Hi. It may not look like it, but I, along with my wife, Mary, am on a trip. Not the kind of trip we had planned. But quite a few things over the past 10 months have not been according to our plans. It was 41 days ago that our Son was born. Now most people don’t date their children by days, and I wouldn’t do it, except for yesterday. Yesterday was day 40, which makes today day 41. Simple math.

Here we are on our way to Egypt – with our 41 day old son, journeying to a place where I have never been. We have been living for six weeks now in and out of motels and I really expected that we would be on our way home to Nazareth today, but we are going the opposite direction. Let me tell you about it.

I have been surprised over the past 42 days, actually since the angel appeared to me about 250 days ago and persuaded me to take Mary as my wife because the child she was to bear was God’s Son. I sort of thought that having the Son of God near you, you know, growing in your wife’s womb, as part of your family, would change things like circumstances at least slightly. You know, maybe we would have a few angels along with us directing traffic and preparing our way. Have I learned a lot. In the last 250 days, probably 99.9% of all the things that have happened to us have been standard normal things, rather than abnormal, special things.

How do you think we got down here to Bethlehem? It was standard all the way. I walked, Mary rode on a donkey. After awhile, I walked and Mary walked. And then we both sat and rested. Being nine months pregnant didn’t make for fast or easy travel when you were going the standard way. No angels. No high speed transportation. It was slow and difficult.

And I’m sure you know what happened when we got to Bethlehem. It’s what happens to any traveler when he arrives late in a city, with no early registration – no room, anywhere. I was kind of hoping that since my wife was giving birth to the Son of God, we would get some kind of special favor. But no, it was standard treatment, probably closer to standard mistreatment. I was a little worried since this was our first baby. We didn’t have a midwife since we were visitors to the town, and the surroundings were rather primitive. You know all those things a woman wants when she is in labor? We didn’t have much of anything, and she was in serious labor. Fortunately the inn keeper helped us with certain supplies that we needed.

Would that strike you in any way as odd? That God’s Holy Son, arriving on earth, would arrive in primitive conditions? Unattended by the millions of angels that normally surrounded Him – singing His praises and obeying His commands? Unattended by anyone? Virtually unhelped by anyone? It would almost make you wonder if He really was God’s son. I mean, how could God’s Son come into the world so ignored?

And then came the Shepherds and told us their story! Did they liven up the place. These guys were so excited about being there, so happy to be a part of the celebration that they sang and laughed for hours as they told us about the incredible display of angels that made the announcement to them.

I realized then, Someone was paying attention. It just wasn’t in the way I expected. It wasn’t the kind of attention I thought He ought to get. It probably wasn’t until one AM that things quieted down and Jesus and His mother got back to sleep. I went to sleep wondering how many more angels we would see in coming days. I liked the idea of announcements being made to surprised people by angelic choirs. But do you know what? That hasn’t happened to us since. In fact, there hasn’t been much at all happen to us that has been special. Actually there were a couple of neighbors who wondered what all the commotion was about the previous night, and a couple of people who seemed to really wonder if our Son was someone special, but we had trouble convincing them that He was special in light of the fact that His birth was in a stable! People rejected our claim of who He was because of what they knew about His birth. The "not-so-special" birth was clear evidence to them that He was a "not-so-special" baby.

So we didn’t try to say a whole lot. It didn’t seem that anyone was interested – at least they weren’t interested in talking to US about it. I think the fact that I was a carpenter – from Nazareth, of all places – put them off. I hadn’t studied to be a Rabbi, I didn’t have any theological degrees, and Nazareth, that’s the kind of place people only visit on their way to an important location. What was I doing as father to the Son of God? I think if I had been more closely related to Herod the king, and Jesus had been born in Herod’s palace, we might have gotten a wider hearing to our story. But after awhile we just didn’t say much.

We had decided to stay in Bethlehem for the 40 days until Mary could appear at the Temple in Jerusalem to offer her sacrifice and dedicate our baby. And it was an expensive way to do it, since we had to pay out extra money for food and supplies. But it would have taken an whole extra week of travel to go back to Nazareth and come back to the temple. So we decided to stay with relatives for the entire six weeks. We had Him circumcised at eight days and we named Him "Jesus," as the Angel had instructed us. Nothing unusual happened; it was a regular Jewish circumcision.

And nothing unusual happened for the next 31 days. It was just your regular sleepless nights and busy days of caring for our infant. We kept looking forward to day 40 for at least two reasons: (1) it was that day that we would present our Son to the Lord Jehovah in the Temple, and make the sacrifice for Mary’s purification, and then (2) it was that day that we would get ready to go back to Nazareth, get out of Bethlehem, and go home.

Day 40 finally arrived – yesterday! I was anxious to go to the Temple. It is a fabulous place. Herod has been building this temple for over 15 years now and it is a sight to behold. I had been there several times over the years, but never ceased to marvel at its construction. We were going up because Leviticus 12 instructs us that a woman who has given birth to a son is unclean for 40 days. Being unclean meant that she could not touch any hallowed thing or come into the sanctuary. On day 40, she was to offer a sacrifice for her purification, a lamb for a burnt offering, and a turtledove or young pigeon, for a sin offering.

At the same time we were there to present our Son to the Lord. All the way back in the book of Exodus God had protected our first born sons when the Angel came over the land of Egypt and killed the first-born sons of the Egyptians. Since that time, every first born male is to be consecrated to the Lord, and "redeemed" with an offering of 5 shekels of silver, perhaps about $25 in your terms.

Yesterday we entered the massive Temple. We entered through the "gate of the first-born," walked across the court of the Women, climbed the 15 steps up to the porch in front of the giant Gate of Nicanor. This gate is about three times as tall as the ceiling of this building and about 10 feet wider. It is so heavy that it takes 20 men to open and close it. Behind us and below us spread out the court of Women that was about 200' by 200' and filled with a crowd of worshipers that were there for the morning sacrifice. The 15 steps we walked up are the steps the priests ascend one at a time as they sing the great Hallel psalms (Psalm 120-134). Guess what we found when we arrived at the gate of Nicanor? A line of people. We stood there quite a while, and then a priest came and took our offering. About 8 or 10 minutes later he came back and sprinkled Mary with the sacrificial blood and declared her cleansed.

We then paid our offering and redeemed our son. After this, two benedictions were pronounced on Mary, one for the blessing of having a baby, and one for the fact that our firstborn had been redeemed. You know what struck me standing there listening to the priest, and the noise and hustle and bustle? The offering we gave. The normal offering as I said was a lamb for a burnt offering and a turtledove for a sin offering. However, there was an exception clause in Leviticus 12 for poor people. They could offer two turtle doves. And that’s what we did, because we had nothing more. The literal title given to our offering in the Jewish Talmud was the "poor offering." Suppose I had said to the priest, "I am presenting the offering to purify my wife and redeem the Son of God, our son," and handed him the poor offering. What do you think he would have said? "If He is the Son of God, how come he can’t afford the normal offering?"

That thought struck me. "How can He be the Son of God and we be so poor?" "How can He be the Son of God and there is no special intervention from God in His life?" Do you see what I am thinking? Just the ordinariness of it all – was striking. We are presenting the Royal baby – with the poor offering! God supplied all our needs – but not at the level I expected. Don’t you think that God the Father would supply enough money for His Son to be dedicated with the best offering? If it was your son, would you want him dedicated at the level of the poor? Wouldn’t you want someone to know that this is your son? How about a few angel choirs, singing Gloria? How about a priest, who recognizes who he is and says, "that’s our Messiah; let’s give him special treatment." No such thing happened, and my wife was cleansed and my Son was dedicated with the sacrificial offering of the poor.

There was no time to sit and meditate on that because as soon as we turned around and walked down the 15 steps into the court of the Women, a man comes up to us and recognizes not us but our baby, takes Him into his arms and immediately begins praising God. Picture this: you are walking through a large building with many people around, and someone comes up to you and says, "hey, I know you, your name is James Schuppe." Are you surprised? Probably not. But suppose they walk up and say, "hey, I know your baby! I recognize Him. He is Messiah!" How in the world did he know that? We didn’t have a sign on Him. He looked very much like every other baby. There was no halo, in spite of some of the misleading pictures you may have seen.

But this man, Simeon, knew what was going on because he was in fellowship with God. He walked with God and came to the Temple full of the Holy Spirit. And God had somehow revealed to him that he would live until he had personally laid eyes on the Messiah Himself. As soon as he laid eyes on our baby, he knew. So he takes Jesus out of Mary’s hands and immediately begins praising God and saying, "Sovereign Lord, now I can die in peace, because my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."

Mary and I were in absolute shock. After 39 days of nothing, here was a man who not only recognized Jesus but also understood that He was God’s SALVATION, He was God’s LIGHT to the Gentiles, and He was to be the GLORY of our people Israel.

I mean we knew that our Son was special because the angel had said to Mary that He would be great and be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God would give Him the throne of his father David, and he would some day reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will never end (Luke 1:31-33). But to hear the way Simeon said it was such a fresh picture. And the man was so excited. It was like he had just found – Messiah!

That made our day. I was sort of bummed about giving a poor offering, and the priest just sort of treating us like another number in his daily routine. He didn’t pick the baby up and praise God. He seemed to be relieved when we left. But Simeon made our day. He knew! He KNEW!

Of course Simeon did say some rather striking things to us as parents. He blessed us and then said that people would rise and fall because of our Son, and that He would be spoken against, and that He would reveal the ugly inmost thoughts of many hearts. Then he ended by telling Mary that a sword would cut open her heart. That was really the first real indication we had of the fact that deep suffering is in the future for all three of us.

And then Anna, an older lady, came up in the middle of this and started praising God and thanking God and even preached a couple of mini sermons to people who were standing around listening, because they were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. What a tremendous moment that was in our lives. Someone recognized! Someone understood! Someone knew! I just felt like Simeon and Anna were our brother and sister, even though they were 60 years older than we were. They knew what we knew. They were part of the FAMILY!

Then after all the excitement, we went home – home to Bethlehem, that is. The plan was to get everything packed so that we could be on the road heading back to Nazareth today, day 41.

So we got in about 5 pm. It was only a two hour trip from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. We ate a little bit and we were hustling around to clean things up and get everything ready to leave early in the morning. We were still talking about Simeon and Anna. They impressed us as such a contrast to everyone else for the past six weeks. No priests, no Pharisees, no Sadducees, no important people even said "hi" to us, much less wanted to hold and bless our Son. I was thinking about the amazing contrast between Simeon and Anna and virtually everybody else. Simeon and Anna knew everything. Everyone else knew NOTHING! It’s like God’s People, to whom He had written 39 books which explained many of His future plans, were uninterested in both His 39 books and His future plans. The rumor that someone might be Messiah didn’t bother them enough to even ask questions.

It was about 6:30 when there was a loud knock on the door. We heard talking, shuffling around and other noises outside, so I opened the door carefully. There were 10 or 12 guys out there that looked sort of suspicious. They didn’t have kings crowns on and purple robes to identify them as Magi. All I could tell was that they weren’t Jewish. They were probably Arabs. You know, we had had trouble with terrorists, and you can’t just let anyone into your house at dusk, especially a dozen of them. But it was their attitude. They wanted to come in, and they wanted to worship. There was nothing to fear. And the story they told when they all crowded in! What an amazing story. They had taken off more than a month of time from their jobs to make this long journey of more than 500 miles, because they had seen a star and realized that it was time for Messiah’s birth. And they traveled to Jerusalem because they thought the king of the Jews ought to be born in the proper city – the capital. The star didn’t lead them; they saw a star back in their hometown of Babylon that indicated to them the time of the birth. When they got to Jerusalem they started asking people on the street where the king of the Jews was born. They asked the question to enough people that the entire city was talking about the fact that these dignitaries from Babylon had come to find the new King of the Jews. After awhile they received an invitation to come up to Herod’s palace. They said that the old king seemed interested in only one thing – when they saw the star. He told them that they should go search in Bethlehem, and that when they found Him they should come back and let Herod know where because he wanted to worship also.

But the strange thing was that when they came out of Herod’s palace, they saw the star again which they had first seen in Babylon. This time the star led them not only to Bethlehem, but to our very house. Can you imagine that? Right to our house.

So we talked, and they talked, and we drank Jewish tea, and then we drank Babylonian tea, and then they wanted to bow down and worship Jesus. Have you ever seen grown men kneel before a baby? It was actually a little awkward to watch these dozen dignitaries get down on their knees around our baby and pray outloud thanksgiving to God and bless Him in the name of the Lord. I just cried. I mean, if I met these guys on the street, I wouldn’t even know if they were saved. And here I find out that they are not only believers in Jehovah God, but that they have phenomenal insight into the nature of our Son.

We saw their insight not only in the way they prayed, but in the gifts they pulled out. They gave us Frankincense. What would our baby do with frankincense? But frankincense was the basic ingredient used in making the perfume for the holy place in the tabernacle and temple. It’s very smell spoke of worship – the eternal worship of the Universe that our Son would one day receive. And Myrrh was one of the basic ingredients used in the oil for anointing priests and kings as well as bodies for burial. What did they know when they presented Myrrh to our baby? And Gold was the present of choice for kings. Those three gifts were extremely insightful. They didn’t just buy a couple of rattles for a baby. They wanted gifts that were worthy of what our Son would become.

Initially I wondered why they would give those kinds of gifts to a baby in Bethlehem, whose parents now have to carry it all back to Nazareth. Do you know how much gold weighs? Do you know how dangerous it would make our trip if people knew we had gold? Every thief in Jericho would have us in the crosshairs of his telescope.

On the other hand it was a great testimony of the faith of these Magi from the east. They believed the record one of their earlier Magi had left in his book called "Daniel." And they had come to believe in Daniel’s God, and had come to worship Daniel’s Messiah. I was struck with their PASSION. They were totally committed to putting their money, as well as their time, and effort into worshiping the future king of the universe. They believed fully that Jesus was the King. And they were enthusiastically and thankfully bowing before a 40 day old baby. Wow. What a night.

We didn’t get to bed until after midnight. The Magi didn’t seem to want to leave, and we didn’t want them to leave either. We finally got to sleep, but our sleep didn’t last long. Sometime around 2 AM an angel appeared to me in a dream and said, "you’ve got to get up, right now, and get out of here." "Right now?" I said. "Can’t I have a couple of more winks?" "No," he said, "you’ve got to get up and take your baby and His mother and get on the road to Egypt. Because Herod is going to put together a search party to find the baby and kill Him this morning."

It was good we were packed and ready to go because we were able to get out of there by 5 this morning. And here we are at noon on day 41, already down to Beth Shemesh, and well on our way to Egypt.

I have two conclusions to make about life with the Son of God. (1) God has supplied every need when we needed it. Think about this. If the wise men had come on day 39, we would have had gold in our pockets when we went up to the Temple. And we would have been able to order the standard sacrifice for the purification of Mary. Do you know why they did not come on day 39? Because God the Father wanted His Son to be dedicated in the Temple, with POOR people!

God supplied every need of ours at exactly the right time. And when it didn’t come, WE DIDN’T NEED IT, even though we thought we did. I may have been embarrassed by the "poor offering," but HE WASN’T even though His Only Begotten Son was involved!

Man, that is something I have got to learn. I need to learn to be content when I don’t have it. The reason I lack what I think I need is because God doesn’t want me to have it. And my discontentment at that time, my begging of God for something I think I need so I won’t be embarrassed by my poverty when I am presenting His Son in His Temple, my questioning doesn’t help at all. What helps is my absolute confidence that the Father knows what He is doing – even though I may not agree with it..

On the other hand, if we had received the command by the Angel to go to Egypt before the wise men came, we would not have been able to obey, because we were broke. We now have gold, and frankincense and myrrh, all of which can be fairly easily turned into money to support us while we are in Egypt. I don’t know how long we are going to be here, but we’ve got plenty of money – a rather unusual experience for a carpenter!

(2) The way God works has surprised me. The truth of the matter is that God has worked His amazing artistry through that which is almost mundane, common, standard, regular, and non-spectacular. Here we are at day 41 and very little that people would call special has happened, and yet, we are pointed in the right direction, even though it is the opposite direction, we have gold in our pockets to pay our way, and we are going to see the pyramids! Don’t you wish you were going? We don’t know what is in the future. It may be very hard. But our Father knows. And what He does – in the mundane events of life – is spectacular! Haven’t you found that to be true too?

12/12/04, BBC am