The Most Stressful Christmas
Luke 1:29
We are living through a seriously stressful year. Much of our “normal routine” is shut down with so much deception, manipulation, and government control. And many are dealing with health fears, sickness, and death compounded by us being on the edge of full-scale civil war with violence, destruction, and hate being encouraged by the political elite – for their own ends. For many of us, stress, anxiety, and difficulty are on the road leading up to Christmas this year.
For many, this is a stressful Christmas – for sure. But, is it the most stressful Christmas? Can we take a look today at how genuinely stressful things were in that first Christmas year in regard to stress, anxiety, and difficulty? How did God orchestrate that first Christmas?
The stress and the difficulty of that first Christmas all started with a teenage girl, an angel, and an unbelievable story about getting pregnant.
Luke 1:26–35 (NLT)
26 . . . God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee,
27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged (betrothed in an arranged marriage) to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David.
28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
29 Confused and disturbed, (it all starts right there) Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. (in other words, “what in the world is happening”)
30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” (always God’s response) the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God!
31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.
32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David.
33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.
This is incredible – it is awesome. The birth of the Son of God will ultimately mean forgiveness of sin and eternal life with God in Heaven for all those who will put their faith in him. The problem for teenage Mary is – we can be pretty sure – that most people did not initially believe her. Times were very different then, and for a teenage girl who’d been betrothed in an arranged marriage to turn up pregnant, you had better have a doozy of a story. And certainly, Mary’s family thought she had come up with the story to end all stories. Seriously, Mary? “The Holy Spirit of God?”
Guys – the Lord knew the level of stress, and anxiety, and difficulty this would cause for Mary and her family. In fact, Luke Chapter 1 says Mary left Nazareth immediately and traveled to her aunt’s house near Jerusalem and stayed there for three months before she had the courage to go back home.
And during those three months, Joseph was living some high stress and anxiety himself. Again, this was an “arranged marriage” and it did not look good for Mary to become pregnant during the “arranged period.” In fact, Joseph could have charged Mary with adultery and had her stoned to death, which might be why Mary went into hiding at her aunt’s house for three months. And so, Joseph needed to have his own visit by an angel.
Matthew 1:19–21 (NLT)
19 Joseph, to whom [Mary] was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, (meaning he didn’t believe her) so he decided to break the engagement quietly. (for her good, and his)
20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Now, to us, on the backside of this story, this is the most incredible gift ever given by God. It is the gift that leads to eternal life, and we know that because we know the end of this story.
But Joseph was at the beginning of the story and he and Mary had just entered an unbelievably stressful situation. So now, we have another angel story and another side of the family that probably didn’t believe Joseph or Mary, and it appears like both Mary and Joseph had been ostracized from most of their family.
Because when they get to Bethlehem, why in the world were they trying to get a room at the Motel 6? Joseph was from Bethlehem. He certainly would’ve had family in that small town. And so, there’s a really good chance that either Joseph and Mary didn’t feel welcome or they weren’t welcome in any of the family homes. And as it turns out, they weren’t welcome at the Motel 6 either.
And so, this unmarried couple who most likely have been ostracized by most of their family end up in a stable on that first Christmas with only the animals to keep them warm. And right there, in the midst of high stress and anxiety, and in the midst of the most lowly and undesirable place, the Savior of the World, the Son of God was born.
Why Lord? Why did you prepare your birth with so much stress and anxiety? Why did you orchestrate so much difficulty? Why did you arrange to be born in such a “wrong place?” The King of Heaven coming as the Savior of the World is laid in a feeding trough and wrapped in strips of cloth.
If you know anyone who is young, pregnant, ostracized by their family, having just walked or ridden a donkey for ninety miles only to be shunned by more family, ending up homeless and giving birth in a horse stable – that person is having a stressful Christmas. And that is how the King of Heaven entered the world to bring you hope and salvation.
Why did God choose to do it this way? He could have done it any way he wanted. None of this high-stress anxiety and difficulty had to happen. God could have arranged a much less stressful and difficult environment and still accomplished the same thing.
But God chose to orchestrate an incredibly stressful and difficult environment to have the Savior of the World born into, to give you and I hope this Christmas.
And so now, Jesus is born and the heavens split open and the sky lights up with the heavenly choir singing. BUT NOT for Mary and Joseph, instead for some shepherds minding their own business in a field outside of town, and this is an awesome thing for sure. But Mary and Joseph didn’t get to see it. They were just trying to recover from birth and trying to figure out their next move.
And so, the shepherds show up at the stable with this incredible story of the heavenly concert they just witnessed, and Mary and Joseph were astonished. And Luke 2:19 says Mary pondered these things in her heart. But the shepherds went back to their shepherding, and Mary and Joseph and their new baby were still in the stable.
So, eight days later they dedicated Jesus in the temple and they heard more awesome prophecy about their newborn son. But their stress levels were not helped when the first prophecy given by Simeon ended with these words.
Luke 2:34–35 (NLT)
34 . . . “This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise . . . many will oppose him. 35 . . . And a sword will pierce your very soul.”
That might create some uncertainty about the future for Mary and Joseph. High stress, high anxiety, and now an uncertain future. THAT is the environment that God chose to be born into to be your Savior and to bring you hope this Christmas.
And so then, out of nowhere, three wise guys show up from a foreign land with gifts that are mind-boggling.
They bring:
Gold – the symbol of a King
Frankincense – the symbol of a Priest
Myrrh – which is the symbol of death
And it was an incredible visit, and these were awesome gifts (except maybe the myrrh). But these gifts were also so valuable, that they would be able to fund any emergency secret trip to Egypt IF this new family might have to take one.
And they did indeed have to take that trip. They had to run from the government for the life of their son because after the wise guys told King Herod about the new King of Heaven being born, Herod began killing every male baby in Bethlehem – which may have included the male babies of members of Joseph’s family who lived there.
And so, now Mary and Joseph are “on the run” as homeless refugees in a foreign land with the Savior of the World AS a baby in their arms, and because of their baby being born, all the male babies in Bethlehem are being murdered.
That is the level of stress and difficulty that God chose to be born into in order to offer you hope now and eternal life in heaven later. There is not a place you can get where you can say, “well, Jesus can’t meet me here.” Seriously? Look at what he was born into. Look at his life. Not to mention his death. Nobody can say that Jesus doesn’t understand.
And this Christmas, you and I may be feeling some serious stress and anxiety. But we can also experience the same thing that Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the wise men all ultimately experienced – which was the Savior of the World coming into their lives right in the midst of the stress and struggle.
Right in the midst of the trial and tribulation, Jesus can bring the peace and hope of Christmas into our hearts and lives.
Jesus came to be “Immanuel, God with us” right where we find ourselves in today. “Immanuel, God with us” – that’s what Matthew 1:23 calls Jesus.
God became a man and was born as the Savior of the World right in the midst of the high stress, anxiety, and difficulty of this world in order to prove this to us.
Hebrews 4:15–16 (NLT)
15 (Jesus) This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings (trials) we do, yet he did not sin.
16 So let us come boldly (with confidence) to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
THAT is what we need this Christmas. We need to come boldly to the throne of our gracious God Where we will receive his mercy, and we will find his grace to carry us through – these Stressful, Anxious, and Difficult times.
Why was the first Christmas the most stressful Christmas? Because your Savior wants you to know that he understands what you and I are going through.
Jesus came AS one of us to walk in our shoes so that he could walk through any difficulty or trial – with us!
In his very first sermon, Jesus says in Luke 4:18-19,
Luke 4:18–19 (NLT)
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free,
19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
Jesus came into the most stressful Christmas ever to bring us hope.
To bring Good News to the spiritually poor (broken)
To bring freedom to the captives
To bring sight to the blind
and to set the oppressed free
And he came to bring these things in the midst of an extremely stressful environment.
Isaiah 9:6 perfectly lists WHO Jesus IS for us this Christmas.
Isaiah 9:6 (NLT)
6 For a child is born to us (humanity), a son is given to us (deity). The government will rest on his shoulders (his eternal reign). And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor (supernatural counselor, a wonder of a counselor), Mighty God (victory in battle), Everlasting Father (source of eternal life), Prince of Peace (he will bring peace into your life).
This is the hope that Jesus came into the world to give YOU. And in his birth, his life, and his death, Jesus proved to you that he understands the stress, anxiety, and difficulty of this world. In fact, he was born into all of it.
Guys, the Bible is full (cover to cover) with God’s promises of encouragement and hope and assurance that he is with those who have put their faith in him.
And he orchestrated his birth in stressful, high anxiety, difficult circumstances so that you would trust him and walk with him through your stressful, high anxiety, difficult circumstances.
Here is my prayer for all of us this Christmas.
Romans 15:13 (NLT)
13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
For many, this is a stressful Christmas – for sure. But, is it the most stressful Christmas? Can we take a look today at how genuinely stressful things were in that first Christmas year in regard to stress, anxiety, and difficulty? How did God orchestrate that first Christmas?
The stress and the difficulty of that first Christmas all started with a teenage girl, an angel, and an unbelievable story about getting pregnant.
Luke 1:26–35 (NLT)
26 . . . God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee,
27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged (betrothed in an arranged marriage) to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David.
28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
29 Confused and disturbed, (it all starts right there) Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. (in other words, “what in the world is happening”)
30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” (always God’s response) the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God!
31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.
32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David.
33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.
This is incredible – it is awesome. The birth of the Son of God will ultimately mean forgiveness of sin and eternal life with God in Heaven for all those who will put their faith in him. The problem for teenage Mary is – we can be pretty sure – that most people did not initially believe her. Times were very different then, and for a teenage girl who’d been betrothed in an arranged marriage to turn up pregnant, you had better have a doozy of a story. And certainly, Mary’s family thought she had come up with the story to end all stories. Seriously, Mary? “The Holy Spirit of God?”
Guys – the Lord knew the level of stress, and anxiety, and difficulty this would cause for Mary and her family. In fact, Luke Chapter 1 says Mary left Nazareth immediately and traveled to her aunt’s house near Jerusalem and stayed there for three months before she had the courage to go back home.
And during those three months, Joseph was living some high stress and anxiety himself. Again, this was an “arranged marriage” and it did not look good for Mary to become pregnant during the “arranged period.” In fact, Joseph could have charged Mary with adultery and had her stoned to death, which might be why Mary went into hiding at her aunt’s house for three months. And so, Joseph needed to have his own visit by an angel.
Matthew 1:19–21 (NLT)
19 Joseph, to whom [Mary] was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, (meaning he didn’t believe her) so he decided to break the engagement quietly. (for her good, and his)
20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Now, to us, on the backside of this story, this is the most incredible gift ever given by God. It is the gift that leads to eternal life, and we know that because we know the end of this story.
But Joseph was at the beginning of the story and he and Mary had just entered an unbelievably stressful situation. So now, we have another angel story and another side of the family that probably didn’t believe Joseph or Mary, and it appears like both Mary and Joseph had been ostracized from most of their family.
Because when they get to Bethlehem, why in the world were they trying to get a room at the Motel 6? Joseph was from Bethlehem. He certainly would’ve had family in that small town. And so, there’s a really good chance that either Joseph and Mary didn’t feel welcome or they weren’t welcome in any of the family homes. And as it turns out, they weren’t welcome at the Motel 6 either.
And so, this unmarried couple who most likely have been ostracized by most of their family end up in a stable on that first Christmas with only the animals to keep them warm. And right there, in the midst of high stress and anxiety, and in the midst of the most lowly and undesirable place, the Savior of the World, the Son of God was born.
Why Lord? Why did you prepare your birth with so much stress and anxiety? Why did you orchestrate so much difficulty? Why did you arrange to be born in such a “wrong place?” The King of Heaven coming as the Savior of the World is laid in a feeding trough and wrapped in strips of cloth.
If you know anyone who is young, pregnant, ostracized by their family, having just walked or ridden a donkey for ninety miles only to be shunned by more family, ending up homeless and giving birth in a horse stable – that person is having a stressful Christmas. And that is how the King of Heaven entered the world to bring you hope and salvation.
Why did God choose to do it this way? He could have done it any way he wanted. None of this high-stress anxiety and difficulty had to happen. God could have arranged a much less stressful and difficult environment and still accomplished the same thing.
But God chose to orchestrate an incredibly stressful and difficult environment to have the Savior of the World born into, to give you and I hope this Christmas.
And so now, Jesus is born and the heavens split open and the sky lights up with the heavenly choir singing. BUT NOT for Mary and Joseph, instead for some shepherds minding their own business in a field outside of town, and this is an awesome thing for sure. But Mary and Joseph didn’t get to see it. They were just trying to recover from birth and trying to figure out their next move.
And so, the shepherds show up at the stable with this incredible story of the heavenly concert they just witnessed, and Mary and Joseph were astonished. And Luke 2:19 says Mary pondered these things in her heart. But the shepherds went back to their shepherding, and Mary and Joseph and their new baby were still in the stable.
So, eight days later they dedicated Jesus in the temple and they heard more awesome prophecy about their newborn son. But their stress levels were not helped when the first prophecy given by Simeon ended with these words.
Luke 2:34–35 (NLT)
34 . . . “This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise . . . many will oppose him. 35 . . . And a sword will pierce your very soul.”
That might create some uncertainty about the future for Mary and Joseph. High stress, high anxiety, and now an uncertain future. THAT is the environment that God chose to be born into to be your Savior and to bring you hope this Christmas.
And so then, out of nowhere, three wise guys show up from a foreign land with gifts that are mind-boggling.
They bring:
Gold – the symbol of a King
Frankincense – the symbol of a Priest
Myrrh – which is the symbol of death
And it was an incredible visit, and these were awesome gifts (except maybe the myrrh). But these gifts were also so valuable, that they would be able to fund any emergency secret trip to Egypt IF this new family might have to take one.
And they did indeed have to take that trip. They had to run from the government for the life of their son because after the wise guys told King Herod about the new King of Heaven being born, Herod began killing every male baby in Bethlehem – which may have included the male babies of members of Joseph’s family who lived there.
And so, now Mary and Joseph are “on the run” as homeless refugees in a foreign land with the Savior of the World AS a baby in their arms, and because of their baby being born, all the male babies in Bethlehem are being murdered.
That is the level of stress and difficulty that God chose to be born into in order to offer you hope now and eternal life in heaven later. There is not a place you can get where you can say, “well, Jesus can’t meet me here.” Seriously? Look at what he was born into. Look at his life. Not to mention his death. Nobody can say that Jesus doesn’t understand.
And this Christmas, you and I may be feeling some serious stress and anxiety. But we can also experience the same thing that Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the wise men all ultimately experienced – which was the Savior of the World coming into their lives right in the midst of the stress and struggle.
Right in the midst of the trial and tribulation, Jesus can bring the peace and hope of Christmas into our hearts and lives.
Jesus came to be “Immanuel, God with us” right where we find ourselves in today. “Immanuel, God with us” – that’s what Matthew 1:23 calls Jesus.
God became a man and was born as the Savior of the World right in the midst of the high stress, anxiety, and difficulty of this world in order to prove this to us.
Hebrews 4:15–16 (NLT)
15 (Jesus) This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings (trials) we do, yet he did not sin.
16 So let us come boldly (with confidence) to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
THAT is what we need this Christmas. We need to come boldly to the throne of our gracious God Where we will receive his mercy, and we will find his grace to carry us through – these Stressful, Anxious, and Difficult times.
Why was the first Christmas the most stressful Christmas? Because your Savior wants you to know that he understands what you and I are going through.
Jesus came AS one of us to walk in our shoes so that he could walk through any difficulty or trial – with us!
In his very first sermon, Jesus says in Luke 4:18-19,
Luke 4:18–19 (NLT)
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free,
19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
Jesus came into the most stressful Christmas ever to bring us hope.
To bring Good News to the spiritually poor (broken)
To bring freedom to the captives
To bring sight to the blind
and to set the oppressed free
And he came to bring these things in the midst of an extremely stressful environment.
Isaiah 9:6 perfectly lists WHO Jesus IS for us this Christmas.
Isaiah 9:6 (NLT)
6 For a child is born to us (humanity), a son is given to us (deity). The government will rest on his shoulders (his eternal reign). And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor (supernatural counselor, a wonder of a counselor), Mighty God (victory in battle), Everlasting Father (source of eternal life), Prince of Peace (he will bring peace into your life).
This is the hope that Jesus came into the world to give YOU. And in his birth, his life, and his death, Jesus proved to you that he understands the stress, anxiety, and difficulty of this world. In fact, he was born into all of it.
Guys, the Bible is full (cover to cover) with God’s promises of encouragement and hope and assurance that he is with those who have put their faith in him.
And he orchestrated his birth in stressful, high anxiety, difficult circumstances so that you would trust him and walk with him through your stressful, high anxiety, difficult circumstances.
Here is my prayer for all of us this Christmas.
Romans 15:13 (NLT)
13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.