A Brother Born For Adversity

This sermon can be watched or listened to at www.templebaptistchurch.ca!

I remember the day quite well. We had driven all night to fulfill the song “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” We arrived at my in-law’s house bleary eyed and a little sore after sitting for over 20 hours in our van. However, the day was sunny and warm with above normal temperatures. Now, this was before we had a cell phone that we could use in the United States without paying extremely expensive roaming fees. As usually happens when we arrive in Medicine Lodge, Kansas, our van pulls into the driveway and kids fly out of the van like a cooped up flock of birds. Lori and I are the last to climb out of our jam-packed van and give hugs to her family. On this occasion though we could tell something was wrong. Lori’s dad had us all sit down in the living room and said that he just got word that morning that his mother had unexpectedly died of a heart attack and the rest of the family had been contacted. They were just waiting to tell us in person and then the next day we would be picking up family at the airport and driving back up to Iowa for the funeral.

Christmas can often mean trouble, grief and adversity. Some of you know this all too well. You are dreading tonight, tomorrow or sometime during the holidays when you are reminded of strife, or loss or loneliness or some unresolved conflict. Christmas is often just as much a time of adversity as it is advent! But that is actually not new. The first Christmas was full of adversity as well! Let’s read about the adversity in Matthew 2! Read Matthew 2!

Before I go deeper in Matthew 2, the overarching theme and verse I want us to remember is actually found in Proverbs 17:17, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” Notice the verse does not mean that we receive brothers so that we can have adversity. Some of you think that way. You have a brother who has created much adversity for you. My sister Stephanie is here today, but she doesn’t get a microphone because she might actually share some stories of adversity that I caused her as her brother.

Back to Proverbs 17:17! King Solomon was the one who wrote this Proverb and he knew what he was talking about. He had brothers who created adversity and tried to take his throne after Solomon was anointed king (1 Kings 2:19-25). And so it might appear that Solomon was contrasting friends and family and saying, “Friends love at all times, but brothers cause adversity.” But that is not the case because in the Bible friends and family are often considered on the same level. Recall what Jesus said in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” The highest form of love is not between a parent and child or even between husband and wife as Dr. Wesley Hill points out. The Bible elevates friendship. Sacrifice for family is expected and duty bound, but sacrifice for friends is heroic. We see this even in the Biblical word “phileo,” means “brotherly or friendship love.” This is really important for us to hear, especially young people who may feel conflicted, having to choose between friends and family. Listen up young people, you don’t have to choose between friends and family. The Bible calls you to love both your friends and your brothers spiritual and biological. (1 John 2:9-11) Actually as Robert Alden comments on Proverbs 17:17, “Friends and brothers are both there when you need them.” And Derek Kidner reminds us, “In trouble, you see what family ties are for and you also see who are your true friends.” Biblical scholars often demonstrate how proverbs give parallel thoughts. In other words, the writer of a proverb would have a thought and then think of something similar. Allen Ross calls this “Synonymous parallelism!” In the case of Proverbs 17:17, synonymous parallelism shows the importance of friendship and family. In fact, Gunther Plaut reminds us, “No wonder adversity is frequently the only unifying force in many families.” A tragedy actually pulls a family together. I saw this first hand a couple of weeks ago at the funeral for Tracey Zimmer. Some of the family members at the reception afterwards said that they hadn’t spoken with each other for years, but Tracey’s death had brought them together.

So if the verse in Proverbs 17:17 states, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity,” it begs the question, do you have a friend who loves at all times and do you have a brother born for adversity? Now, this is an important question on a horizontal and social level. The longer I live the longer I realize that without friends and family, life is severely impoverished. In fact, I agree with John Donne’s famous statement, “No man is an island.” Life is not meant to be lived alone and we do not realize the tremendous impact we make on each other. This is why I told those who attended Tracey’s funeral, “The statement that one can take his or her own life is incorrect. We belong to God and we belong to each other. Our gathering today proves we have a responsibility to each other and our actions affect everybody else around us.” It is also why the top Christmas movie of all time is… It’s a Wonderful Life! Spoiler alert: The story is about George Bailey who tried to take his own life because he thinks everyone would have been better off without him. But then his guardian angel, Clarence, shows George what life would have been like if he hadn’tt been born and how much his family and town would have suffered without him. We need friends who love at all times! Just not too many of them as Proverbs 18:24 teaches, “A man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

It is that friend who sticks closer than a brother that I want to redirect us to. Yes, this coming year it would be a fantastic commitment to become a friend who loves at all times. One of my prayers is that God would surround me with people who will be my constant companions. That is one of my prayers! But I need more than friends and I need more than family. Here’s the big question for you and me: is there a brother who was born in adversity for you? Or to go vertical and spiritual and not just make this a horizontal or social question, would God give us a brother born in adversity? Maybe some of you have prayed for a baby brother for Christmas? I want to declare Good News for you today that God has answered your prayer. “This day nearly 2000 years ago in the city of David, there has been born for you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11). God has given us His Son to be our Saviour and Brother!

This “Christ is our Brother” concept comes from Hebrews 2:11 which states, “For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” In other words, Jesus called us His brothers, which means the converse is true. But probably what has made the concept of “Christ being our Brother” famous were the words by Henry Van Dyke who wrote lyrics to Beethoven’s famous 9th Symphony in 1907 and entitled it his hymn, Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee! So we sing Christ our Brother!

Now in order for Christ to be the kind of brother we really need, He would have to be unique. First of all, a brother born after you usually isn’t your rescuer. Our kids have been after us for years to have another baby, but we have a hold out in the family and she will remain nameless, but she is also the one who has to give birth to the baby and stay up night after night nursing them so she has veto power. Still our family talks about adding more. Lori and I reminded our kids at the dinner table this week that even if we had a baby now, it would be years before that child could become their companion. Younger children don’t often rescue their older siblings, but on rare occasion this does happen. There is an actual name for it called a “‘Saviour Baby’ or a ‘Saviour Sibling.’ Saviour babies are conceived through in vitro fertilization and provide an organ or cell transplant, tested for genetic capability.” Saviour siblings were made famous through the novel and later film entitled My Sister’s Keeper, which is about a child born to save her sister Kate from leukemia.

Or maybe a more compelling story of a younger brother attempting to save his older brother was Donald Dawson. The year was 1965 and a young pilot by the name of Daniel Dawson was shot over Vietnam. Not knowing whether his older brother was dead or alive, his younger brother Donald went over to Vietnam carrying no weapons and at his own expense to seek his brother who was lost. The Viet Cong did not believe Donald’s story so they stripped him and imprisoned him for four months. Finally, the Viet Cong let Donald go because they admired his great love for his brother, who had actually died in the initial plane crash.

We look up to such heroic younger siblings, but what we really need is a brother born in adversity that can rescue us. Here is the Good News: JESUS IS THE BROTHER BORN FOR ADVERSITY! He was born into adversity. As we read in Matthew 2:1-12, Jesus was born at a time when Herod was on the throne. Herod was considered illegitimate by many Jews and not their true ruler. He was an Idumean King, a half-breed put in place by Rome. He was corrupt like many of our leaders today. He would have had many complaints from the #MeToo movement for sexual harassment, but what was even worse was that some of those complaints would have come from his own family including his cousin and niece that he married along with 7 other women. This guy was sick and made Harvey Weinstein look good!

It was evidenced by the fact that when the Magi or Wise Men show up to announce that they are searching for the newborn King of the Jews, what does Herod do? Matthew 2:16 records that Herod ordered the slaughter of all “those male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under.” This would be akin to killing all male toddlers in Cambridge, but also in St. George, Roseville, New Dundee, and Glen Morris. How devastating would that be! Think about for two whole years, the entire classes at all schools in our district would only be girls, just because an illegitimate king was threatened by an infant king. Jesus was a brother born in adversity.

Furthermore, Palestine was being occupied by the oppressive Roman Empire. And add on top of that the religious Jewish leaders were corrupt themselves. I know we have corrupt leaders whose ethics and morals are self-serving and are under investigation by independent prosecutors and ethics commissioners, but they look like angels compared to Herod. It is no question that Jesus was born in a time of adversity.

But was He a brother who could really help us? Jesus may have been born in a time of adversity and that is comforting because He can relate to our plight. He could be that friend that loves at all times and sticks closer than a brother. However, what we also need is somebody who can rescue us. We need a brother not just born in adversity but for adversity! We need a sibling who is not infected with our same problems, but who is also one who can totally relate to us on the human level. The Good News today is that Jesus is such a brother! Matthew 1:20-21 declares, “But when Joseph had considered this; behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” We needed a brother who was fully human and yet fully divine. We needed a Child who was not infected by sin so He could take away sin. Jesus is such a brother! Jesus was a brother born for adversity to overcome our adversity!

You see, our adversity as humans has been self-inflicted. We have rebelled against God and like Herod have tried to become illegitimate rulers of our own lives. And so God sent His Son and here is what is so amazing! Jesus didn’t come at first to reign, at least in a physical way! For Jesus to assume the throne would have been the seemingly normal thing to do and He would have cleaned house in the process! You would have thought that God the Son would have come to stifle human rebellion against His Heavenly Father. Instead, God the Son came as a lowly human being so that He could be called our Brother and then He grew up living a perfect life under the reign of God. He didn’t spend His time on a throne like Herod, but was born in a stable to poor parents who had been rejected. He grew up most likely a tradesman working in a carpenter’s shop. When He started His ministry, He was so poor that He often had no place to lay His head. And yet, despite all that adversity, He didn’t make an excuse. We often would say that we can’t do something because we don’t have everything we need. Jesus forewent some things so that we could have everything we need. In fact, the adversity Jesus faced actually killed Him. He faced such adversity that humans killed Him in the worst way to die – being crucified on a cross. Jesus may have escaped death as a toddler, but not as a thirty-three year old. Jesus laid down His life for His friends. Think about that! Jesus made rebels into His friends and brothers.

So how is Jesus a brother born for adversity who overcame our adversity? Jesus rose from the grave! Jesus overcame adversity by rising from the grave. And because Jesus rose from the grave we can be rescued. Romans 4:25 explains, “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.” And in light of this justification – being made right with God we could also become children of God. John 1:12 declares the awesome promise if we will believe in Jesus as our Brother, Saviour and Lord, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.”

Friends, today might have started pretty bleak, but I have good news for you! Jesus is the brother born in adversity that you have been looking for to overcome your adversity.

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