind of folks ready to go fight a war, but the ones who look like they were just victimized by one.
No wonder the disciples, Jesus’ closest friends and family members and far too many of his followers are confused by him. The Prince of peace promised by Isaiah was supposed to be a conquering military hero. Peace through strength is the only type of peace they can imagine.
Yet, Jesus repudiates this heritage at every turn. He forces his disciples to turn their attention away from seeking positions of honor and authority in the seats of power. When he confronts the powerful, he doesn’t go crazy with clenched fists nor does he easily turn away in cowardly acquiescence. With a cool-head and a loving-heart, he stands tall against them using his skill of reason and language to speak peace to power.
A double-edged sword of truth and wisdom will be the only one he will yield. The status quo of unfairness and oppression will be the only peace he is willing to disrupt. A war on hatred will be the only one he is willing to wage.
Actual swords? He commands them to be put away. Leaders? They are told to be servants to the “least of these.” Enemies? We are to pray for them and yes, even seek to love them. Too bad the Biblical literalists can’t get ahold of that!
When he is finally ready to take his message to the capital city, he doesn’t plan a dustup with guns a' blasting. Instead, he chooses the same animal to sit upon, legend has it, that carried his beloved Mother on her long journey during those critical moments just before his birth. Could there be anything more vulnerable and humble?
Yes, at least one more thing. The Christian confession: how the Great and Almighty God has come to earth dressed up in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
Right before his death, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, and we can add, every major city, every leader and every citizen, indeed the whole world, with the same sad and tired lament, “if only, today, you knew the things that make for peace” (Luke 19:42).
The true gift of Christmas is the gift of peace. I know some Christians will argue. They will say Jesus is the true gift of Christmas. But when you’re seeking to honor Jesus’s name as a slogan without an appreciation and surrender to the teachings of the actual historical Jesus, then what’s the point? He becomes nothing more than an ornament upon wherever and whatever you wish to stick his name.
Christianity is about more than a commercial jingle. It’s certainly about more than a debate about whose name or picture is slapped on whatever commercial product. Being attracted to the real Jesus, the champion of a costly and courageous path toward peace, is a life-changing, life-redirecting, life-transforming journey.
Bonhoeffer reminds us “that our whole life must be an Advent if only we can come to the realization that ‘all people are our brothers and sisters’.” This season spend some time with the Prince of peace, learn and practice his ways, slow down, love and forgive others, give from your heart to those needful or undeserving, be at peace with others. It may not be easy. Be not afraid.
Comments
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On November 26, 2015, Kevin Parrish said:
Mark. We miss your thoughts. We miss our thought provoking discussions in Sunday School class, and most importantly 5 years later almost we still miss our family's first true church "home". Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! May the "peace" of Christ be with us all!
On November 26, 2015, Gerard Howell said:
A thoughtful introduction to the Advent and Christmas Seasons.
On November 26, 2015, Julia Pace said:
Nice. Appreciated. In Peace, Julia Pace