Seven Kinds of Misfits in the Christmas Story

Mary, Joseph and Jesus,
known by Joseph's family as the
Unholy Trinity: "slut, wimp and bastard"

There isn't a single Nativity story, but most of the story is found in two sections of the Bible: Luke 1-2 and Matthew 1-2.  If there is one theme that runs through this story, it is that the soon-to-be-born and newborn Messiah, king of the earth, attracted the most unsavory people.

1. An adulterous wife
Mary, the mother of Jesus, received a great "blessing" of a pregnancy from God... the blessing of being accused of an unfaithful slut.  She was already engaged to Joseph, a trade-worker, so when she shows up pregnant, it's clear that someone wasn't following the rules. Frankly, under the rules of first century Palestine, she could have been stoned to death.  Her (soon to be) husband kept her from this fate because he was...

2. A mystical wimp
Joseph didn't want his fiancee killed, he just wanted her drama to go away.  That is, until he got a dream about an angel.  He didn't even get a face-to-face like his woman, he just had some spicy pizza and dreamed up an angel telling him to go ahead and marry the slut.  He even told the wimp what to name the kid when he was born.  He woke up and said, "Well, I know what to do now."  Really, how many people take their nighttime fantasies as commands?

3. A Communist
Mary decided it was a great time to hang with her cousin in the country, and while she was there she was singing communist propaganda. She sang about revolution and the proletariat taking over.  She also sang about communist deeds like feeding the hungry and taking possessions from the rich.  She was a real party-goer, that Mary.

4. Judgmental family members
We know that Joseph had to go to Bethlehem.  But he had to go there because that was his family home.  He didn't try to go to an "inn" but to a "guest room" that his family home had for visitors.  The room was "full", meaning they didn't have room for a socialist pregnant slut that their wimpy nephew decided to hook up with.  They can go out into the stables.

5. Smelly homeless people
Shepherds, back in the day, didn't smell like mothballs or the back of a church closet.  Rather, they smelled like sheep.  Take  a wool sweater, get it wet, roll it in some dirt and grass and then stick it in a box for a month.  NOW you know what shepherd smells like.  These "workers" just hung out with sheep, trying to find someone's lawn for the animals to chomp on.  So everyone within a hundred miles of every flock (read: everyone) hated these wandering guys who liked sheep a bit too much.  For some reason, the angels thought these were the guys who needed to see the great King pop out from a vagina.

6. Nasty Old Fanatics
When Jesus' parents brought him to the temple to have his foreskin ripped off his penis with an ancient "knife", two old people accosted them.  First was Simeon who was "told by God" that he would see the Messiah before he died.  Perhaps he knew the day was coming and just picked out a likely looking male baby and declared his allegiance to that slobbering, wetting-himself King.  Then eighty four year old Anna "who never left the temple" to like eat, or anything saw Simeon fawning over the brat, so she had to have a piece of the spiritual action.

7. Slackers
Those "wise men" we hear about?  They were actually astrologers, who saw a sign in the stars about the king to be born.  So they decided to pop over and see the king.  Only problem?  They lives in Persia, and cars weren't to be invented for a couple thousand years.  So they hoofed it, not having anything better to do, which took them a couple years, so the kid wasn't a baby anymore, but a toddler.  Meanwhile, they got the attention of the local king (read: serial murderer). and gave him the kid's whereabouts.  Then the bums scooted out of time before the genocide began. If it wasn't for another vision of the wimp, the toddler king would have bit the big one.

The whole point is this: the King of Jerusalem, the Teacher of Love, the Jewish Emperor of Heaven, the Son of God... or the Nazarene Bastard, whatever you want to call him... seemed to have a habit even before birth to hang out with people who had less-than-pristine reputations.  Maybe he wanted to have a community made up of the same, you think?  Perhaps he picked up his mother's communist tendencies?

The Lucky Dogs

Ah, the poor—you lucky dogs! Because you are the owners of God’s kingdom.
How lucky are those who are presently hungry—because God will make sure you have your fill.
How lucky are those who weep in this life—because God will make you laugh.
How lucky are you, my disciples, when people hate you. You are fortunate when they won’t have anything to do with you, when they call you names and tear down your reputation. When that happens—have a party! Jump for joy! Because you are lined up with great things from God. Because, you see, this is the way their type have always treated God’s prophets.
But you well off—I’m so sorry. You are getting all the good life you will ever get.
It’s so sad about you who eat well now, because God will make sure you will be hungry.
It’s so sad about you who are well entertained now, because God will make sure that you weep and grieve.
And you who have excellent reputations with everyone? Grieve, for that is how their type treated the false prophets.

To Get Lucky Like A Dog…
When Jesus spoke these words in Luke 6, it says that he was speaking to his disciples. These are his students who memorized his sayings and spoke his message to the populace around. Some of these folks were sincere in following Jesus, while some were in the business for the prestige of being close to Jesus, of using his name to push their own agenda. Here, we see that Jesus fully recognizes that some of his disciples he fully approved of, while others he felt were compromisers. And the compromisers would receive none of the blessings.

…You’ve Got to Get Treated Like One
The true disciples, say Jesus, are the anawim—the poor, the humble, the humiliated, the outcast. They are the ones who, as a result of preaching the gospel that Jesus gave them, end up in poverty, in hunger, in sorrow and completely disregarded. These are the true followers of Jesus, the true recipients of the kingdom of God.

It’s just not fair!
But why? Why should the true followers of Jesus suffer in this way? Well, let’s face it, Jesus’ reputation is mixed. In his day he was known as a great healer and as a heretic teacher. Today he is connected to both mercy and fundamentalism. He is seen as both a wonderful teacher and a religious fanatic. In this way, a person can use the name of Jesus to get ahead, or they can be attached to Jesus and obtain infamy.

What Jesus is saying is to recognize that He is both loved and universally hated. Those who really know Jesus are, at the least, uncomfortable around Him. Some truly despise him—especially those who want to uphold the standards of this age, who see the world as fundmentally good, but needing a few minor changes. We must remember that Jesus is speaking about a complete overhaul of the world—the mechanical equivalent of replacing the engine. Jesus says, “It can’t be fixed! Just scrap the whole world system and start over!”

So those who truly are saying that which Jesus says will be hated as well. Jesus says, “If they hated me, they will hate you as well.” But not everyone who speaks Jesus’ name or words is hated. Why? Because they change Jesus’ fundamental message into a lighter, more palatable affair. Perhaps they do this because they want a hearing, or because they want to get ahead in the world as it exists. But Jesus states clearly that those who speak His gospel without compromise will be rejected.

Persecution promise
Jesus’ promise for his disciples is persecution. It isn’t a possibility, it isn’t a suggestion, it isn’t even a command. It is a promise. If we truly follow Jesus, live his life and speak his message, we will be persecuted. Now some say, “But I’ve followed Jesus in all the ways I can, but I’ve never been persecuted! Am I going to hell?” Okay, now slow down. Often we have a bigger idea of persecution than Jesus has in mind. We don’t need to be beaten or martyred to be persecuted, although that is a good indication of it.

Jesus has two parts to his concept of persecution. First of all, we need to be rejected in some way. We might be rejected by beatings, or we could be rejected by people refusing to talk to us. People could see us and walk the other way. People might scoff whenever our name is brought up. They might call us names behind our back. All of these actions are types of persecution, types of rejection, as well as being arrested, beaten and killed.

Jerks for Jesus
The second aspect of persecution, according to Jesus is that we must be persecuted for living out or talking about the gospel of Jesus. The true persecution is rejection we receive due directly to our commitment to Jesus.

A lot of people think that they are truly following Jesus because they have been persecuted for Him, when in reality they have been persecuted because they acted like an idiot in public. If you act hatefully, if you yell at people, if you are a stalker for Jesus, if you do other things for Jesus that makes you a jerk (that He didn’t specifically command), then you aren’t being persecuted for Jesus. You are being hated because you are acting inappropriately. Paul’s statement, “Speak the truth in love” is too often ignored by Christians seeking to please Jesus by being persecuted. We are to be rejected because of the message of Jesus, not because of how we deliver that message. If we speak the message of Jesus in a way that could be received, and then we are rejected, then we are being persecuted. But if we are a jerk for Jesus, then we are not receiving the persecution Jesus promised us.

Suffering for Fun and Profit
Another thing Jesus mentions in this passage about persecution is that it should be one of the best things that ever happen to us. Once we are rejected and openly hated for speaking Jesus’ word, we should be happy! We should celebrate and have a party—assuming that anyone shows up, of course. This seems like an odd reaction—and actually it is one of the more difficult commands of Jesus to follow. “Okay, I’ve just been rejected by my parents and my best friend… and so I’m supposed to call people up and say—‘oh, isn’t it cool?’”

It is difficult, but it has a logic to it. Persecution is like a baptism (in fact, the early Anabaptist reformers called it the “baptism of fire”)—it is an initiation rite. When we get persecuted for Jesus’ sake, it is an assurance of our salvation. Yes, Jesus recognizes that rejection isn’t fun, but we can truly rejoice if we know that this persecution is our guarantee of God’s approval! So there are three kinds of initiation that we should celebrate—our baptism, our first communion and our first persecution. Actually, we SHOULD have persecution parties!

Tom Hanks Need Not Apply
Finally, there are those who do not get persecuted. We need to remember that Jesus is speaking to those who were following Him. They have repented from their sins, some of them have sacrificed their possessions for Jesus. But Jesus is saying that sacrificing as a business investment just doesn’t work. We need to recognize that our lot in life in doing the ministry of Jesus isn’t a nice salary, a good car and a comfortable lifestyle. Rather, living for Jesus is a promise of poverty, hunger and rejection. Perhaps not everyone lives this way all the time, but some do and the other followers of Jesus recognize that this is the path that Jesus laid out for all of us. If we use Jesus as a means to become a “professional” or to live the “good life” or to obtain the American dream, then we are not following Jesus at all. We are being a hypocrite.

To follow Jesus is to be rejected for Jesus.

The Second Chance

Jesus responded to this news by saying, “It is time. It is time for the Messiah to be honored. Listen carefully: A kernel of corn has to be torn from it’s life, thrown to the ground and allowed to die, or it will always be by itself. But if it dies, then it will be transformed into many more. Even so, whoever grasps onto his own life will lose it. But whoever hates his life in this age will find that it is preserved by God for the next age, which is eternal. The one who wants to be to be in my government, must follow me through death and beyond. Wherever I am my follower will be as well. The faithful servant will be honored by God. So now I am in anguish, because of the difficulty I must face. But should I ask God to save me from this fate? But because it is my fate, it is my purpose. Father, in my death, glorify Your name.” John 12:23-27

He sat them down and began to lecture them about the doctrinal necessity of the suffering of the Son of Man of Daniel. That the Son of Man would be declared guilty by the judges and bishops and the seminary professors and he would be sentenced to death, killed and after a three day appeal would be resurrected. He spoke to them without metaphor, but straightforwardly. After he was done, Peter gently took him aside and told him that such things could not happen to him, the Messiah. Jesus turned toward all his disciples and raised his voice for all to hear, “Get away from me! You are not Peter, but Satan! Stop tempting me to take the easy route! You are speaking of God’s plan, but of human achievement!”

Then Jesus called the crowd to gather around him, beside his disciples, then he addressed them all: “Do you think that I have the way to life, the way to enter into God’s kingdom? Then listen here: If you want to be a part of my school, you must give up on all the things that make up your life, accept that you will be killed as a revolutionary and go where I go. Since I am going to die, you must accept that for yourself as well. If you want to preserve your life, then you will lose it. If you lose your life for Me and my school, then you will retain your life. If you surrender your life, you will obtain resurrection. Sure, you could gain everything in the world you want—happiness, security, wealth, fame—but what good is any of that if you lose your life in the long run? Suppose someone had a gun to your head and wanted all you had for your life? Isn’t it better to give all of that up, so you could live and obtain your stuff and happiness another day? If anyone is fearful of speaking about Me before this sinning and faithless people, then the Messiah will dare not speak his name on the final day when he comes to rule the Father’s kingdom with all of God’s power behind him. Mark 8:31-38

Eternal Life
Jesus’ goal was not to die, although it may seem like it in the above passages. Rather, Jesus’ goal was what is called “eternal life”. This eternal life is not life in heaven, as spirits floating around singing. It is a second chance on life.

In our current life, we are compromised from doing all we could for God. We live in a corrupted world which strives to encourage us to do evil, to disobey God. We have corrupted bodies which have corrupted desires and illnesses and weaknesses that the body encourages us to sidestep by doing more evil. We live in a context of temptation and injustice and weakness.

God is offering resurrection. This means that we will come back after death into bodies that are uncorrupted and incorruptible. We will be living in a context without injustice, and temptation is kept to a minimum. We will be given an opportunity to live for God without weakness, in full strength and spiritual authority.

And some will be chosen to rule over this utopia. The Messiah will be chosen among people to rule over God’s kingdom and He will chose many to rule with Him. The ones whom He will chose will create justice for all, provide the context of life for everyone. This is the dream of the New Testament. It is the goal of Jesus.

God’s Justice
But God doesn’t give this kind of resurrection, this opportunity to everyone. Not everyone deserves to rule, not everyone can handle the power that will be given to people to rule. Not everyone is prepared to deal with people as they are. God is careful to choose the people who will create His utopia, and these will be given a second chance on life.

Who are these people that God chooses? God’s selection process begins first of all with those who didn’t really have a life to begin with. This doesn’t mean that they didn’t have a chance of a good life. Perhaps they surrendered the chance of a good life. But God is looking for those who suffered injustice in their lives. They did good for themselves, for their neighbors, for God’s kingdom, but they received shame and punishment for the good they did. God will not look for the rich and powerful, the famous and lauded. They have already had their life. God will be looking for those who gave up their life and give them another chance.

Jesus’ Example
Jesus is the one who surrendered his chance at life for others. He could have lived a quiet, but happy existence as a carpenter in Nazareth. But he chose to give up on the good life so that a better life could be granted to everyone. Jesus gave up on life, on happiness, on a good retirement, on hope of a peaceful death. Jesus surrendered all the great possibilities to live in shalom. He did this, not because he couldn’t have lived in peace, but because he saw so many who didn’t have the chance. So he gave up on life to give others a chance.

And this is exactly what Jesus is calling us to. If we want to have a better life, we have to give up on the one the world offers us. Yes, for some of us, perhaps we could have a solid job, a quiet existence, a good family, the American dream. But for many, this life is out of reach. Jesus is asking us to give up the good life, so we could give an opportunity for a better life for others.

• Just like Jesus, we are called to give up the pursuit of the “good life”, the American Dream.

• Just like Jesus, we are called to live in rebellion against the world political system which denies peace and justice for so many.

• Just like Jesus, we are to allow ourselves to be persecuted, to be punished for doing good.

• Just like Jesus, we are called to even die in our innocence, to die because of our life in God’s compassion.

These who give up their shots at the good life to live and die for others, they will be given the second chance. They will be God’s rulers in the coming revolution.

As It Was Prophecied
This is also nothing new. There are only a few places in the Old Testament that talks about the resurrection of God’s people, and every passage speaks of God giving a second chance to those who didn’t have a life to begin with:

o Psalm 22—The author of this Psalm is surrounded by enemies and killed, but he relies on God for deliverance. God then gives him a second chance at life, which is happy and good.

o Psalm 37—The people of God suffer under oppression because the wealthy wicked are causing them to live in poverty. The point of the psalm is that God will give the poor who wait for God a second chance at life without such oppression.

o Daniel 12—The people of God are under a terrible trial and oppression. They are surrounded and destroyed and killed by their enemies. God destroys their enemies and resurrects the killed, giving them a second chance to live under God’s rule.

Jesus sees the fulfillment of these prophecies, but he adds one more factor. There are some who will choose to suffer, who will chose to die for the sake of God’s kingdom and righteousness. These will also gain resurrection with those who had no choice to suffer. And some of them will rule in God’s kingdom.

Who get resurrected? The rejected by the world.

Down and Out Leadership

The disciples had an argument, there at the Last Supper. They were debating which of them would be the most important ruler beside Jesus when His kingdom comes. Jesus calmly said to them, “It is presidents and kings of the world that are concerned about authority and power. These wield great authority over all men and everyone must call them ‘gracious’, as in ‘gracious lord,’ or “Wow, you are the greatest thing since Oprah”. But if you want rule in my kingdom, you can’t act like that. The ones who will have the greatest authority in my kingdom must prepare themselves for it by acting like the least important. If you want to be important, then be like a waiter. In a restaurant, who is in charge, the waiter or the customer? Isn’t the customer who orders the waiter around, telling him what to get and how much and sending something back because it isn’t quite right? And doesn’t the waiter have to run around, doing the bidding of the customer? Now look at me—I am the waiter. I am here to serve others, not to tell others how to serve me.

“Look, guys, you are great already. You have stayed with me during my most difficult days, though all the struggles and trials. Because of this, you will rule with me because the Father has given me His kingdom to rule. So you will be feasting at my side—even as we are feasting here!—in my kingdom. And then I will give you authority to rule all of God’s people. Each of you will sit on a throne, and you will rule the twelve nations of Israel.

Everybody Wants To Rule The World…Sometimes
Well, this is kinda embarrassing. After all, Jesus is the one who is always talking about lowliness, about humility. Yet, here He is, encouraging arrogance. You see, even though he is correcting the disciples about some things, he is in agreement with them about the thing most of us are uncomfortable with: It is a good thing to want to be in charge of the world.

Most of us feel that this is inappropriate. After all, its just too lofty of a goal, and it is straight hubris—blatant pride to think that we should rule the world. That’s God’s job, isn’t it?

Well, in fact, its not. God gave the job over of ruling the world to human beings way back in Genesis 1. It is our job and we should want to do the job that God has given us. So when Jesus answers their question, He doesn’t deny that we should want to rule the world. Frankly, we should.

And even if ruling the world seems distasteful to you, we all have a hint of it in ourselves. We all want to be respected by the people who know us. And we all want a certain measure of control to make things “right” over our lives. And we get angry when we see that something isn’t right, either in our lives or in the lives of those around us. These are God-given characteristics to everyone in humanity so that we can do the job that God gave us, namely, to rule the world.

The Wile E. Principle of Leadership
The problem is that we take the characteristics that God has given us and go too far with it. Waaaaay too far. God gave us anger at injustice and we have turned it into anger against anyone who irritates us for any little reason, without regard to what is really right. God gave us the desire to make things right and we have turned this into control-freakishness or harshly punishing those who are different than us. God gave us the desire to be respected and we turn this into a hunger for fame or a fear of negative responses. This is not the kind of world-leadership Jesus is looking for.

So when Jesus responded to his disciples, he didn’t correct their desire for world leadership. In fact, He affirmed it. He said that they would be world leaders in the kingdom. And desiring it is a good thing. What he needed to correct was their methods in achieving it.
Most of us think of obtaining leadership like Wile E. Coyote. Wile E. is on one cliff and he is running as fast as he can to the other side, but he doesn’t realize that there is a canyon between him and the other cliff-top. So he runs out.. and there he is, standing on thin air. And then he falls…. Bam!... at the bottom of the canyon and we next see him wrapped in hospital gauze.

Even so, we often think that leadership—as well as wealth and popularity— is a straight line. If we want it, we just go get it. And although we must work hard to achieve success, we will get it if we just take it by the throat. But what we don’t realize is that there is a huge canyon between us and our goal. And if we just try to achieve success in a straight line, then we will be the one in hospital gauze.

The Power Broker
Jesus helps us realize that the only one who can give us success, or power or popularity or wealth— in any positive, permanent way—is God. He is the one ultimately in charge of all things and He gives these things to whom He wills. And while the power-hungry may be in charge now, it will not be that way forever. God will come down to kick out the power hungry and instead welcome a different kind of person.

But to obtain that kind of position, we have to be that different kind of person. God is looking for the lowly, the Anawim, to be in charge of the world. God can’t have the control freaks, the judgmental, the quick to anger or the anxious be in charge of the world. So for world leadership, God is looking for a the lowly and righteous. For the Anawim. God is looking for the people who will act as Jesus said they should—People who are repentant of their sins; people who will sacrifice their life, family and possessions to love Jesus; people who will endure in Jesus through persecution. People who will set aside their comfort in order to serve others. God is looking for faithful disciples.

Jesus Leadership
But not just disciples. Different disciples will obtain different levels of leadership in the final kingdom. And those in charge won’t just be the good disciple—the whole world will be filled with those. But the world leaders will be those who have certain characteristics of leadership
To be an anawimic leader, we have to follow certain principles of leadership now:

• Hang out with the down and out—To be a leader in Jesus’ methodology, we cannot be shy of having the outcast be our friends and companions.

• Live like the down and out—To be in charge, we have to remain lowly, not seeking wealth or power, but constantly giving to those in need. A godly leader doesn’t think how he can benefit from a resource, but how the whole community can benefit from it.

• Get used to taking orders—To be in charge, we have to listen to other’s needs and act on them, rather than our own ambitions. When we see someone’s need, we take that as an order from them to act. If we act in accordance with the other’s need, then we are living out Jesus’ leadership.

• Lead by example—It isn’t enough to tell others to do good, to repent, to live purely—we have to do it ourselves. We must show the life of Jesus and not just teach it to others.

• Encourage, don’t demand—To be Jesus leader is to be gentle and to recognize other’s freedom to do as they please. If we give others freedom and opportunity to live for God, then they can have a relationship with God. But if we end up controlling others, they have no relationship with God, only us, which defeats the purpose of trying to get people to live for Jesus.

So to be a leader in Christ is to be the Anawim. It is to live as a waiter, a servant of others, only living to act for others and not for our own ambition. If we attempt to get our own ambition, then we end up like Wile E.— Falling to our doom.