❖ Video
❖ Audio (Message)
God who gave Himself into the hands of man
(Luke 2:1-7, II Corinthians 4:6-11・The Fourth Sunday of Advent / Christmas Service)
Mari Ikeda
This week is the last week of the four-week-long Advent season of waiting and celebrating the birth of Jesus. Today I would like to focus on the fact that God became man through the birth of Jesus. When Jesus was born, God became a weak baby who could not live without human help. It is very symbolic that God Almighty became a helpless human baby. Jesus would eventually die on the cross, and even then He was helpless. It seems as if human malice has defeated even God’s power. But both Jesus’ birth and death were certainly in accordance with God’s will and happened as God wished. God dared to become powerless in order to be with us, for our sake. I would like to consider today what that means.
Why doesn’t God stop wars and conflicts around the world right now? Is God so powerless that He can do nothing but leave the tragedies that have already occurred? If God is powerless, how can He save us? Each of us must find our own answers to these questions, but I hope that today’s message will give you some clues.
Today we will read two Bible passages. First, let us read about the birth of Jesus in Luke 2. Luke 2:1-7.
A. Jesus, the God who became powerless (Luke 2:1-7)
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register. 4 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. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. (Luke 2:1-7)
1. God tormented by man’s bad will
As can be seen from this, Jesus was born to a young couple with no social power. When Jesus was born, the couple was traveling and could not even find a place to stay, so Mary gave birth in a stable. The newborn Jesus was laid in a manger that held food for the livestock. The reason why they were in such a situation was because the authorities of the time ordered them to register as residents in order to raise tax revenues. Because of that order, Mary had to force herself to make the long journey even though she was pregnant and had a big belly. Jesus and his parents were weak beings whose daily lives were at the mercy of those in power. And, as I mentioned earlier, this helplessness of Jesus was the same when He died on the cross. Jesus was made a sinner by the religious leaders’ lust for power. The crowd, led by them, also cursed Jesus, and at their request, the crucifixion, the most painful of the punishments, was imposed on Him. Jesus did not resist. And God did nothing for the suffering Jesus. No heavenly army appeared to save Jesus, and Jesus cried out in despair to God on the cross, “Father, why have you forsaken me? It was in this way that God was born and died in this world as Jesus, to suffer through the evil intentions of men. Because that is the tragedy of our world and the reality that many of us must face. Jesus showed us that God Himself knows the hopelessness of being tossed about by the convenience of the powers that be, that the armies of heaven will not help us even if we cry out, and that we feel as if God has abandoned us. You may think, “No, it is God’s role to change such a reality right now and end the tragedy of this world.” Or you may think, “What is God doing by being at the mercy of human beings?” I think those are reasonable feelings. When we have to suffer from the bad intentions of people, what we want is the power to end our suffering right now, rather than for God to say, “I know that suffering, too. However, God’s way was different. God is the one who does not want to forcibly change anyone’s heart, bad or good, without distinction. It is God’s mercy that is so deep that, to us, it seems terribly indiscriminate and even unfair. I believe that God trusts us, expecting us to change for the better than we think we can.
2. God who trusted in man’s good will
The situation of Jesus’ birth is also a clear example of this. In the first place, to be born as a human baby means to become a very weak being whose only strength is to cry, and who cannot survive without being protected by human hands to take care of his food and excrement. The very fact that God would become such a being is something that would not be possible without God’s trust in man. And in fact, God trusted Mary and Joseph and entrusted Himself to them. He gave the young couple, who had no power in society, the role of protecting and nurturing Himself, who was defenseless. What God was looking for in those to whom He entrusted Himself was not power, possessions, or social status, but an honest heart that had nothing to do with such things. Also, regarding Jesus’ death on the cross, Jesus did not resist because he knew that being killed was the purpose for which he was born. Jesus did not die on the cross and remain there, but was resurrected three days later. This means that God was not overcome by human evil intentions, but that He destroyed human evil intentions with His death. Through His death and resurrection, God made it possible for us to begin a new life in which we are not ruled by each other’s evil intentions. It is a life guided not by hatred and hostility, but by forgiveness and mercy instead. Jesus used His disciples who had betrayed and abandoned Him to make this new way of life known to the world. He knew they were weak, yet He trusted them and sent them out into the world. The 2,000-year history of the Christian church is the story of countless unknown people who, like those first disciples, were forgiven of their sins by Jesus and began new lives. As long as we are human, there are many mistakes, and there have been many times in history when the church has done institutional mistakes. But surely God has entrusted His work to those who have so many deficiencies. I would like to read one more passage from the Bible. It is chapter 4 of II Corinthians.
B. We who are are jars of clay (II Corinthians 4:6-11)
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.
(II Corinthians 4:6-11)
We are fallible beings, with or without faith. The world we create is naturally full of mistakes. There are constant wars and conflicts, problems of discrimination and poverty remain unresolved, and the natural environment is only worsening due to human activities. Challenges are constantly coming to the lives of each and every one of us, and most of us are struggling to live each and every day.
Nevertheless, God came to us like this and entrusted His weakness to us and the continuation of His work to us. The hatred and despair created by human evil intentions is so great that it seems that one person has no power over how to solve the tragedies that have already occurred. In fact, no one person can do anything alone. Yet, it is from the heart of each of us that the world will change.
I am sure you are all familiar with Viktor Frankl. He was a Jewish psychiatrist who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp. I am ashamed to admit that I read Frankl’s most famous book, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” for the first time this year. In the most cruel and inhuman environment of the concentration camps, Frankl continued to examine what it means to be human. In “Man’s Search for Meaning,” there is this passage
Man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips. (By Victor E. Frankl, in his “Man’s Search for Meaning”)
It is testified here that in the face of death, in extreme conditions, in the face of the overwhelming power of human malice and injustice, it is still possible for people not to lose hope. In the first place, there should never have been concentration camps or gas chambers, and we must strive to prevent such things from happening again, but the fact that there were people who, despite such terrible experiences, were not controlled by hatred and continued to have hope, gives us hope as well.
We are but fragile beings created by God from the dust of the earth. Yet, God uses those earthen vessels to carry His mercy and forgiveness. We ourselves are fragile and always have chips. It is a necessary chip for us to remember that God’s mercy and forgiveness that we carry are not our own, but God’s gift to us. When each of us acknowledges our weaknesses and mistakes and asks for God’s help, this world will change from around that person.
God became weak and powerless for our sake and gave Himself into the hands of us men. To renounce power means to attack no one, to be a threat to no one. Instead, it entails the risk of being attacked or threatened ourselves. In fact, Jesus was crucified. If we do not have weapons to defend ourselves in society, we, too, will soon be attacked or taken advantage of by someone else. Nevertheless, Jesus taught us that in order to change this world for the better, we need to trust others, even at the risk of being defenseless and getting hurt.
What exactly that means depends on each individual’s situation. It may be admitting one’s weakness in front of someone and asking for forgiveness. Or it may be to forgive someone for their mistakes. It may be to not let hatred and sadness rule your heart when you are hurt by someone’s bad intentions. It may be to suffer with those who are suffering. Each of these things may be very small, and you may be in conflict with yourself without being sure of what you are trying to do. But these small changes in the heart of each one of us have certainly changed this world. God has placed His work in our hands.
(Prayer) Lord Jesus, You came into this world as a defenseless baby. You knew we were bad, yet You trusted us to carry on good works. May each of us not hide our weaknesses and mistakes before You, but only ask for Your help. Teach us what we should do and what we should think, both in our relationships with those closest to us and when we think of those in faraway lands. Transform our hearts so that Your mercy and forgiveness may spread throughout this world. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you have come to this world and that you are indeed with us. We pray in your name. Amen.
Summary
When Jesus was born into this world 2,000 years ago at Christmas, God became a helpless baby who could not live without the help of others. And that God was eventually killed on the cross for a crime he did not commit. Man’s bad will tormented God and finally took his life. But in fact, God trusted in man’s good will and offered his life rather than have it taken from him. We tend to be dominated by the despair created by human malice, but human goodness and God’s love can certainly be found in any despair. It may seem too small a hope at first glance to be reassuring, but it has certainly changed this world. God’s love is entrusted to us.
For Discussion
1. How can one have good will when “there is no one righteous?”
2. What and how do we carry as jars of clay?