It is now the season of Advent, the time when we anticipate the coming of Christ into the world, the first time as a baby, and the second time as a conquering king. As part of looking at his first coming, we read the many Old Testament prophecies about his nativity, which show the divine nature of his birth. In them we see the impossibility that all those 300 prophecies could have been fulfilled by any one person – unless God was behind the prophecies and their fulfillment.
One of those prophecies was one in Micah 5:2 which foretold the birthplace of the Messiah 700 years before the event: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”
Two New Testament Gospels, Matthew and Luke, report the fulfillment of Micah’s prophecy when they record that Jesus Christ was indeed born in that little town of Bethlehem. It was a highly unlikely fulfillment, given that Jesus’ mother and Joseph both lived in a different town and province – Nazareth of Galilee, rather than Bethlehem of Judea. It took a Roman emperor’s decree for a census to make Joseph and the expectant Mary travel from their village to Joseph’s ancestral family home of Bethlehem, the city of David, because he was of the lineage of that famous king. And, to be in Bethlehem at just the right time for Mary’s child to be born there.
The town was about 5-6 miles from Jerusalem, and much of its economy was based on raising and supplying animals to be sacrificed in the nearby Temple. How appropriate that Christ, the Lamb of God, the final sacrifice for our sins, should be born alongside the other sacrificial lambs! How appropriate too, that the Savior who called himself the Bread of Life should be born in a town whose name means, “House of Bread!”
When I think about Bethlehem, I can’t help but hum to myself that familiar Christmas carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” The song’s title and descriptions of a still, quiet village with dark streets reflect the small size of Bethlehem at the time of Christ’s. Estimates are that no more than 200-300 people usually lived there, though several thousand more came there for the census.
But though Bethlehem’s population was small, it wasn’t really such a small town after all. Bethlehem represents you and me, and with us, the whole world. Christ came through Bethlehem to all of us.
I. Bethlehem as part of the world. When Christ was born at Bethlehem, he was born as a real, flesh and blood human baby in a town of real, flesh and blood people. Bethlehem itself was a bricks-and-mortar type of place you could find on a map (you still can!). It was not some never-never-land, or some mythical Shangri-La. It was not some imaginary perfect place like Plato’s Republic or Thomas More’s Utopia (utopia means literally, “no place”), or to use a more modern reference, “A galaxy far, far away.” Bethlehem did not exist in some other dimension. It was a real earthly place.
Bethlehem was part of this physical world in which we live, and therefore it was an appropriate place for Christ to make his earthly debut. By coming to Bethlehem, Christ came into this world of human beings. In John’s Gospel, Christ tells Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world, but that he has come into the world. Paul likewise tells us that Christ came into the world to save sinners, and the book of Hebrews tells us that Christ came into the world to be the sacrifice needed for our sins. They don’t say, “Christ came into Bethlehem,” even though that is where he was born; what matters is that by being born in Bethlehem, Jesus was born in the world.
And how did the world receive him? Well, we can look at how Bethlehem received him.
The people of that little town were not prepared for the coming of the Messiah. Even though the prophets had foretold both the timing and location of the Messiah’s birth, nobody in Bethlehem or its region expected the Savior’s arrival when he came. Like the rest of the world, the people were going about their daily tasks, trying to make a living, unaware that the Savior was coming to them right then. So first off, they tried to shut him out. “No room!” was the message; “All filled up!” was the verdict. Jesus had to be born away from those he came to save, out back with the animals in a stable and laid in a borrowed manger, just as years later he would be laid in a borrowed tomb.
No one except Mary and Joseph celebrated his birth, at least at first. It took a special text-message delivered by an angel to alert nearby shepherds about what was going on, and it took a supernatural star to get the attention of distant wise men and start them on their journey. It took God’s word confirmed by his signs to let the people know what was happening, and it took the believing shepherds to spread the good news of what they had seen. So it would be for the rest of the world, too: believers would someday spread God’s Word and their testimony to others, and the news of Christ’s birth – and death and resurrection – would go into all the world.
Unfortunately, though many would receive him, many more would shout “No room!” to the Savior when he stands at the heart’s door and knocks to be let in. John 1:10-11 tells us, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”
The harshest rejection of the infant Jesus was by King Herod. At his command Bethlehem saw the shedding of its children’s blood when the evil king sent his soldiers to make sure the infant Jesus didn’t live long enough to challenge his kingship. Whether by fire or sword, by persecution or ridicule, much of the world still tries to stamp out Jesus and the faith which has endured 20 centuries of such opposition. Bethlehem is the world; Christ has come to both, and the reaction to his coming seen in that not-so-little-town has been duplicated throughout the world: ignorance or rejection by most, but by many, joyful acceptance.
II. Bethlehem as us. As Bethlehem represents the whole world, so also it represents each one of us – you and me. You are Bethlehem. Christ comes to you, sometimes quietly in the night like a baby asleep in a manger, sometimes dramatically like the angels with heaven’s glories streaming around you. How will you receive him? Are you so wrapped up in your daily concerns that you shout “No room!” to him, and either shut him out entirely or relegate him to some minor part of your life? Or do you open up and welcome him in, making room for him and watching him grow in you even as you grow in him?
Are you the inn or the stable, closed or open to Jesus? Are you like most of Bethlehem’s townspeople, spiritually asleep and unaware that Christ has come to save you, or are you like the shepherds who set aside their normal lives to look into this Savior whose birth was told them? Or are you like King Herod, angry to have anyone – even Christ – claim kingship over your life? You are Bethlehem; how will you respond to Jesus? Your answer is the most important thing in your life!
Robert Ingersoll was a well-known atheist of the 1800s. Ironically, he was also a friend of Phillips Brooks, the man who wrote “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” When Brooks became seriously ill, he requested that none of his friends come to visit him. But, when his atheist friend, Robert Ingersoll, came to see him, Brooks let him come in right away. Ingersoll told him, “I appreciate this very much. Especially when you aren’t letting any of your close friends see you.” Brooks said, “Oh, I’m confident of seeing them in the next world, but this may be my last chance to see you.”
Let us all welcome Jesus and receive with him the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. The last verse of the carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” says it well:
O holy Child of Bethlehem, Descend to us, we pray. Cast out our sin and enter in, Be born to us today. We hear the Christmas angels, The great glad tidings tell. O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Emmanuel.
Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.
Read: Micah 5:2; Malachi 4:5-6; Matthew 2:1-23.