The Incarnation Invasion
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” —Luke 2:13-14
“On a lonely midwinter day, I and a couple hundred other soldiers took a flight across the ocean. Boarding that commercial airliner, we stowed our gear and fastened our seat belts just as we had so many times before. It all seemed so routine. But the next time they opened that door, “routine” vanished like a dream. The sights, sounds, and smells that bombarded our senses were overwhelming. It was a whole new world. It was like nothing we had ever seen before. When that door swung open, heat and humidity rolled over us like a tsunami. Every pore in our bodies seeped sweat. And the smell was something else: a strange brew of jet fuel, sewage, rotting vegetables, and smoke. It exploded in our nostrils. This was Vietnam. It looked like the depiction of a war zone that you might have seen in the movies. But this was no movie. There were no marching bands. No cigar-chomping John Wayne to welcome us. No swaggering George Patton to fill us with courage. No shouts of ‘Rangers lead the way!’ Just a single, somewhat tired GI pointing to a line of waiting buses, engines running. His message was simple: ‘Welcome to the war.’” —Stu Weber
Each one of us woke up this morning behind enemy lines. And this side of the grave, we will live every day in a war zone.
And you wondered why life was so hard.
The Incarnation was, in every sense of the term, a military invasion. The beachhead was Bethlehem. When Luke described the “heralding” angels in his Gospel, he used a military word. The word “host” actually means army.
Throughout the Bible, when angels make an appearance, they often take human form. But when that’s not part of their mission, when they don’t disguise who they really are, it can be rather unsettling for anyone watching. The Prophet Daniel saw just one of those guys and fainted (Daniel 10:5-9). That first Christmas night, a boatload of them, in full combat gear, typically locked and loaded, shattered a group of shepherds’ silent night holy night sky and declared there was now a new Sherriff in town.
Later, Jesus declared how the Prince of this world must be driven out, and that the gates of Hades could not stand up to the spiritual weaponry His Church would bring to the fight.
The Apostle Paul even picked up that theme, describing the Christian life as a battlefield. He challenged the Ephesian believers to appropriate full combat gear, so that we could survive the persistent guerilla warfare being waged by our enemy (Ephesians 6:11-12). So, my friends, it is what it is.
Welcome to the war.
Much like every successful military commander who has gone to war, Jesus had a clear objective for the invasion, a strategic initiative to fulfill that objective, and a tactical approach to counter any defense by the enemy, what Paul described as the enemy’s methodia.
THE OBJECTIVE: To save lost people.
“The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)
Jesus couldn’t have described the purpose for the Incarnation any simpler than that. In the Garden, thousands of years earlier, an evil dictator had taken the entire human race prisoner. Jesus’s mission was to rescue us from captivity and bring us home where we belong, back into a right relationship with God.
Just knowing that much has important implications for anyone in church leadership. Jesus didn’t come to Earth to hear amazing preachers or bask in studio quality worship music. When you read Isaiah 6, you’ll find out He had plenty of that already. Jesus came here to turn lost people into saved people and provide a living example of what kind of life choices would allow us the chance to co-mission the greatest initiative in human history.
STRATEGY: The Church.
“I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:18)
Jesus didn’t say He would build your or my church. Truth is, we don’t even have a church. Neither should we want one. (We have enough problems already.) The Church belongs to Jesus. He bought it and is still building it. And His Church is not a place, it’s a people. It’s us. We don’t just go to church, we are the Church! As Jesus-following saints, His mission becomes our mission.
TACTICAL: Leverage personal oikocentric relationships.
The more you read the Bible, the more clear it becomes. The common thread that weaves one book to the next, one generation to successive ones, and the Old Testament to the New, is God’s plan to redeem the human race. But He didn’t just reveal His goal in it all. He gave us a tactical plan. The good news of salvation would be transmitted virally, from one individual to anyone else who is fortunate enough to be close enough to them, and therefore be infected with the Gospel.
After healing the demon possessed man, Jesus told him, “Go home to your own people (the Greek word is oikos) and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” (Mark 5:19) The man had begged Jesus to take him along as Jesus and the fellas returned to Galilee. But verse 19 begins by saying that Jesus “would not let him.” After all, why would Jesus remove the man from his own people? To take him out of the Decapolis would have been counter-tactical.
So, when we celebrate the invasion on December 25th, let’s keep a few things in mind.
We’re fighting in a guerilla-type war that has eternal consequences.
The Incarnation was a full-blown hostage rescue.
Christian gatherings are strategic.
You’ve got your own people.
The Gospel is caught by them, not just taught to them.
Okay, let’s move out!
Merry Christmas!