Hilton Head Island, SC – December 22, 2013
The Chapel Without Walls
Matthew 1:16-25; Luke 1:26-38
A Sermon by John M. Miller
Text – In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. – Luke 1:27-27 (RSV)
Why Is Jesus’ Birth Not Clearly Presented?
The birth of Jesus had great importance only because the life of Jesus had great importance. If Jesus had simply been born and he had lived an ordinary life, his birth would never have been reported by anyone. For his birth to be noteworthy, his life had to be very noteworthy. Thus Christmas is not significant by itself. Its significance is discovered solely by a careful study of what Jesus said and did during his public ministry, and then --- and only then ---by looking backwards to the circumstances under which he was born.
Having said that, however, we might note that the actual birth of any major figure in world history is almost never considered especially crucial to an understanding of that person’s life. For example, what particulars do we know about the birth of Charlemagne or Joan of Arc or Martin Luther or Napoleon Bonaparte or George Washington or Abraham Lincoln or Adolf Hitler or Mao Zedong or Golda Meir or Indira Gandhi, or, perhaps, Hillary Clinton? Nonetheless, every December 25 for centuries, Christians have celebrated the birth of Jesus. Why?
Only two of the Gospel writers even take time to say anything about the circumstances in which Jesus presumably was born. Matthew and Luke each have birth narratives, but they are very different from one another. Mark and John say nothing of the birth, nor does either of those writers even hint anywhere in their Gospels that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Both Mark and John suggest that the only town associated with Jesus is the one in which he grew up, Nazareth.
Then why did Matthew and Luke specifically tell us that Jesus was born in Bethlehem? It is because King David had been born in Bethlehem, and the Messiah was to be a descendant of David. The two Gospel writers believed Jesus was the Messiah, so therefore he had to have been born in Bethlehem. As David was born in Bethlehem, so also was Jesus born in Bethlehem.
But there is an even more important theological reason behind the inclusion of two Gospel birth narratives. Matthew and Luke believed Jesus to be the Son of God. There were many factors in the life of Jesus which led them to believe that, but the circumstances of his birth were the first of those many factors. Matthew and Luke were convinced Jesus was born of a virgin. If anyone was born of a virgin, God would have to be the paternal parent in that obstetrical miracle, or how else could it occur at all?
If Jesus is established as God’s Son at birth, why didn’t Mark and John also include that in their account of Jesus’ life? Isn’t that “fact” a convincing argument? They didn’t include it, because that particular idea didn’t matter to them. They too believed Jesus was the Son of God, especially John, but the virgin birth was beside the point in authenticating Jesus’ divine identity. To them, Jesus became God’s Son because he performed miracles and proclaimed God’s kingdom and was raised by God from the death after the crucifixion. The virgin birth may have been superfluous or unknown to them, and it was not essential to their faith in Jesus as Messiah.
In any case, there is a linguistic problem in Hebrew with the word “virgin.” In Hebrew, there is the word almah: a-l-m-a-h. However, almah has two meanings. Either it means “young woman” or it means “virgin.” Further, there is considerable latitude in what the words “young” and “woman” mean in the term young woman. Is a girl of ten a young woman? Almost certainly she is a virgin. Or is a woman of forty a young woman? And in any case, all young women are women, but are they all virgins? (There may also be a problem in my talking about virgins at all on Christmas Sunday, but it wouldn’t be the first time I have gotten into such problems of judgment. My wife is wont every now and then to remind me of this lunatic tendency of mine and the time I preached a sermon on Mother’s Day called Abortion: A Mother’s Day Theme.)
Anyway, we observed the dual meaning of almah in our responsive reading for today and in the reading from Matthew. In Isaiah 7:14 it says, according to the Revised Standard Version, “Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (If you have ever heard Handel’s Messiah, you will remember that Immanuel means “God With Us.”) It is a special male name, perhaps, but not a common one. In the King James Version, however, it says, “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” That puts this prophesied birth into a totally different category, doesn’t it? Was it a young woman or a virgin who gave birth?
The Church for most if not all of its existence has taken Isaiah 7 to be a prediction of Jesus’ birth. Certainly Matthew understood it in that light. In fact, in his Gospel Matthew cites this verse, and specifically he used the Greek word parthenos to translate Isaiah 7:14. Parthenos means virgin and only virgin, it does not have the “young woman” connotation of Hebrew. (By the way, the Parthenon in Athens is the Temple of the Virgins. I am throwing in that linguistic footnote at no extra charge.)
So, Christian people, was Mary merely a young woman, or was she a virgin? Was Jesus born as everyone else is born, or was he born of a virgin? To Matthew and Luke Jesus was born of a virgin, but it apparently didn’t matter to any other writers in the New Testament, particularly Mark, John, and Paul.
A century ago a huge theological dispute erupted in American Protestantism. It was called the Fundamentalist/Modernist Controversy. Several major denominations, now called mainline Protestantism, splintered as a result of the fracas. The fundamentalists listed the Five Fundamentals they thought every proper Christian was obligated to believe: The inerrancy of scripture, the virgin birth, the deity of Jesus, the blood atonement of his death on the cross, and his bodily resurrection. They resolutely claimed that anyone who rejected any of those doctrines could not be a genuine Christian.
Is the notion of the virgin birth physically possible? If God is God, surely it is, because, as Jesus said, with God all things are possible. Is the virgin birth a doctrinal necessity? For many millions of people, yes. For many other millions, no. That implies that only you can decide for yourself how crucial the concept is for you.
All holidays technically should be considered holy days, for that is the core meaning of the word. However, the religious holiday Christians have called long Christmas, the “Christ-Mass,” has evolved into something that now is both enormously religious and enormously secular. Retailers depend on Christmas for up to 20% of their annual sales. Much Christmas music has nothing to do with Christ, such as I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Jingle Bells, and so on.
Are the Gospels required to present a clear, unequivocal, and universally accepted account of the birth of Jesus? They don’t. Two give an account, but disagree markedly on what it means, and two are silent about it, which means Christmas presumably has no significance whatever for those two writers.
Furthermore, we tend to conflate the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke into one story. I have never seen a nativity set which didn’t include both shepherds and wise men. However, in Matthew there were no shepherds, and in Luke there were no wise men. In Matthew there was a unique, bright star, and in Luke there was no star, but there were angels. In neither Gospel was there a stable, but nativity sets always have stables. In Luke, but not in Matthew, there was a manger. Why is Jesus’ birth not clearly presented by everybody? And what is the Universally Accepted Christmas Story, anyway?
Or how long should Christmas last? Does it last only for one day, December 25, as it does in Western Christianity, or does it last twelve days, until Epiphany, as it does in Eastern Orthodoxy? It was on Epiphany, so we are told, that the Wise Men or Magi came from the east. And if Christmas doesn’t last twelve days, how is my true love ever to give me four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, a partridge in a pear tree, and all those other spiffy gifts?
Christmas has become too big, and also too small. There is too much cultural hoopla, and too little religious meaning given to it. Christmas is gigantic, and it is tiny; it is all-encompassing, and yet it truly encompasses only one essential thing. Jesus had to be born, and that is the one essential thing. But Christmas becomes all-encompassing, because everything that Jesus said and did and was alters everything that happens after he lived and died and was raised again from death by God --- not by Jesus, but by God. God has made Jesus the centerpiece of human history. Again, it wasn’t Jesus who did that; it was God.
Is the virgin birth or is a virgin birth physiologically possible? Every now and then there will be an article in a newspaper or magazine featuring s biologist who will declare that virgin births do occur in nature --- not often, but rarely.
To countless Christians down through the past two millennia, the virgin birth of Jesus is absolutely essential to their conviction that Joseph was not the father of Jesus, that God alone was his Father. It is unquestionably acceptable for anyone to believe that. However, to countless other Christians, the doctrine of the virgin birth is not a great boost to faith, but is actually a great impediment to faith. They reject the notion altogether. That too is unquestionably acceptable. Even if Jesus was born of a virgin (and countless others are agnostic about that), it is by no means the primary authenticator of Jesus as the Messiah. He becomes the Messiah by what he said and did, and by his crucifixion and resurrection, and by our faith in those things, not by his birth, however unique or ordinary it may have been.
Christmas is about how God intervened in human history by means of the person known historically as Jesus of Nazareth. Because of Christ, we believe, life would never again be the same. Valleys would be lifted up, and mountains would be flattened --- not literally, of course, but figuratively, poetically. After all, the messianic prophecies in the prophets are poetry; they are not predictions.
Through Jesus, the lame walked, both literally and figuratively. The blind were given vision, both literally and figuratively. The unbelieving came to believe, the skeptical or cynical had their hearts strangely warmed, as John Wesley said about his own conversion experience, the depressed had their spirits wonderfully raised, the heartbroken found themselves whole again, and all these events happened both literally and figuratively.
What kind of world would this be if Jesus had never been born? Without question Christianity has created enormous problems through the centuries, and it is foolhardy to deny that. But also, without question, it has had an immeasurably positive impact on the world. On balance, human history is far, far better off because a man known as Jesus of Nazareth was born somewhere, somehow, and lived a life like no one else ever has. Even if he was not born of a virgin, and was not God’s Messiah, and was not the singular Son of God, what he did and who he was has had more positive results than any other figure in the history of the human race.
For millions of Christians, that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God is contingent on his having been born of a virgin. For millions of other Christians, the virgin birth is not only unnecessary to substantiate that belief, but may actually be an obstacle to believing it. Either way, Christmas is still Christmas. So sit back and celebrate! Heaven knows we have too little to celebrate these days anyway.
Christmas is the personal delight of children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It is also a time for adults deeply to ponder an adult appreciation of what God has done to set the world on a better, more productive, and, we certainly hope and pray, a more peaceful and loving path, as exemplified by the one whose birth we celebrate.
Joy to the world! The Lord is come.