{"id":6276,"date":"2017-12-10T09:48:22","date_gmt":"2017-12-10T17:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/uncommongodcommongood\/?p=6276"},"modified":"2017-12-13T06:55:57","modified_gmt":"2017-12-13T14:55:57","slug":"6276","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uncommongodcommongood\/2017\/12\/6276\/","title":{"rendered":"Are We Looking for Jesus in the Right Place\u2014Bethlehem?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Bethlehem<\/a>
Bethlehem by night; Sengaska<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today marks the second Sunday of Advent. As with all four Sundays of Advent, today celebrates Jesus\u2019 arrival in the world. Many churches use Advent Wreaths to mark the occasion. Often, the candle marking the second Sunday is called the \u201cBethlehem Candle.\u201d The emphasis is on faith and notes Mary and Joseph\u2019s sojourn to Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

No doubt, people who casually engaged the Scriptures would have expected the Messiah to come from Jerusalem. After all, Jerusalem was the capitol city. But for those who knew well their Scriptures, they would have realized that the Messiah was destined to come from Bethlehem. Matthew 2:6 points this out, as the Gospel quotes a portion of Micah 5:2. Micah 5:2 reads,<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of\u00a0Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be\u00a0ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is\u00a0from of old, from ancient days\u201d (Micah 5:2; ESV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bethlehem had a special place in Israel\u2019s history. King David was born and raised there. However, it was an ordinary place\u00a0 lacking great significance by all other accounts. It\u2019s just like God to bring significance to otherwise insignificant places or people.<\/p>\n

God often shows up in unexpected places. Who would have thought that God would have had Samuel journey to Bethlehem to anoint a king from the line of Jesse\u2014in fact, the youngest of Jesse\u2019s sons, David? Even the prophet Samuel, whom God sent to Jesse\u2019s household to anoint one of his sons as the king to replace Saul, was not looking with God\u2019s eye point-of-view. When he sees the eldest of Jesse\u2019s sons, he assumes immediately that this young man is the person God has chosen as king. But God speaks to Samuel and said, \u201cBut the\u00a0Lord\u00a0said to Samuel, \u2018Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the\u00a0Lord\u00a0sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance,\u00a0but the\u00a0Lord\u00a0looks on the heart\u2019\u201d (1 Samuel 16:7; ESV).<\/p>\n

God\u2019s surprising choice of king did not begin there. Judah\u2019s line was chosen over Reuben\u2019s (Jacob or Israel\u2019s firstborn) and God\u2019s presumed favorite Joseph and his children, Ephraim and Manasseh. When Israel blessed his sons, he said of Judah: \u201cThe\u00a0scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler\u2019s staff\u00a0from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples\u201d (Genesis 49:10; ESV). Later in the story, we find that God chooses Ruth, a refugee from Moab, and Boaz of Bethlehem (See Ruth 2:4) in Judah to be the ancestors of the Messiah. They are the parents of Obed, who is the grandfather of David. Add to that the equally striking truth that Boaz was the son of Rahab, the prostitute from Jericho who responded in faith to God. Matthew\u2019s genealogy of Jesus includes the following: \u201cand Salmon the father of Boaz by\u00a0Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,\u00a0and\u00a0Jesse the father of David the king\u201d (Matthew 1:5-6; ESV). One can go so far back as to consider the surprising truth that God chooses a slave people, not Egypt, to be the chosen people. Israel was chosen based on their ancestor Abraham, who was himself a Gentile like all the other people of the earth until he was circumcised in response to God\u2019s call and promise by faith (See Genesis 12:1-3; 15:7; see also Genesis 17). The Jewish people stand by election, as do all other people who respond by faith to God\u2019s promise of the deliverer (again, see Genesis 12:1-3; Galatians 3:16, 29). God did not choose Egypt or Babylon or Rome, but Israel, not for its own sake, but for the sake of the world, to bring forth the Messiah. Mary and Joseph reflect as well God\u2019s upside down kingdom, as God chooses them to be the parents of the Messiah.<\/p>\n

God orchestrates and uses the mighty Caesar Augustus\u2019 census to orchestrate his plan (Luke 2:1-7). No one in his or her right mind would have expected the Messiah to arise from Bethlehem, that is, unless they accounted for the prophetic word (See Micah 5:2). Instead, the peoples of the earth will look to Jerusalem or to Rome or Washington\u2026\u00a0They can move (or claim to move) capitols from places like Tel Aviv to Jerusalem<\/a>. But ultimately, it is not Zion that marks the presence of God, but Jesus. Just as he is the living Torah and living Temple, so he is the living place where God dwells (Bethel). Jesus is God with us, Immanuel (Matthew 1:23).<\/p>\n

God shows up in the least likely of places\u2014places like Bethlehem, a town where many Palestinians live today, including Christians. In fact, Bethlehem has been recognized as \u201cthe most heavily Christian city in Palestine,\u201d even though many American Evangelical Christians do not appear to account for their brothers and sisters\u2019 existence<\/a>. All too often, foreign policy, including Evangelical support for the recognition of Jerusalem as the capitol city of Israel, seems to overshadow Christian policy for Christian Zionists<\/a> (Refer here<\/a>, too).<\/p>\n

God will continue to show up in the least likely of places and faces, faces like Mary and Joseph, and Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem and elsewhere, too. Governments will rise and fall, and capitols will move to-and-fro, but Jesus\u2019 kingdom in human hearts and lives of living faith across the region and globe will last forever. In view of his lasting presence in unsuspected places and people of faith, how then will you and I seek to discern God\u2019s presence today?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No doubt, people who casually engaged the Scriptures would have expected the Messiah to come from Jerusalem. After all, Jerusalem was the capitol city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1284,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAre We Looking for Jesus in the Right Place\u2014Bethlehem?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jesus shows up in the least likely of places and faces, like Bethlehem and Mary and Joseph. 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