“This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Luke 2:12 (NIV)
In a couple of weeks I will celebrate my 20th anniversary of this chapter-a-day blogging and podcasting journey. I’ve been mulling that over a lot over the past year. The truth is that this was in many ways an overflow of a daily practice I carved out for many years before that. Each morning I crawl out of bed, I grab a cup of coffee and I show up at the table. There, I spend some time with God, meditating, praying, and thinking about where I find myself on life’s road.
Along this journey, I’ve observed that many people hope for a connection with God at their weekly church service. The hope is that being in a building they believe is God’s House, somewhere amidst the music, the spectacle, the communal worship, and the spoken word they will experience something special.
As a follower of Jesus I am called to gather with fellow believers regularly, and God does inhabit and work in-and-through the praise and worship of His people. I have observed, however, that this lends itself to wanting or expecting something amazing, emotional, and spectacular. Sometimes churches even try to create those moments intentionally — crafting services designed to stir powerful emotions.
My own experience is that this misses the point.
It wasn’t a conscious choice on my part to move from the story of Esther to Luke’s version of Jesus’ story. Yet, in the first two chapters I’m finding connections I’ve never seen before. In yesterday’s chapter, it was the fact that God raises simple, faithful, unassuming people into key players within the Great Story. In today’s chapter, it’s reversals. The story of Esther is known for all of its reversals of fortune. Wouldn’t you know it, today’s chapter is full of them, as well.
The best and the brightest of religious minds and thinkers expected God’s Messiah to arrive in pomp. The Messiah, it was believed, would establish an earthly throne, wipe out the Roman Empires and subdue the nations, reign in earthly glory in Jerusalem where the entire earth would come to worship him.
But through the prophet Isaiah God had already said:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.”
Building on yesterday’s chapter, we find that the Messiah enters human history quietly through unassuming people of simple faith. In today’s chapter, Luke methodically present this reversal:
| What People Expected | What God Actually Did |
|---|---|
| The Messiah would arrive in royal splendor | A baby is born quietly to a young couple of simple faith |
| The King would be announced to rulers and priests | Angels announce Him to shepherds in a field |
| The Messiah would enter the world through power | He enters through vulnerability, lying in a manger |
| The religious elite would recognize Him first | Two elderly saints quietly recognize Him in the Temple |
| God’s presence would remain centered in the Temple | Jesus begins forming relationships around everyday tables |
| The kingdom would overthrow Rome by force | The kingdom begins by transforming hearts |
Jesus did show up at the Temple. In fact, He does so twice in today’s chapter. Once as a baby and then as a twelve-year-old. But God’s Son is already establishing that His ways are not the ways of religious institutions. His focus will never be the Temple, because He knows that the Temple will be rubble in 40 years. He even tells His disciples this. His focus is on the table…
- The table he learns to craft with his earthly father’s training
- The table he shares daily with family and community for thirty years
- The table where he eats with His disciples
- The table where he dines with tax collectors and sinners
- The table where he has a midnight conversation with Nicodemus
- The table where Pharisees host Him as a guest
- The table where Lazarus throws a dinner party in His honor
- The table where He celebrates one final Passover and blesses bread and wine
In the quiet this morning, Luke reminds me that a major paradigm shift has already begun. Jesus would go to the Temple for festivals, but His focus was never on the spectacle and bustle of the Temple. His focus was daily spent quietly at the table with others.
It’s no accident that Luke’s version of Jesus’ story begins with a baby laid in a feeding trough and ends with bread broken at a table. From the beginning, God was inviting us not to a spectacle, but to a meal.
My relationship with Jesus began in a church. Worship with my local gathering of Jesus’ followers is an essential part of the spiritual rhythm of my life. But it’s not the most transformative part. The most transformative part of my relationship with Jesus is here in the quiet of my office, every morning, at the table.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
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