The Unnatural Nature of a Man Named God
The virgin birth of Jesus is as unnatural of a birth as you can find, as the very gospel of God itself is unnatural. Here, in the Apostle Paul's introduction of his letter to the Romans chapter 1:1-7, we contemplate both in The Unnatural Nature of a Man Named God. December 23, 2007.
In ancient times when people wrote letters they’d put their signature at the beginning of the letter, so it was quite natural for Paul to begin his letter to the Roman Christians: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle.” Paul went on to identify the recipients of this letter also according to the custom of the day, up front in the letter much like we write, “Dear so-and-so” at the beginning of an e-mail: “to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.” There’s something unnatural, however, about the words we read in between these two identifying phrases. Paul identifies himself in verse one, and identifies his readers not in verse two but in verse seven! The five verses sandwiched between these two phrases interrupt the natural flow of the letter with an unnatural gushing forth of the apostle’s love and appreciation for the gospel, that is, God’s good news promises for sinners.
This gospel, “promised beforehand through the prophets in the Holy Scriptures” is as paranormal as the strangest science fiction plot you could imagine. One science fiction writer I read about pondered who would be the best candidate to send aboard a visiting alien spacecraft whose crew wished to learn about humanity. Instead of picking some highly educated scientist, philosopher, politician, or diplomat, or a professional athlete or Hollywood star, the writer suggests the following inter-planetary representative: “I would ... go down to the local [Wal-Mart] … and pick an old woman, over sixty, from behind the costume jewelry counter ... She has worked hard at small, unimportant jobs all her life, jobs like cooking, cleaning, bringing up kids … Sometimes her feet hurt something terrible … She has a stock of sense, wit, patience, and experiential shrewdness” (From Ursula K. LeGuin’s Dancing at the Edge of the World posted in Homiletics). A choice so bizarre it’s brilliant – like “the gospel of God.” The choice of God’s own Son to visit our sin-polluted planet is so bizarre it’s brilliant. The exalted Lord of heaven becomes the humbled Servant of the earth.
Jesus capably fulfills such contradictory role as Lord and Servant because he possesses such an unnatural make up. He is both the Son of David and the Son of God, both fully human and fully divine – Immanuel, “God with us.” Amazingly, such a wondrous peculiarity is one of the most widely accepted miracles of the Bible according to one nationwide survey indicating that 75% of Americans believe in the details of the Christmas story, including the virgin birth (“Survey: Most Americans Believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ,” http://www.christianpost.com/ December 18, 2007). Because of the widespread celebration of Christmas many people grew up simply accepting this as fact, that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. It makes you curious, doesn’t it, if people really know what they’re agreeing with? Because it’s not that simple. One Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary professor once wrote, “What we sometimes fail to realize is that this fact that in Christ God and man are united in one individual and indivisible person is in reality the greatest miracle in the whole history of the human race” (“God Manifest in the Flesh: The Mystery of the Personal Union,” Siegbert W. Becker, Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary online essay file, p. 1). God becoming man in the virgin birth is not that simple at all. It may very well be the most unnatural event ever.
A little girl who was given an assignment to write an essay on “birth” went home and asked her mother how she had been born. Her mother said, “The stork brought you, darling, and left you on the doorstep.” Continuing her research she asked her dad how he’d been born. Being in the middle of something, her father similarly deflected the question by saying, “I was found in the middle of the garden. The fairies brought me.” Then the girl went and asked her grandmother how she had arrived. “I was picked from a gooseberry bush,” said Grandma. Armed with this information the girl wrote her essay. When the teacher asked her later to read it in front of the class, she stood up and began, “There has not been a natural birth in our family for three generations.” The virgin birth of Immanuel is as unnatural of a birth as you can find, as the very gospel of God itself is unnatural. Here, in the apostle Paul’s introduction of his letter to the Romans, we contemplate both in The Unnatural Nature of a Man Named God.
The Son of David and the Son of God
Like landing a major corporate sponsor whose massive amounts of money and power make a project rise to the top and stay there, King David received some good news from God about the fate of the Jewish nation and their perseverance in the ancient world, “When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:11-14,16). That promise of God found its immediate and partial fulfillment in David’s son, Solomon, but its ultimate fulfillment in David’s greater son, Jesus Christ. When God’s time came for this descendant of David to be born God sent the angel to a devoted believer named Joseph who was pledged to be married to a devoted believer named Mary. “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife (Matthew 1:20).
Joseph, the legal father of Jesus, and Mary, the biological mother of Jesus, were both descendants of David and, therefore, Jesus was born as a descendant of David. Nothing unnatural about that, at least on the surface. Matthew’s gospel account, however, informs readers that something very bizarre and unnatural was going on, “Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18). Joseph and Mary hadn’t yet come together in marriage so Mary couldn’t be pregnant – except, she was! No storks, fairies, or gooseberry bushes either. Mary became miraculously pregnant by the power of God the Holy Spirit so that she, a virgin, would give birth not just to a human being but to a human being who was also God. That’s unnatural! Virgins don’t give birth! And God is not human! Except when the gospel of God is involved. Because the gospel of God is so unnatural. It’s unnatural for people who sin against God and let him down too much to receive his faithful, forgiving love. It’s unnatural for people who forget about God too often to have God answer a prayer when they suddenly remember they need something. It’s unnatural for people who carelessly go through the motions of everyday Christian behavior or Sunday worship to read that God smiles with delight even at these half empty expressions. It would be very natural for God to look for fulfillment in other relationships but the gospel says he will never do that. God wants to find his fulfillment in you. If you think that’s unnatural, you’re absolutely right. To convince you that it’s really true the Bible presents The Unnatural Nature of a Man Named God. It took an unnatural Savior to make the unnatural gospel come true. And here he is in this section of Romans: “who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who as to his spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God.” This dual nature of Jesus (better expressed here using the NIV translation of the Greek at the bottom of the page in a footnote) promises you that everything you need for being right with God is found in Jesus, the Son of David and the Son of God. As God he can do anything, including a virgin birth and rising from the dead and forgiving sins. As a human being he can experience everything, including pain, loneliness, fear and especially guilt. In the virgin-born Jesus your guilt belongs to God, not to you. Your pain, loneliness, and fear belong to God, not you. Your destiny is in the hands of God, not yours alone. Unnatural? Of course, that’s why Christmas is a miracle. A miracle promised in a Man named God that finds its fulfillment in you.
Our Servant and our Lord
One word we hear around Christmas time sums up this unnatural yet beautiful miracle and it happens to be the theme for our worship today: Immanuel. It captures the essence of this miracle by including both God and us in a word that means “God with us.” The circumstances surrounding this word’s origin make it even more unnatural. King Ahaz, the tenth king of ancient Judah, worshipped idols and even sacrificed his own son to the fire idol Molech. To get the king’s attention God sent foreign nations to invade Judah. Backed into a corner Ahaz knew he needed help and looked not to the Lord but to Tiglath-pileser, the king of Assyria. Ahaz even took the treasures of God’s temple and offered them as tribute to Tiglath-pileser. In the midst of it all the Lord God didn’t abandon wicked Ahaz. His determined love made every effort to call forth faith from Ahaz, “Ask the Lord your God for a sign” (Isaiah 7:11) God urged. But Ahaz refused. He preferred human help and his own plans to the help and plans of God. He believed his loyalty and obedience to a foreign king would benefit him more than loyalty and obedience to the Maker of heaven and earth. In response to Ahaz’s refusal, God said he would give a sign anyway: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).
This is The Unnatural Nature of a Man Named God. It’s unnatural when we give our trust to other securities more willingly than we give our trust to God, and God is still willing to trust us to hold his infant Son like the parent of a newborn handing off their precious infant. It’s unnatural when our loyalty is divided between God and other interests, and God still devotes all he has to us. It’s unnatural when we obey our own imperfect instincts more quickly than God’s commands, and God sends his Son – sacrifices his Son! – who became obedient to death on a cross. This one named Immanuel is, according to Romans, “Jesus Christ our Lord.” He is the sacrificial Servant and also the Lord of all, in one person. “Through him and for his name’s sake we received grace … called to belong to Jesus Christ … loved by God.” His name, Immanuel, means “God with us.” He gives up all for us. He gains all for us. God loves us not because of us but because of him, which means God’s love for us will never change.
Today we wrap up the Advent season that prepares us to rejoice again at the coming of God to be with us. He came once in a lowly manger, and will come again in the glorious skies, as the Savior who brings grace and peace to all. Highly unnatural, yes. A miracle to be sure. But it’s a miracle that we need and have in the Man named God born of the virgin Mary. Listen to this miracle described in a concluding poem:
Mary had the little Lamb, who lived before his birth; self-existent Son of God, from heaven he came to earth.
Mary had the little Lamb; see him in yonder stall – virgin-born Son of God, to save us one and all.
Mary had the little Lamb, obedient Son of God; everywhere the Father led, his feet were sure to trod.
Mary had the little Lamb, crucified on the tree, the sacrificial Son of God, whose suffering sets us free.
Mary had the little Lamb – they placed him in the grave, thinking he was gone for good but death is now his slave.
Mary had the little Lamb, ascended to heaven above; “To all the world,” he bids us go to neighbors with his love.
Mary had the little Lamb – mystery to behold! From the Lamb of Calvary a Lion will unfold.
When he comes again to save, of this be very sure: It won’t be Lamb-like silence, but with the Lion’s roar.
poem by Marv & Marbeth Rosenthal (adapted version)
Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (http://www.gracedowntown.org/) on December 23, 2007
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