Luke 2: Unlikely Invitations

When a brand introduces a new product, it's common practice to provide advanced copies to influencers, whose opinions hold a lot of weight with a lot of people. The influencers get a first look at the new product, and go public with their announcement. The success of a new product depends on getting as many eyes on it as possible, so brands prioritize inviting the rich, the famous, and the powerful.

Two thousand years ago, it was no different. Kings, governors, judges, priests, and the religious elite held tremendous influence in their regions. The success of any up-and-coming figure or new way of thinking would rise and fall on the endorsement of these powerful groups in their high-walled cities.

It's shocking, then, that when God introduced the long-awaited Messiah, whom the Jewish people had been anticipating for hundreds of years, his first invitation announcement was to a group of outcast shepherds well outside the city limits.

Eight days later, when Jesus' family visited the political and religious hub of Jerusalem, another invitation was given to an old man with no apparent connections in the city. Their meeting attracted no other attention but that of an old widow who never left the temple.

These invitations to see a baby born to a poor family, on top of the fact that the next recorded story of Jesus occurred twelve years later, and then again eighteen years after that, shows that God did not intend to play by the typical rules of social influence. Yet Jesus grew up to be the most influential figure in all of history.

Today, we are ourselves unlikely influencers in this grand invitation to meet Jesus. Because he was first announced to the outcast, the messy, the irrelevant, and the poor, we can approach him no matter our state. And we have been entrusted with sharing the good news about him to whoever is in our circle of influence.

This presentation quotes Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.