Luke 2:1-20

Bethlehem, NOT Neverland

Many of you are familiar with the fairytale story of Peter Pan, the boy who lived along with many other boys in a place called Neverland. Neverland was a great place for little boys, because there, as the story goes, they would forever remain little boys: running and playing and getting into mischief with no threat of consequences; no chores to perform – just day-in-and day out fun. Peter invited a girl named Wendy to travel to Neverland, to be a mother to his gang of Lost Boys. Wendy lived outside of Neverland in the real world; the world you and I live in: a world where pain and suffering and death are all parts of what it means to be alive as humans. After a series of great adventures, Wendy decides that the best place for her is back at home with her family.

Some years later, Peter looks in on Wendy and is shocked to discover that she has grown up, a reality that frightens Peter to the point of tears. “I am old, Peter,” Wendy tells him. “I grew up long ago.”

Some of us would prefer to believe on Jesus as the baby who never grows up but remains the babe in the manger. We’re not really too excited about the truth that the child will leave the crib and go to the cross. Both the Christmas story and the Peter Pan adventure make it clear that being a grown-up isn’t much fun. There doesn’t seem to be much magic in maturity.

When we read about the trek to Bethlehem, we are invited to recall Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. When we imagine the visit of the shepherds, we are reminded that Jesus grew up to become the Good Shepherd. When we hear about the visit of the angels to Bethlehem, we are propelled forward - across a lifetime - to the appearance of the angels at the empty tomb.

Unlike Peter Pan, Jesus did grow up. Luke tells us that the child Jesus “grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him” (Luke 2:40). And for that we praise God. For it is only through his life, death and resurrection that we can truly appreciate the wonder of his birth.

Through participation in his life we can discover what God is calling us to do and to be.

Through his life we are free from the bondage to performance. Through his life, the demands of God or the Law of God take on a whole new meaning. Rather than the drudgery of performance, the Law of God is now the guide by which we are drawn into the love of God. We are not free from God’s demands for perfection in the sense that God’s demands no longer apply to our lives. We are now free to live according to the Law as an expression of love to God. We who belong to God in Christ need not live as slaves to the Law’s demands. Thanks to God that through Jesus Christ we are free.

Thanks to God that the babe grew up and lived a life of sinless obedience to the Father. Thanks to God that Jesus Christ has, on your behalf and my behalf, met every demand of the law by perfect obedience to its letter. For all recipients of the gift of faith, Jesus Christ has already met God’s demands for perfection.

We are free from the pressure to earn God’s favor, for in Christ, God has confirmed our favor. In Christ you can live free from the frustration of periodic failure. But we are not free to make failure a way of life. We are now free to do and to be what God intends for us to do and to be.

The babe grew up, not only to live, but also to die. And it is through his suffering and death that we can know the freedom that we have just spoken of. It is through participation in his death that we know the forgiveness of God. Jesus, the babe in the manger, was born in Bethlehem, NOT Neverland.

Jesus grew up becoming the perfect atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world through his suffering and death. Hebrews 2:10 says, ^“In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.” Jesus was led by the maturing process that sacrifice and suffering brings. He was led to a place that could be reached only by total faith in the Father. Jesus grew and matured until at last, he was nailed to the cross. And thereby he gained forgiveness for all who believe on him. And he did so by dying. Through participation in his death we become beneficiaries of his life perfectly lived and his humiliating death on the cross.

Yet, as we view the life and the death of Christ we must view them through the lens of the resurrection. Without the lens of the resurrection, the boy Jesus grew up to be a very special, brave, wise and great teacher – but that is all. Without the resurrection he might as well have been born in Neverland, never to grow and mature. Without the resurrection, neither his life nor his death is of value to us.

Having died and having been buried, he rose form the grave thereby overcoming the power and the penalty of sin, which is death. In the grave, Christ invaded death’s turf and there he defeated death. Through his resurrection, he left it there.

It is his resurrection that sets him apart from other extraordinary people. The Apostle Paul says that Jesus Christ was “declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.” The resurrection is the identifying mark upon the life of the babe who was born in the manger.

Death is no more an adversary to the one who is claimed by God in Christ. Through participation in his life, death and resurrection we are free to live to the glory of God.

The baby in the manger is no longer a baby. He grew up to become a strong, though gentle and humble, man.

So let’s celebrate the birth of Jesus, and join the shepherds and angels in praising God for the gift of the Christ child. ^“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (2:11) He’s the boy who grew up.

Who is the babe to you this evening? Is he still a babe? Or is he your Savior, the Savior he was born to become and did become?