4th Sunday of Advent 2013
Isaiah 7:10-16 (p692)
Matthew 1:18-end (p965)
The lectionary sometimes provides puzzles for the clergy.
What on earth links these passages?
But today it’s obvious that one thing the lectionary-ographers
might want us to consider is the Virgin birth of Our Lord.
I want to say about 15 things about it, some of which
might be somewhat overlapping
Christians have
sometimes been embarrassed about it
To do with sex!
Or rather it isn’t!
Sex good!
What need a virgin birth?
A miracle
Some Christian embarrassed by miracles
Famously denied by David Jenkins the former Bishop of
Durham
An amazing miracle but no more miraculous than creation
or resurrection
Christianity is irreducibly supernatural and miraculous
Not just a magic
trick
Not “an
unnecessary doctrine” (Blueprint) – a sign - full of significance
Not to be confused
with:
(i)
The
perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Protestants generally do not hold to the perpetual
virginity of Mary
Jesus had at least 6 siblings
Brothers & sisters – cousins? – from a previous
marriage of Joseph’s, half-brothers
Mt 1:25 – Mary and Joseph had normal marital relations
A comma in the creed!
A virgin whose name was Mary –
not that she was always a virgin
(ii)
The
immaculate conception (of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
Collect: “pure” virgin
Nothing especially / necessarily pure about virginity!
Marriage can be perfectly pure with lots going on in the
bedroom
“Marriage is an honourable estate”
Mary was not completely pure
She greeted Jesus as her Saviour because she knew she
needed saving from her sins
The Immaculate Conception, not the same thing as the
virgin birth or the miraculous conception of Jesus
Roman Catholics believe that Mary was miraculously
conceived in the womb of her mother so that she was preserved from the stain of
original sin
Infinite regress or not needed at all?
Perhaps we need another sermon on Mary sometime
Wonderful, uniquely blessed woman
Give thanks for her
Follow her example
but one point worth making is that Jesus is always the
point
The focus should be on him rather than on Mary
That’s the way Mary would want it!
e.g. “Mother of God” – a statement primarily about Jesus
rather than Mary
So with the Virgin Birth
More about Jesus than it is about Mary
Not the gods
having sexual relations with women
I’m not very up on my classical mythology, but one
Christian writer says about the Virgin Birth:
“This is not the pagan model of divine parenting, with
Zeus turning into a swan to have his way with Leda and so give birth to the
beautiful Helen of Troy”
(Michael Jensen)
Fulfilment of prophecy
A great feature of the Christmas story
Now at last the long expected Jesus has come!
Jesus is the One!
Christ, Messiah, Saviour, LORD!
(Evidence that Jesus is who he said he would be:
e.g. of the line of David, born of a virgin, in
Bethlehem, but called the Nazarene, his birth unusually associated with weeping
for the loss of children, would be called out of Egypt.
3 geographical criteria for God to take care of
Associates Jesus
with other miraculous births in the Bible
Mary is the last of the barren women whose miracle sons
save Israel.
Mary is another Rebekah and Rachel and Hannah, all of
them figures of “barren Israel” waiting for the Lord’s rescue.
(Leithart)
Yet Unique
The only virgin birth in the Bible
Miracle
A divine intrusion
Not a step on a journey
Not an evolution
Not culmination of humanity’s religious quest
Jesus far more than a supremely spiritual man
Jesus different from Buddha in that respect
Different even from Mohamed in that Jesus is God
(blasphemous nonsense to Muslims)
No successors (in
a sense)
Jesus the Supreme, Final, Greatest, Definitive, Once for
all Word of God
Appropriate to a
New Creation
Mary a New Eve
Jesus the seed of the woman who crushes the servant’s
head
believers a new humanity
Fits with Jesus’
divinity and humanity
True God and True Man
Divine nature – 2nd Person of Trinity takes a
human nature to himself
Doesn’t change into a man
Not a 3rd kind of being
Not a mixture
Union without confusion, distinction without separation
Perhaps it doesn’t prove Jesus is God
Muslims for example believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus
without believing in his divinity
But it’s certainly appropriate
I don’t want to be too graphic about this
Humanity has no
part in saving itself
Humanity is the recipient of salvation
Man cannot make a messiah
We cannot rise up and save ourselves
We are impotent
God does the
impossible
He’s always
bringing life out of nothing
We cannot produce or procure or earn or repay him
We are empty but he can fill us
We need only receive him
Applications:
Believe!
Give thanks!
Quit trying to
save yourself!
Receive the
Saviour as Mary did (!)
Praise Jesus the
God-Man
Sources included
the following, I think:
The Blueprint - study guide on the UCCF doctrinal basis (St Matthias Press)
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