Well it was quite a political mess back in those days. Caesar Augustus had issued a decree that a recount, a census, take place throughout the entire Roman empire. Even though other official counts had taken place and had been certified by earlier rulers, it was the contention of Caesar Augustus that every person had to be counted. The statewide recounts of select provinces like Palestine, Syria, or Judea would simply be insufficient. He mandated that every family and individual throughout the empire must return to his or herrespective hometown in order to register, for the purposes of taxation. The rule of law was binding and so for the most part, the local canvassing boards and the people complied and followed through with the laborious task. Early first century documents show that Galilean patriots revolted, protesting that the manual census count was illegal and unfair and biased.
Nevertheless, the count proceeded unto completion. All eyes were turned toward Rome, the capital of the Roman empire. People were waiting to see what the final count would be. They were sifting the rumor mill for any indication of what the final tally would spell for their pocketbooks.
Meanwhile, way off in some obscure corner of the Roman empire in a town of little-to-no significance, a peasant couple of no political standing whatsoever were carrying with them a child who would forever change the world. Like other families, they were rushing to their hometown of Bethlehem to register.
We pick up the story of this peasant couple in Luke 2:4-7(NIV). "So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."
Jesus had a real body.
It is worth our attention this morning to note that Jesus was born with a real body. Jesus was no make-believe baby or some plastic nativity piece. As a baby, Jesus' body was susceptible to the cold, wintry nights. He had to be wrapped in warm cloths and placed in a straw-laden manger for warmth. As a baby, he had to be supported in his mother's arms. He had to be nursed and burped. The baby Jesus no doubt cried like every other infant. He spit up. He soiled his clothes. He kept his parents up at night. As a helpless infant, Jesus needed to be fed and changed and taught like other children.
John Weborg, in a Christianity Today magazine article, had this to say of Jesus. "There is God in the flesh, thriving in a placenta, protected by a water bag, bouncing on a donkey ride to Bethlehem where his folks had to meet the local IRS. No different than any other baby at the time. While God preferred human nature to the angelic, God asked no human favors and got none. When inns are full, they are full. You sleep where you can. God deep in the flesh became God deep in the straw. Mary the mother of the Creator, sustained the one who sustained all the living."
We are really just beginning to scratch the surface of Jesus' humanity. Jesus had a physical descent. He was the son of Mary. He was part of a long lineage that could be traced back to King David, Abraham, and even Adam. In Luke 2:21 we are told that just after his birth, Jesus had to literally be circumcised on the eighth day according to local religious customs. In Luke 2:40 it is said that as a child, Jesus grew and became strong. He was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him.
The boy Jesus had a complete childhood. He transitioned into manhood like every other man. He outgrew his shoes and clothing. He developed facial hair. He perhaps had acne, scabs on his knees, body odor, dirt under his fingernails, and calluses on his palms. He no doubt had gotten splinters in the woodshop.
But Jesus' humanity was evident in other ways. Jesus had a physical body that had physical limitations. At times, like after a long fast, he would become hungry. When he was with the Samaritan woman at the well, he was thirsty. While in the stern of a ship on the stormy Sea of Galilee, we learn that Jesus needed rest. Jesus also experienced real pain from physical injury. The crown of thorns pressed into his skull drew real blood. The spear hoisted in his side after he died on the cross drew out real body fluids. The floggings with leather straps created deep penetrating bruises and incisions in his skin. Jesus was so human that he experienced a real death on the cross. His heart stopped. His lungs quit. His spirit faded. His skin paled. His fingernails darkened. After his death Jesus' body was even wrapped for burial. It was handled and carried by men, and laid to rest in a tomb.
Jesus also experienced the broad spectrum of human emotions. At times Jesus experienced anger, disgust, distress, loneliness, and sorrow. At various points in his ministry we find Jesus escaping the crowds and retreating into solitude. He needed to get away from it all. He needed an emotional retreat. Of particular interest is that Jesus demonstrated affection, amazement, appreciation, compassion, confidence, love, loyalty, self-control, and sympathy.
Jesus had a very human mind and a very human conscience. Jesus had common sense. He had insight. He had a quick wit. He had recall. He read books. He wrote things. He learned. He taught. He preached. Jesus was spiritually-minded. At times, he sought out God's will. He had moral strength. He was consistent. He was concerned about justice and about people's welfare. Throughout his entire life Jesus was referred to as a man. He called himself a man, the crowds called him a man, the Samaritan woman called him a man, the Jewish leaders, Pilate, the disciples, Peter, Paul, the author of Hebrews, even Josephus, a secular Jewish historian, all called him a man.
Jesus also had many human names and designations, such as carpenter, carpenter's son, Jesus, Joseph's son, king, Mary's son, master, messiah, physician, prophet, rabbi, son of David, son of Man, and teacher.
Jesus was fully human.
In every way, the New Testament bears witness to the fact that Jesus was fully human. Jesus had to wrestle with obedience to God's will. Ashe stated in Luke 22:42 (NIV), "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Jesus had to get away in the early morning hours to spend time with God in prayer. Jesus had to rely on God's Spirit to strengthen him in the garden. There is every indication in scripture and from the testimony of first century extra-biblical literature that Jesus was fully man. He had a real physical body. This was a body you could pinch because it was so real.
Perhaps it seems like this point has been belabored or overemphasized. It has not! We need to get away from this notion of a purely spiritualized Jesus. Jesus didn't walk six inches above the ground. He wasn't a spirit or a ghost. Jesus had to walk mile after mile from town to town. He got bit by mosquitoes. In Hebrews 2:17-18 (NIV) it tells us that, "....he (Jesus) had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." Jesus is no stranger to the day-to-day realities that we experience. He was all too real and all too human.
Ravi Zacharias tells the story of a nineteenth century missionary named Joseph Damien who ministered on the island of Molokai, Hawaii to people infected with leprosy. One morning before Damien was to lead daily worship, he was pouring some hot water into a cup when the water swirled out and fell onto his bare foot. It took him a moment to realize that he had not felt any sensation. Gripped by the sudden fear of what this could mean, he poured more hot water on the same spot. He had no feeling whatsoever!
Damien immediately knew what had happened. That morning as he walked tearfully to deliver his sermon, no one at first noticed the difference in his opening line. He normally began every sermon with, "My fellow believers", but on this morning he began with, "My fellow lepers".
I said that Jesus is no stranger to the day-to-day realities we experience. He addresses us as one who has experienced the reality of our humanity first-hand. He took on our humanity, our limitations, our suffering, and our pain. He faced temptation.
Jesus was born into history.
Perhaps its also worth mentioning just briefly that Jesus was born into real history. Luke tells us that Jesus was born during the time Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census be taken of the entire Roman world. Jesus interacted with real living historical figures like Pilate, who sentenced him to death on a cross. Jesus battled with real living people like the Herodians, Sadducees, Pharisees, teachers of the law, and chief priests. We can trace Jesus' exact steps, we can go to his birthplace, and we can visit the towns he stayed in. We can walk around the Sea of Galilee. We can go to the garden of Gethsemane.
There is no way to refute the fact that Jesus entered our world. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he entered the time-space continuum that we commonly refer to as history. He was born a real man in a real body in real history. He broke into the earthly realm to share in our humanity.
I was reading an account of author and pastor Leith Anderson's visit to Manila some years back. While there some missionary friends took him out to the great city's garbage dump. Leith was shocked to discover that tens of thousands of people had made their homes right there in the dump site. They had constructed shacks out of things other people had thrown away. Every morning at sunrise they would send their children out to scavenge for food out of other's people's garbage. They depended on this for a family meal. It was evident that a great deal of the people had been born there and had grown up on the garbage dump. They had started their families there and their children made their homes there among the shacks, with only garbage to eat. They had finished out their lives and had died there without ever going anywhere else, not even into the city.
But Leith noticed something that was every bit as remarkable. There were a good number of Americans who also lived on the garbage dump. They were missionaries. These Christians had chosen to leave their own countries in order to communicate the love of Jesus Christ to people who did not know God. Now just think for a moment how amazing it is that someone would willingly leave all that he had in America in order to go and live on a garbage dump. As inconceivable as it may be for Americans to go and live on a garbage dump, we need to be reminded that it does not even begin to compare to the journey Christ made from heaven to earth. Jesus left the glory and comfort of heaven and took up residence in our sin-marred world, on our turf, in our reality, in a limited, finite human body, during a real historical time.
What does it mean for us?
You know, I keep thinking about what all this means for us. In Jesus, God can truly relate to us. I found this interesting. For many years, Joe Torre had been a catcher and broadcast announcer for the St. Louis Cardinals. Shortly after he was named manager, someone suggested to him that he could do a much better job managing the game from high above the baseball field in the broadcasting booths. Torre's response was pointed. He said, "Upstairs, you can't look in their eyes."
In Christ Jesus, God looked deep into our eyes. He connected with us in our humanity. He entered our space and reached out to us. God is not aloof, nor distant, nor detached. He dwelt among us. He related to us. Our God, Jesus Christ, is a relational God!
In Jesus, God can be truly known by us. In the third century, a theologian and scholar by the name of Origen told the story of a village that had a huge statue. The statue was so massive that people were having difficulty seeing exactly what or whom it was supposed to represent. Finally someone miniaturized the statue so that one could see the person it honored. Origen said that this is exactly what God did through his Son, Jesus.
Hebrews 1:3 (NIV) tells us that, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being." Jesus is the self-miniaturization of God, the visible icon of the invisible God. In Christ, we have God in a comprehensible way. In Christ, we have God's own personal and definitive visit to the planet. In Christ, we do not have a close encounter with or of the third kind. We have a close encounter with the divine trinity. God in the flesh. God incarnate.
In Jesus, God can fully know us. When I read the Christmas story in Matthew and Luke, when I read through the long genealogies, when I read about Mary and Joseph, the manger, the shepherds, the barnyard animals, the virgin birth, the magi, the political tension, and the flight of Joseph and Mary to Egypt, I can't help but think, "God fully knows me." When I read about Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, when I see Jesus escaping the pushy crowds, when I see Jesus in the garden wrestling with God's will in prayer, when I see Jesus grieving at the death of his close friend Lazarus, when I read about Jesus, I can't help but think, "God fully knows me."
He knows everything about me. He knows the strength of the temptations I face. He knows the loneliness of living in obedience to God's will. He knows how easy it is to grow weary in doing good. There is nothing in my life and there is nothing about my life to which I can say, "God, if only you knew what I was going through."
The Christmas story teaches us that when we pray, we pray to a God who knows us. The Christmas story teaches us that when we pray, we pray to a God who has entered our world and lived the very life he calls us to live. The Christmas story teaches us that God loves us enough to come join us on our trash heap, to teach us about God, and show us the way to eternal life. The Christmas story teaches us that God loves us enough to address us as fellow lepers and as fellow human beings. The Christmas story teaches us that God loves us enough to join us on the field and look us in the eye and relate to us, up close and personal, instead of from far away. The Christmas story teaches us that God will spare no measure and that he will go to every length imaginable to make himself known in a way that is relevant to us.
Jesus was made like us in every way. He was fully man!
I like what Charles H. Spurgeon preached about Jesus several centuries ago. "Jesus was infinite and an infant. Eternal and yet born of a woman. Almighty and yet hanging on a woman's breast. Supporting a universe and yet needing to be carried in a mother's arms. King of angels and yet the reputed son of Joseph. Heir of all things and yet the carpenter's despised son."
Through Jesus, God fully relates to us. Through Jesus, God can be fully known. In Jesus, God can fully know us. Let us not forget these wonderful truths as Christmas approaches.