For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. – 2 Corinthians 8:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 22, 2014): 2 Corinthians 8 & 9

It won’t be long now. Just a couple of nights from now we will be gathering to celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas Eve. I have always loved Christmas Eve – and probably for a couple of reasons. First, there is a great feeling of celebration and worship as we sing the carols and light the candles on Christmas Eve. But there is also a sense of relief. By the time we begin to worship in the Christmas Eve service, everything is done. No more shopping. The prep for Christmas is done. All there is left to do is enjoy the Candlelight Service - and then head home to enjoy time with family.

The story is a familiar one – it is all about a baby born in a manger because there was no room in the inn, and it is about the proud parents Mary and Joseph holding their son surrounded by the animals in the barn, and it is about shepherds in the field taking care of the sheep listening to the angels singing in the field. God had come down to be born on the earth – and he had arrived not in a palace, but in a barn. The creator of all of the earth begins his life on this planet in the lowliest way that we could imagine.

Paul talks in this passage about Jesus being rich. But there is absolutely no evidence that the Jesus of the Gospels had any worldly wealth. He was the son of a carpenter, a member of a blue collar family. He learned a trade and most likely worked with his father on worksites in the areas around Nazareth, but rich? … no, that he was not.

Yet we can’t get around the fact that Paul calls Jesus rich. And the only answer to the riddle is that Paul is not referring to the story of Jesus life, but is instead referring to the familiar Christmas story. The idea of Jesus being rich would seem to have a double meaning. First it indicates the contrast between the eternal and finite. In giving up heaven, Jesus did more than just change his address. He sacrificed his eternal state so that he could become like us. And the incarnation was more than just a momentary change of station. We believe that Jesus has remained in his incarnated form, he continues to be like us so that he can intercede for us.

But the idea of Jesus poverty also points to the way that Jesus could have come. He could have been born into a palace, but instead he was born in a barn. He could have been born into a life of leisure, but instead he was born into a life of hard work, a life that would produce callouses on his hands. He could have been born into the home of a rabbi, but instead he was born into the house of a carpenter. He could have been rich, yet for our sake he became poor – so that we might be rich, possessing some of the very things that Jesus gave up.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 10