Sometimes simpler is better

I have been thinking about all the things that on the surface appear simple. We routinely enter the hospital these days for a surgical procedure to repair our knees or hips and find that we are often being released on the same day as the surgery was completed. Amazing! Backs fused, knees mended, and hips improved with plastic, and the patients go home often to their own bed. I’ve watched what looked to me to be very complex procedures, executed with such skill that you would think that these doctors could perform these surgeries in their sleep. Maybe in some cases, they could…

And how about that famous address by President Abraham Lincoln, who in dedicating a new cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863, said more in two minutes as an addendum to the activities of the day, than the featured speaker who spoke for some two hours. But the truth of the matter is that there was nothing simple about the issues that Lincoln addressed, and it would require another two years to prove his theories valid.

And think about it, a written constitution and amendments forged some 228 years ago in America, contains just 7591 words to organize the government, dictate the extent of its power, and the make possible the involvement we would have as citizens to keep it in check. Remarkably, it has been modified just 27 times.

And lastly, there is Morris Code, a concise system of “dots and dashes” that can be positioned to communicate everything from confidential information, normal conversation, to S.O.S pleas from those in the greatest of distress. The code has been utilized in peacetime and in war; and proved to be a godsend to captured service personnel who were able through these simple clicks to provide encouragement to fellow prisoners.

In each case, that which appears to be simple represents, upon greater scrutiny, a complex series of movements, processes, or thoughts.

And so, when we read in Matthew 1:18-25, “Now the birth of Jesus was as follows…”, we find a rather simple enumeration of the facts surrounding the incarnation, birth, and life purpose of Jesus Christ.

After his mother was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with Child of the Holy Spirit… Joseph, son of David, Do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:18, 20b-21)

Did you catch the plan?

1. A conception has taken place, at the Sovereign design of Holy Spirit. This birth will be miraculous as it will not involve the contribution of a human father.
2. Mary will carry this pregnancy to term and will give birth to the most special of sons. And yes, Jesus will pass through the birth canal and experience the pains of vaginal birth.
3. He will be named, Jesus
4. And, He will Save his people from their sins. Yes he is to be more than a moral teacher, for their is a sin issue to solve.

And yes, twenty centuries later we celebrate the simplicity of that brief conversation between the Angelic realm and humanity, often forgetting, even minimizing the complexity of detail involved, the miraculous nature of the details that must transpire, the Sovereign plan conceived in eternity before, and the upheaval in intimate proximity as the godhead released its own to the world of man.

A simple message- For He shall save his people from their sins, yet overshadowing the complexity that brought it, actually, guided it to fruition.

And for that, we celebrate, Christ the Lord.”