Christmas, 2003

[Dr. Manuel recently provided me with the Christmas letters he and his wife Linda have sent each year since 2001.
One of the annual letters will be posted each day over the next two weeks.]

Dr. and Mrs. Paul Manuel

Christmas 2003

Dear Family and Friends,

Several years ago, Linda and I were doing graduate studies at a small Christian school in Jerusalem, Israel. As November turned into December, she remarked that it did not "feel" like Christmas, and for us it was, indeed, a very different holiday than we had spent before. Circumstances made trimming our own tree impractical. Our lean financial situation, coupled with final exams right to the last minute, meant that we would not exchange presents. The most obvious contrast to previous seasons, however, was that in Israel the merchant community was not geared up for its biggest push of the year, so the streets and shop windows were not creating an atmosphere of expectation. Oh, there were special activities and decorations in the school and in many churches, but for the vast majority of us in Israel, it was "business as usual." Although we certainly missed our family and friends, those different circumstances enabled us to catch a fresh glimpse of the birth of Jesus.

It is this concept of "business as usual" that we often miss in the States. I am not suggesting that our preparation is bad or that the commercialism surrounding Christmas does not in some way focus public attention on the event the holiday commemorates. There is little doubt, though, that the build-up here does obscure to some extent what God has done in history by sending his son, for in those days it was, after all, "business as usual."

• The emperor, Caesar Augustus, in his on-going efforts to streamline Roman administration, ordered an empire-wide census, probably with an eye toward taxation.

• The governor, Herod, after finally realizing his political aspirations, was beginning to reap the fruit of the political intrigue he had sown earlier and was extremely suspicious of anyone he thought might usurp his position.

• The common people, those not traveling to their home towns for the census, were engaged in their normal occupations, like the shepherds tending their flocks.

In general, people operated on the principle that "everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation" (2 Pet 3:4), and their assumption was not without some justification. Many years had passed since the last known instance of divine intervention (when Judah, the Maccabee, defeated the Syrian army of Antiochus Epiphanes in 164 B.C.), and the memory of that event was considerably dimmed by this period of Roman domination. Consequently, few people were ready for what God was about to do. Caesar, Herod, and the people of Israel were understandably conducting "business as usual."

Jesus' incarnation, though, represents God's interruption of human affairs, a disruption in the status quo. His advent was intended to startle men into a recognition and wonder of God at work. Nevertheless, most failed to see it.

• It is doubtful that Caesar even heard of Jesus' birth. Unless there was a direct threat to the security of the empire, the emperor would not concern himself with the affairs of any single Roman province.

• Herod was overwhelmed by his own problem of maintaining the political control for which he had struggled so long to acquire. He viewed the announcement of Jesus' birth solely as a threat to that control and sought to eliminate it as quickly as possible.

• Only a very few, like the shepherds, recognized the birth for what it was—a divine interruption in human affairs—and interrupted their own "business as usual" to wonder at what God had done.

It was in this light that we came to appreciate Christmas in Israel. Around us, life went on; it was "business as usual." There was no visible expectation. It did not "feel" any different, but Jesus came into just such a world, and into the same world he shall return (Matt 24:37-39). I hope that we will be among the few expectant ones at his next advent (Matt 24:44). May this Christmas help us all to prepare for that great event.

Pastor and Linda