December 25, 2021 – Christmas Text: Luke 2:1-20
Dear Friends in Christ,
Have you ever thought of the birth of Christ in terms of technology? We live in a technological world that is such a part of our every day that we hardly notice it. But the world has always used technology. Back in the time of Jesus the technology used was mostly different than what we use today.
Let’s take a few moments this special day to see what it looked like . . .
“A TECHNOLOGICAL CHRISTMAS”
The first use of technology that got Jesus to Bethlehem was the census. Joseph and Mary had to go there to be registered. It was the government at work. Caesar Augustus was God’s instrument. His call for a worldwide census unwittingly set into motion the events of Jesus’ birth, thereby fulfilling the prophecy from the book of Micah that he would be born in Bethlehem.
How did you get to your birth? Technology. Your mom had to find out she was pregnant. Many of you popped up on an ultrasound and they could even predict a boy or a girl. Almost all of us or maybe all of us were born in a hospital. Technology was all around us. Monitors and machines and people who were skilled. After your birth technology was used to find out about movement and hearing and eyesight and reflexes. You were coming into a new world.
Joseph and Mary had none of that. No ultrasound but it didn’t matter God had told them they would have a Son and he would be the Savior of the world. They had no hospital to go to but they used the technology of the day and were able to travel on the modern roads. They had a donkey. They used technology to get to Bethlehem and then Jesus was born. He was wrapped in swaddling cloths (technology) and laid in a manger (technology).
The birth was not announced on Facebook or Twittered out to the world. It was announced. Oh, how it was announced. To shepherds by angels. “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Why did a Savior need to be born? Because we are breaking down and altering the way we are relating to one another and God. Technology can have many negative sides to it. John Barclay, a New Testament scholar at the University of Durham gave a lecture at Concordia Seminary on the age of the Internet, he said this:
“In an age when people fear the judgment of their peers far more than they fear the judgment of God, we have become increasingly petulant, critical, even cruel, and it’s proving hard to take…Our contemporaries are not primarily trying to win the favor of God; they are trying to win the favor of one another. The judgment they fear is not the last judgment, but humiliating comments on social media.”
We have shifted away from God and toward one another. Instead of worrying if some faceless person in Uzbekistan likes your puppy shouldn’t we be thinking of our choices according to God’s Word? Instead of tweeting out some inane comment you have to apologize for, maybe you need to hold your tongue because the world doesn’t really care. A few years back people were eating laundry detergent pods and putting it on social media. Others saw it and thought that was a good idea and followed suit. We chase desires because of some twisted envy. We then start to lose who God made us to be. We live in a world of mirages and mirrors, screens and shadows.
Jesus is no shadow. Promised by God in the beginning, heralded by the prophets, and announced by the heavenly host, Jesus is God Incarnate. Jesus is fully human – God in the flesh with bone and muscle and blood and skin and sweat and hair and fingernails. Jesus is as real as it gets.
His birth, like all births, involved blood and pain. He walked real, dusty streets in real places such as Nazareth and Galilee and Jerusalem. Then touched the ulcerous skin of lepers. He wept tears at the tomb of Lazarus. Jesus permitted the technology of the day to put him on a Roman Cross and have his skin pierced and his warm, crimson blood to flow. Jesus, the incarnate Son of God is reality.
Step out of your fantasy world this day and hear the words you’ve known since childhood. Christ came for you. Christ died for you. Christ loves you. Christ forgives your indiscretions and your listening to the voices of our day. They are transient. Do you think they really care about you? Step away from the screen and into your Bible. Hear the good news of great joy that Jesus brings. Down deep, don’t you really want that in your life? May the Holy Spirit move your heart and mind to what you have always known and been taught.
Technology. A blessing when used rightly and as God intended. It brought Him to Bethlehem and into our lives. Rejoice in that. He died and rose for you so that you might live . . . because you are important to Him.
Amen.