Why Did God Become Human? A Look at Luke 2
There’s a scene in A Christmas Story that almost everyone knows. Ralphie comes down the stairs in the pink bunny suit his aunt made him, and the whole family loses it. His brother is laughing. His dad is begging him to take it off. His mom thinks it’s the most precious thing she’s ever seen. Ralphie just stands there, mortified, wearing the surprise he never asked for.
Pastor Keith Roberson opened with that clip at New River Church, and the room laughed because every one of us has been there. You unwrap the gift, you look up, and you say “Oh… thank you” while your face tries to catch up. Receiving a surprise you weren’t looking for is one of the most common experiences in the human story.
And here’s the turn: if you’re being honest about the Christmas story, Jesus is that surprise. He was not what the people wanted. He was the surprise they were not looking for.
In a message from the SURPRISED series called God In Flesh, Pastor Keith walked through Luke 2, Hebrews 4, and Philippians 2 to wrestle with one of the biggest questions a person can ask: why did God become human — and why did He do it this way?
What this sermon is about
The thesis is simple to say and staggering to sit with. God came into the world in the flesh, in humility, in rags, on purpose — so that you would know forever that He understands you, He sees you, and He can handle your mess.
If you’ve ever felt like God is distant, like He doesn’t hear, like what you’re carrying is too gross or too painful or too far gone for Him to touch — this message is for you.
The surprise nobody was looking for
To be clear, first-century Israel was hungry for a king. It had been prophesied for hundreds, even thousands of years: one would come in the line of David whose rule would never end. They were under an occupying Roman regime that had stolen their identity. They wanted freedom. They wanted to worship and live the way God had called them to live. They were hoping, hoping, hoping God would come and deliver.
They were looking for a political liberator. What they got was a feeding trough.
Luke 2:4-7 — “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem… And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”
No fanfare. No public anointing. Nothing epic about the entrance. Even today, saying someone was “born in a barn” is jolting. And yet that’s exactly the description Luke gives of the coming King.
Pastor Keith pointed out that the religious culture of the day had its own version of the Ivy League — the Beit Midrash, where the top thinkers and top students trained. That’s where everyone assumed the great coming King would emerge. They were looking for a Harvard-educated elite to take them to the promised land. And God, in wisdom far beyond our understanding, said: no. I’m coming in rags.
It’s the same move God still makes in our lives. We pray, “God, here’s the situation — and here’s how I would fix it if I were you.” We hand Him the blueprint along with the request. But Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” Will He come in ways that touch our lives? You bet. Will He come in the way we most want Him to come? Usually not.
Why God came in the flesh: a high priest who gets it
So why? Why would the infinite, magnificent, unsearchable God of the universe come to earth in rags — no powerful upbringing, no elite training, a blue-collar job for thirty years?
The pastor who wrote Hebrews answers it directly.
Hebrews 4:14-16 — “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
God came into humanity, in humility, on purpose — so that we could know forever: He understands us. He didn’t come in the flesh to shock the world for shock’s sake. He came in the flesh to be able to say: I know you. I know what you’re walking through. I know pain — I know your pain. I know temptation — I know your temptation. I know hardship, sadness, heartache, and hurt. I know it all.
He isn’t the distant one on the cloud. He’s the one in rags who gets it. And gets you.
“He came in our mess, in his own mess, wrapped in rags, so that we could have his perfection. He didn’t stay at a distance.” — Pastor Keith Roberson
That matters because every one of us will be tempted, somewhere along the way, to believe the opposite. Tempted to believe He’s not here. That He doesn’t hear. That He doesn’t understand. That He’s abandoned you. That what you’re walking through is too hard or too ugly for Him to heal. Tempted to believe He doesn’t care.
And the God in the flesh answers: I do care. As Pastor Keith put it, there’s no friend or spouse or child who has ever cared for us so perfectly at such an incredible cost to himself.
The exchange: His glory for your rags
Think about the most meaningful gift you’ve ever received. Odds are it wasn’t the most expensive one. It was the one that cost the giver something real — hours, thought, sacrifice. Somebody heard you mention something out of the side of your mouth six months ago and remembered. The cost is what made it mean the world.
Now hold that next to what God did.
Philippians 2:5-8 — “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Eternally glorious, glad, alive, beaming in goodness — and He suspended all of it. He left it and came into our mess, into our pain, at a cost that runs all the way to His own life. There isn’t an act in human history that will ever match the magnitude of that message from the heart of a Father: I see you. I understand you. I’ve been in it with you. Come to me. Have my glory. Make the exchange.
“He came in rags so that you would know: he can handle my rags.” — Pastor Keith Roberson
Everything you and I have ever wanted — peace, rest, glory, wholeness — freely and openly given. And all He asks in exchange is your rags.
Not the mess out there. The mess in here.
Here’s the part of the sermon that turns the lights on. Our tendency, a lot like first-century Judea’s, is to pray: “God, come fix all the stuff out there.” Fix the politics. Fix the economy. Fix the broken things in the world. Sweep it all clean so we can get back to living the way we’re supposed to live.
And the God in the manger says: there’s plenty to work on out there, but I came because I want to touch the messiness in you.
There is a coming day when everything out there gets made right — Pastor Keith joked that one day we’ll even have perfect politics, which nobody in the room could imagine. But that day is not today. Today, the God of the manger is after something closer. He wants to put His finger on the thing that’s in you.
“I don’t care how bad you look. I don’t care how bad you’ve done. I don’t care how much you’ve run from me. I can take your mess. Bring it to me. This is the point of Christmas.” — Pastor Keith Roberson
Maybe you’ve been holding God at arm’s length because a metric ton of toxic shame keeps telling you He can’t deal with you and your situation anymore. The King who came in the manger says otherwise. What do you got? Lost, unseen, overlooked, alone, ashamed, guilty, broken, sad, afraid — bring it. That’s the whole point.
Twelve messy guys and thirty quiet years
One more detail worth slowing down on. For roughly ninety percent of Jesus’s life, there were no miracles and no public ministry. Just Jesus, perfectly being among the people. Working with His hands. Living an ordinary life in an ordinary town.
And when He finally did step into ministry, He picked twelve guys who had no business being picked — fishermen, tax collectors, the messiest of the messy. Not the Beit Midrash elite. Pastor Keith’s point: God could not have said it more clearly. If you will believe, He can take your mess and give you glory.
The question the whole sermon comes down to is the one Jesus has been asking from the beginning: do you believe?
“One encounter with God will change everything”
The message ended somewhere none of us expected — which, for a series called SURPRISED, feels exactly right.
That very morning, real life had hit the Roberson home. Keith’s wife Megan came up and shared (with permission) that their daughter had woken early from a dream that surfaced something painful — a hurt she’d been carrying for several years, one the family had talked through over and over. Her honest question: why would God let me feel this again?
Megan asked her a different question: do you think it’s possible the Lord is so in pursuit of your heart that He’s letting this come up because He wants to heal it today? They prayed through it together. And by the time Keith came downstairs, their daughter was beaming — in Megan’s words, lit up like a Christmas tree — testifying that God had healed her heart that morning.
“We can talk and talk and talk about things, but one encounter with God will change everything.” — Megan Roberson
Megan pointed the room to John 14 — Jesus’s promise that the Father “will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.” The Counselor is the Holy Spirit. Another word for counselor is advocate — the one who will never leave you. Which means you already have everything you need to walk through whatever you’re walking through. Not God watching from a distance. God with you, in the actual moments of your actual days.
What this means for your week in Franklin
If you take this sermon seriously, four things change about this week.
- Stop editing the prayer. Ask God to move, and then let go of the blueprint for how He should do it. He tends to come in ways we aren’t looking for — a manger instead of a throne. Watch for the surprise instead of resenting it.
- Bring Him the real mess. Not the cleaned-up version you’d share at small group. The actual thing — the shame, the fear, the years-old hurt. He came in rags specifically so you’d know He can handle yours.
- Quit waiting until you’re qualified. Twelve unqualified guys changed the world. Whatever you’ve decided disqualifies you from being used by God is probably the very thing He intends to work through.
- Make room for the encounter. Talking about the wound for years is fine — sometimes healing takes a while. But stay open to the morning God decides it’s time. One encounter with Him will change everything.
Watch the full message
The full sermon — “God In Flesh” from the SURPRISED series — is in the video above. We post a new message every Sunday from New River Church in Franklin, TN. Browse our message library for more from the SURPRISED series and other recent teaching.
Coming Sunday at New River Church in Franklin, TN
If this message resonated and you’d like to experience worship and community in person, we’d love to have you with us. New River Church meets Sundays at 9:00 AM and 10:45 AM at 1153 Lewisburg Pike in Franklin, TN 37064 — just minutes from downtown Franklin and easy to reach from across Williamson County, Brentwood, and Spring Hill.
You don’t need to dress up. You don’t need a good voice. You don’t need to know much about church or the Bible to come. We’re a community of ordinary people walking through ordinary life, trying to do it together with Jesus at the center. Whether you’ve been a Christian for forty years or you’ve never set foot in a church, you are welcome here.
If you’re new to the area or new to faith, our First Time Guest page walks through everything you need to know before your first visit: parking, what to expect on Sunday morning, what your kids will experience in River Kids, and how to find us when you arrive.
If you’re looking for deeper community beyond Sunday morning, our Community Groups meet across Franklin and the surrounding area throughout the week. Groups are where Sunday morning faith becomes Tuesday afternoon real life.
Whatever you’re carrying right now, you don’t have to carry it alone. There’s a place for you at New River Church in Franklin, Tennessee. Come as you are.
Watch more sermons: newriverfranklin.com/messages Plan your visit: newriverfranklin.com/firsttimeguest Find a group: newriverfranklin.com/groups
📍 New River Church | 1153 Lewisburg Pike, Franklin, TN 37064 | Sundays 9:00 AM & 10:45 AM
