The "Foolishness" of the
Birth of Christ
I Corinthians 1:27-29 & Luke 2:1-20
A Sermon by Dave Redick
Hwy 20 Church of Christ, Sweet Home, OR
Conrad Hyers in his book, And God Created Laughter, tells an interesting story about Abraham Lincoln. An eight year old girl once wrote to candidate Lincoln suggesting that he grow a beard. In her opinion, Lincoln would stand a better chance of election if he would hide his homely face. Rather than being offended, Lincoln answered her letter personally and thanked her for her suggestion. He further added that should his campaign be coming in her vicinity, he would like to meet her to express his appreciation.
A TV comedy of the 1970s picked up on this amusing story. In the television version the letter from Lincoln spurred a flurry of activity in the girl's town. Her father was a member of the local Republican party. The officials of the party were ecstatic at the prospect of a visit from Lincoln. They saw visions of political prestige, special favors, positions in Washington, perhaps even a cabinet post. Introductions were prepared, speeches written, a band rehearsed.
On the day that Lincoln's campaign train was scheduled to pass through, practically the whole town was assembled at the station. There were the leading Republicans wearing their top hats, the shiny marching band, the townsfolk in their finest clothes. Almost everyone was there, that is, but the little girl to whom Lincoln had written. She had been left at home. After all, her father reasoned, Lincoln would be interested only in the politicians and their speeches, and the voters and their votes, not the attentions of an insignificant little girl.
As the campaign train approached the town, however, it was forced to stop for repairs. Lincoln, not wanting to sit in the warm train, set out across the fields on foot. Walking through the streets of the empty town, he found the little girl's house. When he introduced himself at the door, the maid was speechless. But the little girl and her playmate, the maid's daughter, welcomed him in as if they were expecting him.
The two girls had been having a pretend party, drinking pretend hot chocolate out of small teacups. They invited Mr. Lincoln to join them and went through the motions of pouring him a cup. There in the parlor Lincoln sat with the two little girls, engaging in small talk and sipping pretend hot chocolate with them. After a while, Lincoln said he must be going, thanked them for the party, and asked them how they liked his new beard. Then he walked to the waiting train.
The final scene was the best. Lincoln's campaign train goes right through the town without stopping! It goes right past all the waiting politicians and local dignitaries; right past the loud-playing band and the flag-draped platform; right past the ladies and gentlemen in their Sunday best. Lincoln had just come to visit and say thank-you to an eight-year-old girl. (1)
Somehow that seems a bit like the story of Christ's birth to me. The world in the time of Christ was focused on the empire politics of Caesar Augustus. The Roman Empire stretched its real estate to maximum proportions. Its western boundary was the Atlantic Ocean. Its eastern boundary was the Euphrates. It reached north to the Danube and the Rhine and south to the Sahara Desert. Practically no one was looking, save the people associated with a little finger of land struggling for existence along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, the land of Palestine, when God sent His Son to be born in a common stable in a tiny, no-count town called Bethlehem. If God were trying to impress anyone or get their attention, he surely did a poor job of it!
It's a classic case of one of the characteristics of the God of heaven: using things that seem terribly insignificant to put to shame the things that seem highly important to those who believe they are powerful and important.
There is a verse that expresses this very clearly in the New Testament. We read in I Corinthians 1:27-29,
"...but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God."
Most of the world on the night Jesus was born was distracted by more "important" things. Caesar was getting ready to levy a tax on the Empire. Lesser rulers struggled to stay in power. Power brokers everywhere were struggling to move up or keep what they had. Had they known of his birth, they would have considered it insignificant if not foolish.
Yes, there are things about the story of the Birth of Christ that seem foolish to those who are into power and prestige, even today. Those who look down upon others from their places of self-declared importance usually overlook the Christ. Don't let that upset you. It is by God's design. Understand it and you'll be blessed. Miss it due to arrogance and you'll have cause to be eternally sorry.
Please join me in the second chapter of Luke's gospel for the Bible's account of the birth of Jesus. We will look at verses 1-20. As we read over these verses, I want you to consider with me the "foolishness" (as man sees it) of the story of Christ's birth.
Consider first,
I. The "Foolishness" of the Birth City.
Most of us know that Bethlehem was the birthplace of Jesus. The Hebrew word Beth-le-hem means "house of bread." In the time of Christ, Bethlehem was as insignificant as tiny loaf of bread. The prophet, Micah, predicted the birthplace eight centuries before Jesus was born. We read in Micah 5:2, "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity."
"Oh Little Town of Bethlehem," the carolers sing this time of year. Believe me, it was little! Writing of Bethlehem, one author put it this way: "...the Lord through the writing of a minor prophet eight centuries earlier put his finger on Bethlehem and announces that this place will be famous. Why, that's like the President addressing Muleshoe, Texas, or Pea Ridge, Arkansas, saying 'From you there will come forth a great person.'" (2)
In fact, it seemed so insignificant that for centuries men questioned the writings of Micah. How could it be that Bethlehem, the tiny "house of bread," insignificant as a grain of wheat, would be the birthplace of the Son of God?
At the very least Jerusalem, just five miles north of Bethlehem, would seem to be a much better place to choose as the birth city. Not only was it the hub of Judaism, it was a big city in its day. Accommodations were far better. During Passover, Jerusalem swelled to as many as a quarter of a million inhabitants.(3) Perhaps even better than Jerusalem would have been Rome. It was the center of power and influence.
But that's not the way God did it. (It seldom is.) He chooses the "foolish things of the world to shame the wise."
In the time of Christ, those in power and prestige cared nothing for the writings of Micah. The land of the Jews seemed insignificant - the tiny town of Bethlehem, unimportant.
The pompous Augustus, sitting securely on his throne, in charge of the Roman world, was thinking he had made a decision that was altogether original and unique. As a preparation for levying more taxes, he would take a census of the empire.
Luke tells us in verse 1 and 2, "Now it came about in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria." (4)
Looking back on that decree, we realize that while Augustus thought he was shaping history himself, he was really running errands for a minor prophet named Micah. He had absolutely no idea that a pregnant teenaged girl named Mary, living in another no-count city called Nazareth with Joseph, her carpenter husband, was about to bear a son named Jesus, who would be the Savior of the world. He didn't have a clue that the real significance of that era would be Jesus, not Caesar. The spotlight of redemption's history would fall on Bethlehem, not Rome.
Quirinius, the governor of Syria, was Caesar's representative in charge of Palestine. When the Emperor's edict was handed to him, he got right to work. He cranked up the machinery that would put the taxation in motion. He knew nothing of Micah's prophecy that a great ruler would come out of Bethlehem or that his edict would assure it. Unknown to him, as the dominoes began to bump up against one another, it became necessary for Mary and Joseph to travel from Nazareth, their home, to Bethlehem, to register. Had this not happened, Jesus would most certainly have been born in Nazareth.
Luke tells us in verses 3-5, "And all were proceeding to register for the census, everyone to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register, along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child." (5)
Yes, God "...has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong..." We see it in the choice of the birth city.
Of course, Bethlehem had some religious significance. It was the burial place of Rachel, the wife of Jacob. It was the original home of Naomi and her family and also the setting for much of the book of Ruth. Most important, perhaps, it was the place of the anointing of King David by Samuel the prophet a thousand years before this. But such things would not be recognized as world class events. They would be known only to the devout, those who humbled themselves and sought after God. Such facts would be unknown to the arrogant and self-sufficient who thought they ruled the world.
The choice of the birth city was certainly a case of "...the weak things of the world" being used "to shame the things which are strong..."
But there is also
II. The "Foolish" Choice of the Birth Parents.
I'm going to digress a moment from Luke's Narrative here, and read you a page from Jim bishop's book, The Day Christ Was Born. His fairly reliable description of Mary and Joseph bears repeating. I think it will help bring you into the story. Bishop writes,
She no longer noticed the chafe of the goatskin against her leg, nor the sway of the food bag on the other side of the animal. Her veiled head hung and she saw millions of pebbles on the road moving by her brown eyes in a blur, pausing, and moving by again with each step of the animal.
Sometimes she felt ill at ease and fatigued, but she swallowed this feeling and concentrated on what a beautiful baby she was about to have and kept thinking about it, the bathing, the oils, the feeding, the tender pressing of the tiny body against her breast - and the sickness went away. Sometimes she murmured the ancient prayers and, for the moment, there was no road and no pebbles and she dwelt on the wonder of God and saw Him in a fleecy cloud at a windowless wall of an inn of a hummock of trees, walking backward in front of her husband, beckoning him on. God was everywhere. It gave Mary confidence to know that He was everywhere. She needed confidence. Mary was fifteen.
Most young ladies of the country were betrothed at thirteen and married at fourteen. A few were not joined in holiness until fifteen or sixteen and these seldom found a choice man and were content to be shepherd's wives, living in caves in the sides of the hills, raising their children in loneliness, knowing only the great stars of the night lifting over the hills, and the whistle of the shepherd as he turned to lead his flock to a new pasture. Mary had married a carpenter. He had been apprenticed by his father at bar mitzvah. Now he was nineteen and had his own business.
It wasn't much of a business, even for the Galilean country. He was young and, even though he was earnest to the point of being humorless, he was untried and was prone to mistakes in his calculations. In all of Judea there was little lumber. Some stately cedars grew in the powdery alkaline soil, but, other than date palms and fig trees and some fruit orchards, it was a bald, hilly country. Carpentry was a poor choice. (6)
The extent of Bishop's accuracy is not my point here. My point is that no matter what description you consider, these two, the earthly parents of Jesus, were simple, humble, country folk. Had both of them been killed by robbers that night, the world would not have known or cared. Once again, I'm reminded of Paul's words, "...the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are..."
Wouldn't it have been better to have the Son of God born in the home of the Empower or some celebrity? Perhaps, but that's not God's way. He chose a lowly birth for His Son who would later instruct us, through His Apostle, with these words:
"...Do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation." (7) Again, I think the world, in its ladder-climbing ways, would call the purposeful association with people like that "foolishness." Yet God chose those kind of people to entrust with the life of His Son. We're talking here of the foolishness of the choice of the birth parents.
Thirdly, in the story of Christ's birth, there is
III. The "Foolishness" of the Birth Place.
The accommodations in Bethlehem were probably not the best on a normal day. Given the circumstances of a sudden homecoming of all the city's sons at once, and you can imagine the problems. In a short time the place was packed to overflowing. Mary and Joseph arrived too late to get a civilized place to spend the night.
Luke says in verses 6 and 7, "And it came about that while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Bethlehem was a hubbub of people. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands were there because of the census. The best most of the visitors could hope for was what was known as the caravansary. It was like an ancient bus depot where weary travelers in caravans would move in, be refreshed for a brief period, and then move on. But even this was full. They probably tried other areas, but they were also full. No signs swung brightly after dark reading, "Vacancy" or "Travelers welcome here for the night." No one left the light on that night for the birth-parents of the Son of God. Historians tell us that it was possible that the travelers slept all over the street during this heavy taxation time.
Perhaps at some time you and your family have arrived in a small town late at night in the middle of nowhere and found "no vacancy" signs on all the motels. You slept in your car. Can you imagine doing that with a wife ready to give birth at any time? Can you imagine doing that without even your car?
Probably nobody cared about the birth of a baby that night, anyway. The whole talk of the city would have been the problem of taxation and Caesar and Quirinius and Archelaus and Herod - the ones who ordered this pandemonium. The crying of that little infant would only be another irritant in the ears of these people wanting sleep, because they were bothered to be in that strange place. Nobody cared, and there was no room. Well, perhaps someone actually felt pity on their situation. They finally found shelter in a stable where the baby was born. Makeshift clothes. Makeshift bassinet (an animal feeding trough). What a place for a king to be born! What a place for God's Son to be born!
I was born in San Diego in 1950. If I ever get back down there, I'm going to look up the site of the hospital where my mother delivered me. I envision myself driving up to it and saying to my wife and maybe my kids, "That's where your Dad was born," or maybe to my grandkids, "That's where your Grandpa came into the world. Right there on that spot on the third floor!" Now imagine Jesus, in his adult life, returning to Bethlehem, finding that stable (if it still existed) and saying to those with him, "That's where I was born." Do you get it? "...the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen..."
Hey! It was a humble birth! OK. We accept that. But it is still the most important event in human history! And the world needed to know what had happened. Right! There needed to be some kind of announcement, elsewise, how was anyone going to know?
Yet, there was even "foolishness" in that. I refer to
IV. The "Foolishness" of the Birth Announcement.
Surely you've received birth announcements. Perhaps there was a call from the excited parents or the new grandparents. A week or two later you got the card in the mail - all pretty and colored with gold inlaid edges. Maybe a picture. "Announcing... " and then the name of the baby.
Or perhaps you've been around long enough to see the newspapers carry the announcement of the birth of a prince - perhaps Prince Charles in England. Hey, that's big news! Everybody hears about it!
But the way God handled the birth announcement of His Son was different. He didn't wake Quirinius or Herod or Augustus. They didn't even get a card in the mail. Instead He sent his angels to wake some dozing shepherds nearby to tell them.
Luke writes in verses 8-20, "And in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields, and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. And the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger.' And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.' And it came about when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds began saying to one another, 'Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.' And they came in haste and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. And when they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them."
I think it is most likely that the shepherds mentioned here were watching over a very special flock of sheep that night near Bethlehem. I'm referring to the temple flock, that special flock of consecrated, blemish-free animals kept for the purpose of sacrifice in the nearby temple in Jerusalem. These were "slaughter sheep." Every one of them in the flock was destined for the alter to die in atonement for the sins of the men and women they represented. When you consider the ultimate purpose of Jesus' birth, there could be no more appropriate group to announce to. You see, a lamb was born that night, a tiny lamb who lay in a manger, destined for Golgotha's alter. John would later say of Him, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (8)
You see, in the account of His birth, we find an allusion to His death! This, too, is in keeping with that part of the nature of God that uses "the base things of the world and the despised" to nullify the pride and arrogance of man. Those who are immersed in power and prestige and their own self-interest want nothing to do with talk of death. That's because death is the ultimate thief that steals away what they live for!
But to those willing to listen to the intentionally common and obscure message of God, this reference to Christ's death has real meaning!
William Barclay comments that it was customary in that place and time when a boy was born, for the local musicians to congregate at the house of his birth to greet him with music. With Jesus born in a stable in a town where no one knew his parents, this could not be carried out. "It is a lovely thought," writes Barclay, "that the [musicians] of heaven took the place of the [musicians] of earth, and angels sang the songs for Jesus that the earthly singers could not sing." (9)
Conclusion
"...but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God."
I think we could add, in light of the things we've seen here, "And God chose that night to send the Lamb of Mary to bring to nothing the authority of Rome."
Things haven't changed much, have they? People still give place to the "significant" things (money, political power, prestige, popularity). They overlook and even shun the simple. In so doing, they miss God, because He will not allow the arrogant to approach Him. Perhaps we've seen that just a little better here. Caesar wasn't invited to the birth of Jesus. Neither were any of the others who made up the "who's who" of the ancient world. That's the way it is with God.
"For consider your calling brethren," writes Paul, some years later, "that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble..." among you.
Does that bother you? Apparently it doesn't bother God. Not in the least.
Some years ago one of the largest department stores in the country offered for sale an item that proved to be disastrously unsuccessful. As a matter of fact, it was a total flop. It was a doll in the form of the baby Jesus. It was advertised as being unbreakable, washable, and cuddly. It was packaged in straw with a satin crib and plastic surroundings, and appropriate Bible texts were added here and there to make the scene complete.
When he saw it wasn't selling, the manager of one of the stores in the department chain panicked. He carried out a last-ditch promotion to get rid of the dolls. He brandished a huge sign outside his store that read:
MARKED DOWN 50%
GET HIM WHILE YOU CAN (10)
My friends, Jesus didn't come to be packaged and offered for half price where, if you hurry, you can get Him. He didn't come to impress those who are ultimately most impressed with themselves. He came to call those who are humble enough to listen - people wise enough to see the significant in the midst of the insignificant. Are you that wise?
Have you come to the Lamb of Mary, born in Bethlehem, born to die to take away your sins? As the Christmas season fades for another 365 days, will you leave Him there in the manger, in the stable, or will you carry Him on with you in your heart?
The Lord Jesus Christ is available in the same way He has been for centuries - the Son of God who died for you, who paid the price of your sin (which you won't want to pay yourself. It's death!) He is raised from the dead. He lives yet today. If you have yet received Him, you must make the decision to accept Him soon.
Wise men still seek Him, you know.
1. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1987, as told in Dynamic Preaching, December, 1994 (return)
2. Charles Swindoll, Growing Deep In The Christian Life, p. 124. (return)
3. PC Bible Atlas, Parson's Technology (return)
6. Jim Bishop, The Day Christ Was Born (New York: Harper & Row, 1961), pp. 16-17. (Return)
9. William Barclay, DSBS, the Gospel of Luke, p. 23. (return)
10. Charles Swindoll, Growing Deep in the Christian Life, p. 132. (return)
Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.
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