God comes in the unexpected
There was no crib or bassinet, no cushion beneath soft sheets, no soothing lullabies from a bobbing mobile.
The bed was a hewn, sturdy feeding trough and inside, a baby. Nine months of waiting were over. Jesus, son of Joseph and Mary, was born.
And so the Gospel begins: God appears in unexpected places.
You would have expected Jesus to be born at home, in Nazareth in northern Israel, because that’s where Joseph and Mary lived. He wasn’t because the Roman emperor ordered a headcount of everyone in his realm. The census required everyone to register in their hometown.
If they couldn’t be home but lodging as guests, then you would expect Jesus to arrive in a comfortable room in the inn at Bethlehem, Joseph’s hometown. He didn’t because others who also were registering for the census had taken all the rooms.
You would expect comfort and calm for a newborn, but the delivery room was a stall, livestock were the attendants, and a manger was his bed.
Thus Israel welcomed its Messiah, the world received its Savior. The Son of God is where you wouldn’t expect.
This became Jesus’s habit.
At twelve, he is among the chief teachers of Israel in the temple at Jerusalem, asking questions and answering. His wisdom astounds.
At thirty, he is in a wilderness among wildlife, fasting for forty days. The one who would say, “I am the bread of life” is tempted to turn stones into bread.
For three years he surprises: He sleeps in a wave-swamped boat; he walks in the night on—not around—the Sea of Galilee; he dines with Matthew and Zacchaeus, despised tax collectors.
And then, he is on a cross. The Son of God who had said that he, like his father, has life in himself, is dying.
He that lived was dead.
Jesus the infant lay where we don’t expect—in a manger. Now Jesus the Savior lays again where we don’t expect—in a grave.
But God appears in the unexpected and suddenly the grave is empty. He that lived, and was dead, is alive forevermore.
Jesus hasn’t changed. The Gospel continues: God still appears in unexpected places.
You and I are those places.
The Gospel writers declare that Jesus, once in a trough and once in a tomb, is now in us. Christ in you is the hope of glory. The Spirit of God dwells in you. Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
The Christmas title of Jesus is amazing enough: Emmanuel, God with us! But God in us? How unexpected. Amazing grace.
As you read this, you may be encountering the unexpected. Like Mary and Joseph, whom a census forced to leave home, maybe you have been driven into unexpected circumstances. Or, as when they stood at the door of the inn, you are crowded out, pushed where you don’t belong.
Maybe Naomi’s story in the book of Ruth is yours—life was pleasant but heartbreaking losses have brought bitterness.
Perhaps your experience with God began like that of the Hebrews who followed Moses out of Egypt—it was bright with hope and promise, then hardship crashed in and you are drinking from a pool of disappointment.
Somehow, life is not what you expected.
I encourage you to hear the Gospel again: God appears in unexpected places. Jesus was in the manger but outgrew it. Jesus was in the tomb but outlived it. Jesus comes where we least expect, and the song describes what happens:
The Glory of God fills my life, And I will never be the same again.1
No one can tell this better than a woman from Samaria who met Jesus in a most unexpected way. Avoiding her neighbors, she braved the mid-day heat of the Middle East to fetch water from a well. Jesus came, asked a favor, chatted. Their conversation got personal and she discovered this stranger knew her sordid life. “You have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband.”
She was disgraced in town and now before him. Yet, Jesus didn’t condemn. Jesus probing the shadows in her life didn’t frighten her. He was different from other men and Jesus made her different. She wanted everyone to know.
“Come,” she invited her neighbors, “see a man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”
Whatever your unexpected place just now, God appears in the unexpected. This often is the place where Jesus’s call to follow comes most clearly. Take him at his word. You will never be the same again.
1. “I Will Never Be The Same Again”, Hillsong United