Unsettling: Scandal, Sign, and Sword


Our cultural Christmas is largely sweet and soft.  Like a "Precious Moments" nativity.  But the real Christmas story told in the scriptures has rough edges!  Luke 1 says that as Mary contemplates the birth of her son, she composes a song of revolution.  It speaks of the exalted being humbled, the humble being exalted, the hungry getting full, and the full left hungry!  Jesus is born in a barn.  His visitors are shepherds, who were social outcasts.

These rough edges are on full display in Luke's account of Jesus' appearance at the temple in 2:25-38.  When Joseph, Mary, and Jesus go to the temple, an "old saint" named Simeon takes Jesus in his arms, praises God because he has seen the Messiah, and prophesies that the child is destined to cause the rising and falling of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed.  Not sweet and soft!

Finally, Simeon says that a sword will pierce Mary as well.  This is the first time pain is mentioned in relation to Mary's future.  And not just a little pain.  A gaping wound caused by a big sword!

Mary's pain would begin when Jesus was 12.  She lost track of him in Jerusalem, and when she found him, Jesus rebuked her for not knowing he would be at his father's house!  When Jesus was grown, Mary went to Jesus with her other sons to try to get him to come home!  They thought he had gone nuts!

The greatest pain came when she saw him crucified.  Jesus' crucifixion seemed to mock all the God had promised.  It appeared that Jesus wasn't the Messiah.

But then came the joy of Jesus' resurrection.

Following Jesus involves pain.  We like the joy of discipleship, but we grow the most through pain.  Thankfully, as in Mary's experience, pain doesn't have the last word.  The last word is joy.

We can celebrate the joy of  Christmas.  But we remember that the way to joy often comes through pain.

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