When it comes to a Visitation we can see that Jesus whole life was a Visitation for us. Christ did not arrive unannounced (because he was The Promise) but he came uninvited, and from the start, no one could find room for him at all.
There was no room for Christ in the earth because the earth (humanity) had already constructed a system, a way of living, a human structure and had left absolutely no room for the supernatural! For the God component of life had been squeezed onto the mantle at the top of the fireplace to be brought down on special occasions.
All the structures (socially constructed realities) that humans create will always fail after a generation or two or three. When I say structures, I mean the way you explain the world to yourself. All the assumptions you make, all the one-liners you say to help you deal with the things that don’t make sense. Things like, “Well everything happens for a reason.” Or well, they are going through that because they must have done something wrong.
The first-century world had just such props. There were certain ways of behaving of living of getting married. In that first century, Joseph and Mary were inside a structure that said, on the morning after the wedding night you bring out the evidence that the woman was a virgin. But Josephs structured world would fall apart because he knew that would not happen because she was already pregnant. So after much turmoil and private stress, he mumbles to himself, “I’ll just put her away privately and go deal with this shame in my own way.” He had nothing to prop him up because the system of the world around him left no room for God to have been involved at all.
All of the things you count on to keep you safe are temporary and will fade or pass away.
You might think if I can take these supplements, or exercise the body or get an expensive education my world won’t fall apart. You are wrong. Your world, the one you’ve constructed or the one constructed around you by politicians and the American flag, it will at some point leave you out in the cold. With no room for you in the end!
Perhaps you count on your paycheck, your retirement, the government, or even the medical community to under-gird you. You stand on it today because things are going like you planned, but at some point, you will be all alone with no structure over your life. The structures of this world will crumble, and that’s why Jesus came.
He knew there would be a time when you were all alone when nothing made sense, and you would need Him, Jesus The Savior of You! You know you have room for Him because your house is falling down around you. The structures you’ve created to live inside are shaky and flimsy at best! The actual reality around you, the one you can’t see where angels bow before the throne and cry holy, holy, holy is the only one that can provide the kind of supernatural home you need for your life.
Home is not where the heart is; instead home is Jesus inside you!
Christ was awkward in this world, at weddings and funerals he would mess up both of them because the one that came into our structured and predictable world was not bound or limited by it at all. So, our little ceremonies and rituals were essentially seen as mist and smog by the Savior of the world. That’s why he bragged on the Centurian who said Lord you don’t need to come to my house or send a delegate – no all you have to do is send “Your Word!”
Christ (The Visitation of God) was entirely out of place, uninvited but yet he comes into this world not elbowing power out of the way – but born underneath the power, the structure, the organizations of the world.
He took His place so that He could make a home for those that find themselves alone in the cold outside the structures, the organizations, and governments that fail generation after generation. He makes His home within you while the politics at work or in church are all exposed as things built by human hands.
He came in unstructured and not created by this world, unencumbered by “it’s impossible” or “it has never happened before.” He was rejected by people in power and ultimately seen by those inside the structure of religion and politics as a “nut case” and a “religious zealot.” But no matter, His advent was here! God be Praised!
Jesus enters into your life and delivers you from the structures of religious life, from seeking to be moral somehow by human effort. He comes underneath your humanness, your frailty, your weakness, your disease and then takes up residence. He is not just a visitor if you will make room for Him in your current condition. In your current structure what comes with Him are all the things we know of His nature. There is peace, mental warmth, acceptance, healing, and the salvation of your soul. The friendship of God coming in not just to visit but by His Spirit to inhabit you.
This is where the peace of God comes in! A resilient and persistent peace from God and not from any other source. A peace that when all the things you’ve counted on over the years are blown down by violent storms, it doesn’t matter because you reside in Him! Jesus is your home!
Joseph would still be talked about and disrespected, he would look weak in front of others, un-manly, like he was following his wife and kid around and people who knew him would ridicule him privately indeed. But no matter he had been given a “promise” in a supernatural dream by an angel who said, marry her. So he did!
This is Advent! This is the coming of the Lord to you today! He will/has healed you and created a home for the two of you to be together inside your humbling yourself and praying not just one prayer but many. He is most at home inside your being, at the cellular level of your human existence, underneath blood and bone, underneath mental anguish and trouble He is your healing and your home!
Do you have room for Christ?
You can’t have Christ without having the supernatural? Does your current structure and system of belief have room for the supernatural today? Are you a part of the church that believes He never changes? Because if you’ve left no room for the supernatural then you’ve allowed theologians and contemporary pharisees to put the all powerful Savior on the mantle to be pulled down and celebrated religiously on Christmas and Easter.
Do you need a Christmas miracle? They still happen and He not only came then He is coming now, underneath the structures that surround you or are crumbling at your feet.
To the great and eternal God our Father, and to the Son born of a virgin and to the Holy Spirit be all glory from humans everywhere around the earth! Amen.