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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, looking at Paul’s letter to the Galatians for the text today, please be seated. And kind of actually, I’m only looking at three words from Paul’s reading today. There are some parts of the Bible that seem to be a little more difficult to prepare a sermon on, and it can be even more difficult when the preacher focuses on just one verse. Some consider it sermon suicide to choose just three words, but that’s what I’m doing from that Paul’s letter: the words “born of woman.” Only three words, but they say so much.
Now this reading is often read during the Christmas season, reminding us that Jesus was indeed born of woman. Their words about Jesus’s virgin birth and about his mother Mary, but these three words also tell us that God became truly human in Jesus. They’re not words only about how Jesus was born and to whom he was born, but they’re words about who Jesus is and what he did.
Now, in the time of Jesus, being born of woman wasn’t a particularly good title. Most of the time then, people were identified by their father and his family. Back then, being a woman, in fact, wasn’t really looked on with much favor. In the time of Jesus, women were regarded as second-class citizens, if citizens at all. They had no political power and little or no influence on society. There was even a separate place for worship for them in the Jewish temple, and Jewish men had a prayer that went like this: “I thank you, God, that I am not a Gentile or a woman.” Just saying. Even the New Testament Greek word, gune, just doesn’t sound all that flattering. Guys, I don’t suggest using it, alright? Negative romance points here. You know, “Gune, come here.” No, don’t do that.
Being born a woman in Jesus’s time was not a great title. Back in 1995, pop singer Joan Osborne had a hit song that was called “One of Us” that asked this question in the lyrics, “What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us.” Now I doubt that song was meant to be complimentary of God or Christianity, but it does pose an interesting question: what it would be like if God was a human being?
Well, that idea of God being a human being isn’t completely well-received even today. Being born of a woman isn’t a great title today either. To some religious groups, the idea of God becoming a human, it’s unthinkable and even detestable. The idea of God lowering Himself, humbling Himself in such a way to become human, and allowing His perfect and righteous character to be put into human flesh is just terrible.
They ask the question, why would God want to do that? Why would God want to be born of woman? Why would God want to be around us? Why would God want to be a slob like us? The question kind of echoes what Mary said when the angel told her that she was with child. She asked, “How can this be?” Well, we might ask the same question because we know what we’re like. We’re not only slobs; we’re sinful ones.
We’re born of woman, yet we were conceived in sin. We’ve all done things that could question why God would want to be around us. Why a righteous, holy, perfect God would want to be around sinful human beings. But what’s unthinkable and even detestable to some is a wonderful thing for followers of Jesus. Long before Jesus was born, God made a promise to Moses that said, “I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not despise you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.”
Indicating that, yes, I’m going to put my dwelling in you. I’m going to be with you. I’m going to be around you. I will be your God. You will be my people. And this is what Jesus has done. And it’s who He is. Jesus fulfilled that promise and all the promises of the Old Testament of God sending someone into this world to do this, and Jesus has done that. In fact, one of the names for Jesus is Emmanuel, which means God with us.
And Jesus is with us in heavenly ways but also in human ways, and to us, this is a wonderful thing. Why would God want to be born a woman? Why would God want to be around us and be a slob like one of us? Well, God would answer it this way: even though you rebel against me and disobey me and sin against me and others, I still want to be with you. I still want to have an active and living relationship with you. I still want to forgive you. Even though you’re a sinful slob, I still love you, and I was born, and I died for you.
Why was Jesus born of woman? So that He could become truly human and so that He could truly die. The child Jesus was born of woman; He was born to die. He became flesh and blood so that He could suffer what we’re supposed to. Jesus comes into our world in flesh and blood to pay the penalty that we’re supposed to.
See, in the reading, it said Jesus was born of woman, born under the law. He came here in this world subject to the same law that we are of God, but He keeps it perfectly. And in doing so, He takes the power punishment for our breaking the law and dies the death that we should die. And it gets even better because what was born of woman, Jesus’s body and blood, His flesh and blood— it didn’t stay that way; it didn’t remain dead.
Because why was Jesus born of woman? So that He could die, yes, and also rise from the dead. Jesus was born not just to die, but to live physically, defeating death and giving us the benefit of that, giving us victory over death, giving us eternal life. We say Jesus was born of woman. This is all wrapped into that— that He came in flesh and blood to die for us and to rise again.
It’s a wonderful thing for followers of Jesus that God would come to be with us. There’s a story of a little girl who was in the hospital. She was really sick and in a lot of pain, and her mother was trying to comfort her, and she said to her, “Honey, remember God is with you.” And the girl said, “Yeah, I know that, Mama. I know. But I’m so glad that you’re here. I want someone with me who has skin on.” That’s what Jesus is: God with skin on to come into our world, born of woman, to become one of us to care for and comfort us in person, doing that in His death, in His resurrection.
But we still experience the benefits of His flesh and blood body today. We really can’t explain it, but in Holy Communion, when we come up here to the rail, we reach out our hands and receive and experience Christ’s woman-born body and blood in a very special way as we hear the words, “This is my body; this is my blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.” This is the visible gospel. This is God coming to us in Christ’s body and blood, born of woman, born to die and to rise again right here for us. The Lord’s Supper is truly God with us and in us.
In the Christian faith, there are a lot of aspects of it that are important to know, but a very simple yet very important thing to know is it’s just a very simple thing that God has come to be with us. In Jesus, God invaded our world and became one of us. In Jesus, He lived with us, He suffered like us, and He died for us so that He could take us to be with Him in His heavenly kingdom.
And this is what makes Christianity different than any other religious worldview ever. Just picture an arrow pointing down: God coming to be with us, God coming in flesh and blood, born of woman, born in Jesus for us, and then turning that arrow up, pointing so that He could take us to be with Him.
This is a simple yet very profound aspect of Christianity that is so different and so unique and such good news. We have the opportunity—I hope you do anyway—to tell other people about that. I know how it can be when people ask us about our faith or about Christianity. We kind of freeze up, and our mind goes blank sometimes. But just think very simply, if people ask you about your faith, “Hey, my God came to be with me and with you. He came here like one of us, like slobs like us, to forgive us.”
Simple things to talk about Jesus in a simple way, that of what He’s really done for you. Again, to some people, it seems unthinkable and detestable that God would become a human being, and Christians answer, “No, it’s a wonderful thing that God would do this out of love for us.”
So the question that Ms. Osborne asked, “What if God was one of us?” We answered that, okay, we’ve been there and done that. We have that. God has been one of us. Or better yet, we can say, “Jesus has been here and done that for us.” Jesus is here and still doing that for us, still forgiving our sins, still granting us love and mercy, and all of that for us. And it’s wonderful for us.
Not an unthinkable or detestable thing. It’s wonderful that no matter how much we’re slobs, God still wants to be with us. And in Jesus, He is. He was willing to be born of a woman to be like us, to die for us, and to save us.
So wonderful. It’s a couple of little one-line quips that kind of help tie this together here that maybe you’ll be able to remember: God participated in humanity so humans could participate in divinity, and God became a child so we could be children of God.
And Jesus was born of woman so that we could be born again. So it’s good to be reminded that Jesus was indeed born of woman. It’s good to hear those three words today as much as at Christmas. Amen.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
