Hopeful Waiting
If someone were to write your biography, how many pages do you think they would devote to the story of your birth? In the full and proper telling of your life’s story, how much attention should be given to the circumstances surrounding your nativity?
As my birthday approaches, my mother likes to remind me that I was due on Mother’s Day but born on Memorial Day, two weeks late and a full ten pounds. Like many first-time mothers, she endured a difficult labor that lasted for hours. When the obstetrician came into the room, my mother noticed that he was wearing a gingham shirt—the kind one would wear to a cookout—and that he seemed perturbed to have been called away from his backyard festivities.
The anecdotes surrounding an individual’s birth may be interesting to those who were present for the event, but they rarely convey something about a person that will follow them for the rest of their lives. There are exceptions, of course. In Genesis 25, we read that Rebekah, who experienced a particularly painful pregnancy, was told by God that the fraternal twins in her womb would grow up to become two nations at war with one another. In time, the descendants of her sons, Jacob and Esau, became the people of Israel and Edom, whose generational conflict is narrated throughout the Bible.
During the season of Advent, you may have noticed that the readings, prayers, and hymns we encounter in church have less to do with the birth of Jesus than with his promised return. The secular world may be fully immersed in the celebration of Christmas, but the church is still waiting and watching for that which will come. By the time we get to the fourth and final Sunday of Advent, we will hear a little bit about Mary and Joseph and the steps they took to prepare for the birth of their son, but, for the most part, we save “Merry Christmas” for Christmas Eve and the twelve days that follow.
Given how relatively unimportant the narrative of Jesus’ birth is to the gospel tradition, that makes sense. I do not mean to discount Luke’s tale of shepherds, angels, and the babe lying in the manger, nor do I want to dismiss Matthew’s brief recollection of Joseph and Mary’s faithfulness, but the Christmas story takes up far less space in the Bible than other episodes from Jesus’ life. In the translation we use in worship, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is 2,384 words, while the story of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:1-20) is only 385.
Similarly, there are several episodes recalled in all four gospel accounts (e.g. the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, the miraculous feeding of the 5,000, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and the crucifixion), but only Luke and Matthew mention Jesus’ birth, and only Luke attempts to tell the whole story. Although Mark and John do mention the members of Jesus’ family, we should note that those two gospel writers believed that the story of Jesus’ life could be told without recalling any details about his nativity. That suggests that the tradition of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, which we cherish, may have been a late development in the telling of the good news of Jesus Christ. Still, I believe the Christmas story is worth telling.
Last weekend, I spent some time in Little Rock, hearing the Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown-Douglas talk about hope in troubled times. Her words were both powerful witness and comforting balm. She spoke starkly about the despair that many feel these days, yet she reminded us of the hope that God has given us in Jesus Christ. Although most of her reflections were centered on the cross and the radical witness to divine justice that resulted in Jesus’ crucifixion, I could not help but hear Advent and Christmas themes in her words.
At one point, Dr. Douglas remarked that the Nicene Creed, which we recite every Sunday, says almost nothing significant about the death of Jesus except that he “was crucified, died, and was buried.” There is no mention of what he did to get himself executed, she lamented, and the result is that Christians tend to gloss over the centrality of Jesus’ particular way of being faithful to God that led to his death. As a way of drawing us back into our need to contemplate our own Christ-like faithfulness, she said, “Jesus wasn’t born in order to die,” and I instinctively bristled.
Wasn’t he? I thought to myself. Although I did not engage Dr. Douglas in conversation about it, I spent the ride home thinking about the relationship between Jesus’ birth and death. Though I certainly would not attempt to speak for a theologian as skilled and insightful as she, I suspect we would agree that, although Jesus was not born simply to become a sacrificial lamb, his divine nature, which became incarnate in his flesh and blood, was always going to run afoul of the powers of this world. There is no way for the Son of God to proclaim the kingdom of heaven and not be executed by the kingdoms of the earth.
In a sense, therefore, the end of Jesus’ life allows us to hear the story about its beginning. Jesus was killed because he brought the reign of God and its liberation to the poor, the downtrodden, and the oppressed. On the third day, God raised him from the dead because the powers of sin and death could not defeat him. We believe that he will come again to judge the world and reign fully over the new creation. And all of that is true because Jesus was and is the incarnate Son of God, the Word made flesh. Even if the story of Christmas arose after the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we know that they are inseparable. The empty tomb is where we find the infant savior and where we wait for the one who will come again to save us.
In these last two weeks of Advent, I encourage you to consider again what you are waiting for. Yes, we are all getting ready for Christmas. There is shopping to do, parties to organize, and travel to plan. But, as we prepare for the celebration of Jesus’ birth, we are also preparing to celebrate his life, death, resurrection, and promised return. We cannot tell one part of the story without embracing the other. There is no narrative of what happened in Bethlehem without the story of what happened at Golgotha, and the cross of Calvary makes no sense without the manger.
As Advent gives way to Christmas, remember how the gospel tells the good news of our savior and how we wait not only for a newborn child but also for a triumphant king.
Yours faithfully,
Evan D. Garner
