HCC Weekly - April 28th

Humble Beginnings

Pastor David

Jesus was not born into a family of wealth or fame. He was not born into a family that would immediately have the eyes of the Roman Empire on him. Instead, he was born into a family where the main income and provision came from a carpenter. Carpenters today can make decent money, but back then it was a profession that was mainly reserved for the poor.

To illustrate this, I turn to Leviticus 12:8 where it gives instructions for a woman who has given birth and gone through the purification process. She was to present an offering at the temple of a one-year-old lamb (v.6). If she could not afford to provide a one-year-old lamb, this is what she was to do:

Leviticus 12:8 (NLT)-“If a woman cannot afford to bring a lamb, she must bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons. One will be for the burnt offering and the other for the purification offering. The priest will sacrifice them to purify her, and she will be ceremonially clean.”

As we jump to the New Testament, Mary the mother of Jesus has gone through her purification process and Jesus is being presented in the temple at Jerusalem and Luke 2:24 says this:

Luke 2:24 (NLT) - So they offered the sacrifice required in the law of the Lord—“either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

There is no mention of the one-year-old lamb which indicates to us that Luke was saying the family could not afford a one-year-old lamb.

So, the savior of the world, the one that we just finished celebrating being resurrected last week, had humble beginnings. Jesus, the one through whom all creation came to be (John 1:3), the one who would have left his Godly form in heaven to take on his human form on earth, chose not to be born to a wealthy family or a family with a lot of influence. Rather, he was born to an unknown family (keep in mind they were descendants of King David though) and from what we can tell, one that didn’t have much wealth.

Why did he do this? It’s hard to answer that question without speculating, but maybe it was so the name of Jesus didn’t ride on the coattails of his family. Maybe so that he would have the full experience of hardship on earth being born to a family that counted pennies. Maybe it was so we could look at his life and relate to it or look at his life and see that we don’t have an excuse to be disobedient to God because of our circumstances.

I don’t think we as a pastoral staff have a requirement to present something profound in our weekly devotionals all the time (if I’m incorrect then pastor Ken will correct me), but this week’s devotional is meant to get you thinking about God and what he has done and will do. When you read the Bible you are reading God’s plan for this world, from beginning to end. And it can be fun to take any part of that plan and try and figure out why God chose to go that direction instead of another, like having Jesus' earthly ministry start with a humble family, instead of with a rich or famous family. You do need to be careful that you don’t go too far with this kind of thinking to the point where you say that you could have come up with a better plan. But in general, it’s fun just to try and piece things together. And our God is not against fun.

God bless!