“God is not an encyclopedia whose task it is to satisfy our curiosity.”
Jacques Ellul
You probably didn’t know this but last Thursday, December 6th, was the 250th Birthday of the encyclopedia. On December 6th, 1768, the 1st edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica was published in Edinburgh. Other encyclopedias existed before the Britannica, but none of its predecessors attempted to systematically cover all of the major subjects of human knowledge. The original three volume publication promised “accurate definitions and explanations, of all the terms as they occur in the order of the alphabet.” The 2nd edition increased to 10 volumes and soon became the standard, earning a reputation for its rigorous editorial standards.
Some people have tried to read the entire encyclopedia. Very few have succeeded. A.J. Jacobs read the entire 15th edition, about 40 million words, on nearly 230,000 topics. He wrote about the experience in his 2014 book: “The Know-It-All,” saying, “I’ve definitely forgotten a lot, a huge amount, 97, 98 percent maybe, but there’s so much stuff left in there…”
In 2012, after 244 years of publication, the Britannica announced that it would no longer publish print versions, focusing instead on digital products. Though it’s now in a digital format, today’s Britannica has 44 million words in 32 volumes at about 1,375,000 words per volume. All of this reminds me of the last verse in the Gospel of John, chapter 21 and verse 24: “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
Though we know much about the last three years of Jesus’ life, we know very little about His birth. While it’s been the subject of countless dramatizations and speculations, the historian Luke gives it all of one sentence: “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” The Gospel of Mark doesn’t say a word about Jesus’ birth. The Gospel of John only focuses on His deity and eternality.
It can almost be frustrating. If most of us had written the story of Jesus’ life, we’d have explained a lot more about Mary and Joseph and why Mary was traveling with Joseph to begin with. There would have been many details on why no one found a room in any inn or at the very least in Bethlehem had welcomed them into their home. Much more than the simple “because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke 2:6).
Why wasn’t there a better place for them to stay than a barn, who was with them when that baby was born, and so many other questions? We would have done a lot more investigating and reporting, filling in all of those details and removing most of the speculation. We wouldn’t have gone all Kitty Kelley, but a little David McCullough would have been nice.
But in doing so, we would have drowned the account in needless, even distracting detail. Often when it comes to the Bible, God doesn’t give us all the details we want, but He always gives us the details we need. When it comes to the birth of Jesus, we get all the details we need to understand one thing with the utmost clarity: Jesus comes quietly, even insignificantly.
Luke opens this part of his account of Jesus’ life with the name of Caesar Augustus, the mighty emperor, the man who can speak a word and make millions of people do his bidding. With a mere word he can force his citizens to travel significant distances to do something as simple as register for taxation. This is Caesar, the strong, Caesar, the proud and Caesar, the powerful. He’s the greatest emperor of the greatest Empire and the mightiest man on the planet. But then, Luke switches his attention to an infant, born in the most ignominious circumstances. Born to a virgin, born away from home, born in a barn, laid to rest in an animal food trough. The contrast is both powerful and undeniable.
We would imagine, of course, that the Messiah would be born high and rich, a son of great privilege. We’d expect that He would be born in circumstances more befitting a king. He should have been born to royalty, not to peasants. He should have been born in a palace, not a barn. He should have been born surrounded by the finest doctors who would have safely ushered Him into the world.
But no, everyone in the entire town turns away his parents, even though it’s obvious that Mary is about to give birth. They have nowhere else to go, so He is born in a stable and laid to rest in a feeding trough.
Why? Because God will teach us something vital through Jesus. He will teach us that we see this world completely backwards. He will teach us that the way to be great in God’s eyes is to be nothing in the world’s eyes. He will teach us that the way to exaltation is through humiliation, that the way to go high is to go low. He will teach it first and best through His very own Son, “who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” He came as the least because He came for the least.
Do you feel small, insignificant? Maybe just a number? Do you feel that you don’t really matter? You do. The One who left heaven to come to earth 2,000 years ago reminds us that as the world thought that He was insignificant, He came to this earth in love for all of the “insignificants.” He came for you and He came for me! He was the first Christmas gift and the only one that you will ever need.
Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.
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