Beeson podcast, Episode 61 Dr. Timothy George Dec. 20, 2011 Announcer: Welcome to the Beeson podcast coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Now your host, Timothy George. Timothy George: This is Christmas week on the Beeson podcast and today I want to do something just a little different. I'm going to read the Christmas story as told by Martin Luther. Martin Luther, the great reformer of the 16th century, loved Christmas. He loved the doctrine of the incarnation, which is the centerpiece of the Christian faith. "The beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God, and the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." The Gospel of John opens with those magnificent words. Luther latched onto that and related it in a special way to the Christmas story. Luther would gather his children around him and he would preach in the village churches and in the parish church of Wittenberg and tell this Christmas story. Timothy George: What I'm going to read to you is actually a compilation of a number of Martin Luther's Christmas tellings of the Christmas story over the years. They've been brought together in a wonderful book by the late great historian, Roland H. Bainton. It's simply called Martin Luther's Christmas Book. I'm only going to read a little section of it about the nativity of Christ, his birth in Bethlehem. This is Luther. Just think of Luther speaking in the 16th century to a group of German peasants or city dwellers, telling them in ways they can understand and relate to this great unique story, God becomes a human being. The word made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth. here we go. Martin Luther's Christmas story. Timothy George: Now, the birth of Christ place exactly when the Emperor Augustus sent out a decree that all the world should be enrolled. The law of the census required that each householder must be present in his home at the time of the enrollment. Joseph was of the lineage of David and had to go to Bethlehem, the city of David. And despite his Royal ancestry, he was so poor that he had been unable to make a living in Judea. And for that reason, had transferred to Nazareth, but now he had to go back. Scripture says he took with him Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. We could see how poor Joseph must have been, that he could not afford to hire some old woman or neighbor to stay with Mary and look after her while he was gone. Timothy George: Just look how unobtrusively and simply do these events take place on earth that are so heralded in heaven. On earth, it happened in this wise. There was a poor young wife, Mary of Nazareth, among the meanest dwellers of the town, so little esteem that none noticed the great wonder that she carried. She was silent. She did not vaunt herself, but served her husband and took care of their house, but they had to leave the house. Perhaps they had a donkey for Mary to ride upon, although the gospel says nothing about it and we may well believe that she went all the way on foot. Timothy George: Think how she was treated in the inns on the way. She who might well have been taken in a golden carriage with gorgeous equipment. How many great ladies and their daughters there were at that time living in luxury, while the mother of God trudged on foot in midwinter, trudged her weight across the fields. How unfair it all was. The journey was certainly more than a day from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem, which lies on the farther side of Jerusalem. Timothy George: Joseph had thought, "When we get to Bethlehem, we shall be among relatives and we can borrow everything." A fine idea that was. Bad enough that a young bride married only a year could not have had her baby at Nazareth in her own house instead of making all that journey of three days when she was heavy with child. The inn was full. No one would release a room to this pregnant woman. She had to go to a cow stall and there, bring forth the maker of all creatures because nobody would give way. Timothy George: And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger. When now they would come to Bethlehem, the Evangelist says that they were of all the lowest and the most despised and must make way for everybody until they were showed into a stable to make a common lodging and table with a cattle while many cutthroats lounge like lords up in the inn. They did not recognize what God was doing in that stable. With all their eating and drinking and finery, God left them empty and this comfort and treasure was hidden from them. Timothy George: Oh, what a dark night it was in Bethlehem that this light should not have been seen. This shows us that God has no regard for the world and what the world is and has and does. And the world shows that it does not know or consider what God is and has and does. Well, Joseph had to do his best and it may well be that he asked some maid to fetch water or something else, but we do not read of anything like that. No one came to help. They heard that a young wife was lying out in a cow stall and no one gave her heed. Shame on you, wretched Bethlehem. The inn ought to have burned with brimstone for even though Mary had been a beggar, maid, or unwed, anybody at such a time should have been glad to give her a hand. Timothy George: Oh, there are many of you in this congregation who think to yourselves, "If only I had been there, how quick I would have been to help the baby Jesus. I would have washed his linen. I would have changed his diapers. How happy I would have been to go with the shepherds to see the Lord lying in the manger." Yes, you would. You say that because you know how great Christ is. But if you had been there at the time, you would have done no better than the people of Bethlehem. Childish and silly thoughts are these. Why don't you do it now? You have Christ in your neighbor. You ought to serve him. For what you do to your neighbor in need, you do to the Lord Christ himself. Timothy George: Well, his birth was still more pitiable. No one noticed that in a strange place, she had not the very least thing needful in childbirth. There she was without preparation, no light, no fire in the dead of night, in the thick darkness, the guests swarming in the inn were carousing. No one attended to this woman. I think myself that if Joseph and Mary realized that her time was so close, she might possibly have been left in Nazareth. And now think what she could use for swaddling clothes, some garment she could spare, perhaps her veil. Certainly not the breeches of Joseph that are now on exhibition as a relic over in Aachen. Timothy George: Well, she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger. Why not in a cradle on a bench or on the ground? Because they had no cradle, bench, table, board or anything except the manger of the oxen. That was the first throne of this king. There in a stable without man or maid, lay the creator of all the world. And there was the maid of 15 years bringing forth her firstborn without water, fire, light, or pan, a sight for tears. Timothy George: What Mary and Joseph did next, nobody knows. The scholars say they adored. They must have marveled that this child was the son of God. He was also a real human being. Don't forget that. Those who say that Mary was not a real mother, lose all joy. He was a true baby with flesh, blood, hands, and legs. He slept, cried, and did everything else that a baby does only without sin. Think, women. There was no one there to bathe the baby. No warm water nor even cold, no fire, no light. The mother was herself, midwife and the maid. The coal manger was the bed and the bathtub. Timothy George: Who showed the poor girl what to do? She had never had a baby before. I am amazed that the little one did not freeze to death. Do not make Mary of stone. It must have gone straight to her heart that she was so abandoned. She was flesh and blood. She must've felt miserable and Joseph too, that she was left in this way all alone with no one to help in a strange land in the middle of winter. Her eyes were moist even though she was happy and aware that the baby was God's son and the savior of the world. No, she was not stone for the higher people are in the favor of God, the more tender they are. Timothy George: Mary was not only holy, she was also the mother of the Lord. With trembling and reverence before nestling him to herself, she laid him down because her faith said to her, "He will be the son of the highest." No one else on earth had this faith. Not even Joseph. For although he had been informed by the angel, the word did not go to his heart as it did to the heart of Mary, his mother. Timothy George: Now behold Christ lying in the lap of his young mother. What can be sweeter than the babe? What more lovely than the mother? What fairer than her youth? What more gracious than her virginity? Look at the child knowing nothing, yet all that is belongs to him. Doubt nothing. Watch him springing in the lap of the maiden. Laugh with him. Look upon this lord of peace and your spirit will be at peace. See how God invites you in so many ways. He places before you a babe with whom you may take refuge. Timothy George: You cannot fear him for nothing is more appealing than a little baby. Are you affrighted? Then come to him. Lying in the lap of the fairest and sweetest maid, you will see how great is the divine goodness which seeks above all else that you should not despair. Trust him, trust him. Here is the child in whom his salvation. To me, there is no greater consolation given to mankind than this that Christ became a man, a child, a baby playing in the lap and at the breasts of his most gracious mother. Who is there whom this sight would not comfort? Now is overcome the power of sin, death, hell, conscience, and guilt. If you come to judge this gurgling baby and believe that he is come not to judge you, but to save you. Timothy George: Well, I hope you enjoyed that telling of Martin Luther's Christmas story, his graphic depiction of Mary and the real human birth that the Lord Jesus experienced as he came into this world, born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. I hope this week will be a good time of reflection of meditation for you. Find some time to be quiet with Christ, to be alone with the scriptures, to read the Christmas story over one more time and remind yourself of what a great and precious and unspeakable gift Jesus Christ, the son of God is for us and for all the world. I wish you a very blessed and happy and Merry Christmas in Jesus name. Speaker 3: (singing) Announcer: You've been listening to the Beeson podcast with host Timothy George. You can subscribe to the Beeson podcast at our website, beesondivinity.com. Beeson Divinity School is an interdenominational, evangelical divinity school training men and women in the service of Jesus Christ. We pray that this podcast will aid and encourage your work and we hope you will listen to each upcoming edition of the Beeson podcast.