Key Study: The Presence of Love

Learning Goal: Learners will examine the presence of God’s love in the circumstances of Jesus’ birth.

Distribute a copy of the Student Worksheet and a pen to each learner. Ask: When you want to make an announcement about something, how do you do it (a birthday party for example)? After responses, say: Luke 2:1-20 describes how God chose to make the biggest announcement in the history of announcements.

1. God showed love through humble circumstances (Luke 2:1-7).

Enlist a volunteer to read Luke 2:1-7. Briefly explain what a census is and that we still have these today. Also share that, through the details given in these verses, we know within a few years of when Jesus was born. Explain that since everyone had to go to the city where the husband’s family was from, every major city was crowded during this time, leaving no room for the family in the local hotels.

Direct attention to the Student Worksheet and instruct students to work with a partner to describe what it means for something to be “Expected” and “Unexpected” in the squares under the first column. After one minute, call for responses. (Expected are those things that are normal, customary, and typical; Unexpected are those things that are unanticipated, unpredictable, and startling.) Point out that much of the details around Jesus’ birth are unexpected.

Pair up sets of partners and instruct them to review verses 1-7 and to list in the second column on their worksheets what we would have expected the details of Jesus’ birth to include (such as a hospital or midwife). Encourage students to consider the journey to Bethlehem, the town of Bethlehem, as well as the specifics of Jesus’ birth. After one minute, encourage students to work together in their groups to list the details within this passage that are unexpected. After another minute, lead students to compare their expectations with the unexpected circumstances they found. Use the following information to help guide learners’ discussions:

Expected:

• The journey to Bethlehem would have provided a comfortable way for Mary to travel at 9 months pregnant.
• There would have been a nice room waiting for them.
• They would have had the help of a doctor or midwife to help deliver the baby.
• The baby would have been wrapped in new, even luxurious material.

Unexpected:

• Mary traveled for days on a donkey, an incredibly uncomfortable journey.
• When they arrived in Bethlehem, they had to sleep in a barn, which would have been very dirty and smelly.
• Mary delivered her baby without any help from a medical professional.
• The baby was wrapped in whatever material they had available and placed in an animal feeder.

Say: Isn’t it crazy to think that the luxuries that we think would be essential for the birth of Jesus weren’t even on God’s radar! Point out that Jesus, who came to be our King and our Savior, was born in the most humbling circumstances of poverty to show us what kind of gift He was to us. Encourage learners to write “circumstances” in the first statement on their worksheets.

2. God showed love by telling the humble shepherds (Luke 2:8-14).

Encourage students to continue to work in their small groups to determine how we would expect the news of the birth of God’s Son to be given and to list these in the top section of the third column on their worksheets. Then, instruct groups to listen as one member reads Luke 2:8-14 aloud and then to complete the bottom section of the third column as they identified how God again used unexpected people and circumstances to tell the news of Jesus’ birth to. After one or two minutes, lead students to compare their expectations with the unexpected circumstances they found. Use the following information to help guide learners’ discussions:

Expected:

• Everyone would have been told the news at one time in a supernatural way.
• Or, the news would have first been shared with the leaders and the most important people in society.

Unexpected:

• The shepherds, who spent their time with sheep, smelled like sheep, and were not trusted as good witnesses, were given God’s news first.
• God used an army of angels to share His news.
• God told these poor, dirty, and untrusted shepherds to tell His news for Him.

Explain that God choosing to first announce the birth of Jesus to the shepherds shows that God cares for the humble more than He does prestige. Encourage learners to write “shepherds” in the second statement on their worksheets.

3. God showed love by having the shepherds give a humble proclamation (Luke 2:15-20).

Ask: If you were just given the greatest news in the world how would you respond? Would you go find your family and friends and tell them? Would you go take a shower before you went to the tell others? Or would you go immediately to tell others? After responses, call on a volunteer to read Luke 2:15-20. Ask: Based on what you read, how did the shepherds respond? (First, they were terrified; then, they left the sheep and their responsibilities behind to hurry to see the Christ Child; they told everyone the news and their testimony was believed.)

Instruct students to look up the definition for “wonder” and “ponder” on their smart phones. (Wonder = to think or speculate about; to be filled with admiration, amazement, or awe; Ponder = to consider something deeply and thoroughly; to meditate; to weigh carefully in the mind.) Call for responses and list these on the board. Ask: Why do you think Mary thought about this more deeply than others who heard the news? (She already knew the miraculous news from what the angel had told her personally; she had to have been overwhelmed with hearing God’s confirmation after having carried His Son for all these months.) Encourage learners to write “proclamation” in the third statement on their worksheets.

Instruct groups to use the last column on their worksheets to list how God’s presence of love is clearly seen in this account, either in expected or unexpected ways. After a minute or so, call for responses. (God celebrated the birth of His Son with angels in a chorus of praise; God’s gift of His Son and the lowly experiences of His birth shows how much God cares for us, regardless of our circumstances.) Emphasize that the birth of Christ shows God’s Love for Us.