The Adoration of the Shepherds, Gerhard von HonthorstMatthew, the Gospel writer, helps us to understand the character of the Christmas story in his retelling of the events of that day in Matthew 1:18-25. Three things strike me from this passage.

1. Joseph and the Scandal of Christmas
One of the things that this text reminds us of is how different Christmas looked from Joseph's perspective.  The census required by the Roman government meant that Joseph had to return to his home town.  And as a result he found himself in the awkward position of having to face the people he knew growing up and introduce them to Mary, his betrothed--pregnant, with a child not his own.  For Joseph, Christmas was a horrible embarrassment, a shameful stain on his otherwise good reputation, a terrible disruption to his otherwise respectable life. 

But Joseph, being a righteous man, resolved to do the right thing by Mary and, instead of shaming her publicly, decided to divorce her quietly.  And it was in the midst of this struggle that the angel comes to Joseph and tells him that God is doing a new thing through this child, a thing that he couldn't understand, a thing that would overturn all of his sensibilities and expectations.  And Joseph's response is remarkable.  He comes to realize that if this is what God was doing, then it was going to have to change all his allegiances, all that he values, all of his previously held beliefs.  He understood that it was going to change his entire life.  And so he takes on the shame and the scandal because he knew that God was doing something new.  And in adopting the Only Begotten Son, Joseph opened the door for the adoption of mankind as sons of God.

The incarnation has scandalous implications for us all.  For one, it means that if God has indeed come into the world as flesh, we are faced with a decisive claim--one that is scandalously exclusive.  Michael Green in noting the implications of this scandal, writes: "What a claim, right at the outset of the Gospel … so ultimate, so exclusive.  It does not fit w the pluralist idea that each of us is getting through to God in his or her own way.  No, says Matthew.  God has got through to us in his way.”  It means that God has set the terms on how we might come near to him.  It means that he has come to us and that has within it the scandal of objectivity.  Christmas, if it is to be what it was meant to be, will be a scandal to us all.

2. Mary and the Wonder of Christmas
The second thing that we see in the gospel accounts of Christmas is Mary and the wonder of Christmas.  We don't see it as clearly here in Matthew's account because Matthew was primarily concerned about establishing Jesus' Davidic lineage through his father Joseph.  But in Luke, whose primary concern is different, we read again and again a phrase that essentially becomes the refrain of Mary's life: "she treasured these things up in her heart."  All these wonderful, marvelous, unspeakable things were happening around her, to her, for her, and her response again and again was a sort of quiet wonder, a treasuring of these thing in her heart.  Because from Mary's point of view, Christmas was a season of inexpressible wonder.

You see, for Mary, she was trying to come to grips with the reality that somehow the Creator of the Universe was growing in her womb.  She was contemplating this new-found reality that the Lord of Heaven would need her nurture, her care and her love.  That the Lord of Heaven, the one who held the entire cosmos in the palm of his hand, was the baby she held in her arms.  God condensed to seven pounds and six ounces.  She treasured these thing in her heart.

During this Advent season, I often stop to contemplate how potentially catastrophic Christmas could have been.  What would happen to the delicate balance of the cosmos if its creator were to step into it?  Would the universe collapse in on itself?  Would infinity even fit inside the finite?  Would creation be able to bear the weight of its Creator?  And on Christmas day, I can imagine the hosts of heaven holding their breath, expecting the worst, whispering to themselves "This was a BAD idea."  And yet, that day would go by virtually unnoticed.  It would be marked by the birth of an unimpressive child, in the humblest of circumstances, and the cosmos would continue with business as usual, unaware that it was being visited by their Creator, Redeemer and King.  This is the wonder of Christmas.  These are the thing that we, with Mary, can treasure in our hearts.

3. Immanuel and the Purpose of Christmas
If Joseph shows us the scandal of Christmas and Mary the wonder of Christmas, then Immanuel embodies for us the purpose of Christmas.  Matthew tells us that Immanuel means "God with us" and now, with the birth of this child, that word would no longer be a prayer of longing but the declaration of a new reality.  God has now decisively declared that he has thrown in his lot with humanity.  That from this moment on, whatever happened to the human race would also happen to God himself.  That whatever suffering, tragedy or sorrow mankind would experience, God would take that up in himself and endure them with us--for us!  He would be with us in ways we could not imagine.

C.S. Lewis talks about how the incarnation is not so much the invasion of enemy territory by a conquering king.  Rather, it is more like the return of the rightful king to his subjects in turmoil and rebellion to restore peace and flourishing and harmony.  That though we would have the king out, he would insist on coming back and being enthroned for our good.  You see, the purpose of Christmas was that God would now be Immanuel--his indelible presence with those he loves.