BY STEVE DUNN
Reading: Luke 2.18-20
When I was in high school they introduced something called “the new math.” At that point it was from a parallel universe. For my math teacher, Mr. Iams, who was nearing retirement after teaching mathematics for 40 years, it was “math from another planet.” The concept was good. It was trying to help us rethink the way we approached the science of mathematics so that we would be better prepared for the intricacies of the future that would be computers, space travel, and a burgeoning electronics industry. And at that point, the internet was more a concept than a reality—certainly not the life-dominating reality that it is the second decade of the 21st century.
Most of us struggled with this new math because we had lived too long with the old math. Our minds found it difficult to wrap around those concepts, let alone do something practical with them. In fact, more than once some of us said, “Do we really need to do it this way?”
By now most of us are familiar with the Christmas story, of how a virgin conceived by the Holy Spirit so that she might carry the Very Son of God in her womb, of how a cousin in her older age gave birth to the messenger who would prepare the way for the Savior’s message and ministry.
And then there are the improbable events recorded in Luke 2.8-20:
There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.”
At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises:
Glory to God in the heavenly heights,
Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.
As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. “Let’s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.” They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.
Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they’d been told! – THE MESSAGE TRANSLATION
The world would find such an entry for the King of Kings totally out of its frame of understanding. Even today, 2000 years since that moment in history, more than one person would confess, “This does not compute.” Kings come from kings and power comes from the end of a gun. The strong win and the weak—well, they just get walked over. Confession and repentance do not add up in a “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps world.”
And that whole virgin thing—it is impossible!
Yet the way to eternally living in the Kingdom of God is through humbling yourself and taking on the form of a servant. To gain your life you must give it up. A teenage mother, a backwater town like Bethlehem, a baby born into the poverty of a manger—what can be more humble.
But in God’s math, what that brings is more precious than anything else in the whole world.
© by Steve Dunn
