Where's the Manger?

“Jesus took His place in a manger 

so that we might have a Home in heaven.” Greg Laurie

 Can you imagine New Year’s Eve without horns, party hats, champagne or clocks counting down to midnight? What if for the 4^th of July you couldn’t find anything red, white and blue and there were no American flags anywhere, plus no parades, cookouts, picnics or fireworks?

  Yet if you venture into most stores around Christmas, you’ll have difficulty finding a nativity scene. Mangers are as hard to find as a snowball in July. Christmas decorations might include Santa, elves, snowmen, lights, gnomes…even baby Yoda, but it’s rare to find a nativity scene or manger. While they’re rare in stores, they’ve often been banned from public places like parks, malls, schools or government buildings only to be replaced by images of snowmen, candy canes, and reindeer.

  The irony of all of this is lost on a pluralistic culture where Christmas is just another holiday. It’s like celebrating someone’s birthday and completely ignoring the one whose birthday is actually being celebrated.    

  Luis Palau tells of a wealthy European family that decided to have their newborn baby baptized in their enormous mansion. Many people were invited. It was an elegant and elaborate affair. They took off their coats and laid them on the bed in a designated room. Soon the time came for the main purpose of their gathering but then no one could find the baby! To the horror of all they finally found the baby who was now buried under the pile of coats, jackets and furs, nearly smothered to death.

  In essence, in western civilization, we’ve buried Baby Jesus under our other trappings of a Christmas celebration. Why has that happened? The manger represents what we humans are not and what we don’t want to be. The manger represents…

  God in His helplessness. We don’t like to be helpless and we avoid those who we consider helpless. The nativity account in Luke 2 says that His mother “wrapped him in swaddling cloths” (vs. 7). Back then newborns were wrapped in strips of cloth to protect them from the harsh elements. Mothers would wrap the arms and legs separately and then wrap the torso until the baby looked a bit like an Egyptian mummy. It severely restricted the child’s movements. But in a world with little medical care where babies routinely died before their first birthday, it was a way to provide a crude kind of protection. At His birth, Jesus was as helpless as any other baby.

  Decades later an adult Jesus stood before the Jewish authorities, bound and guarded like a common criminal. When falsely accused, He didn’t respond. When reviled, He refused to answer. He stood before His accusers with his hands bound, awaiting a verdict that would end His life. It’s not a coincidence that He entered the world as He left it, bound and helpless.

  God in His humility. How would you respond if someone served your dinner in a dog’s food bowl? The word manger means a feeding trough. Even in that feeding trough, our Savior was already bearing the only cross a baby can bear—extreme poverty along with the contempt and indifference of mankind. In the words of Francis of Assisi, “For our sakes He was born a stranger in an open stable; He lived without a place of His own wherein to lay His head, subsisting by the charity of good people; and He died naked on a cross in the close embrace of holy poverty.”

  This newborn lying forgotten in an exposed stable, resting in a feeding trough is God’s appointed “sign” to us. It’s the Incarnation. God came into this world in the most unlikely way. It’s what Philippians 2:7 means when it says Jesus “made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Nothing about Baby Jesus appeared supernatural. There were no halos, visible angels or choirs singing.

  If we’d been there and had no other information, we’d have concluded that this was just another baby born to a poor young couple down on their luck. Nothing about His outward circumstances pointed to God. Looking at the baby this way, no one would think that He only came for the rich or powerful. No one would suggest that He used His heavenly power to make an easy or grand entry into the world. Jesus came not for an elite few. He came to be the Savior of all the world.

  God in His humanity. “A baby.” That’s all the original Greek says. The word means “an infant” or “newborn.” It’s an ordinary word used to describe the birth of a child. It reminds us that Christ came into the world just as we all do. Even though we often speak of the virgin birth, it should be remembered that the real miracle occurred at the moment of His conception nine months earlier. Jesus’ physical birth was completely normal—or as normal as it could be given the unique circumstances.

  To say that Christ was born as a baby brings us face-to-face with the truth of the Incarnation. Although Jesus was fully and truly God from all eternity, the Second Person of the Godhead took on humanity when He was conceived in Mary’s womb. He wasn’t half-God and half-man, He was fully God and fully man. He never ceased to be God, though He temporarily laid aside the glory of His deity. In some way mysterious to us, Jesus was the God-Man, two natures joining together in His one Person.

  That’s the central truth of Christianity. God entered human history in order to provide for our salvation. What we could not do, He did for us through His Son. Everything else flows from this truth. If Jesus had not been born, He could never have died for our sins and would not have risen from the dead. He had to become like us in order to be able to save us. There was no other way.

  Yet, it’s because Jesus was helpless, humble, and human that this world doesn’t want to be reminded of mangers. The necessity of His manger means that we couldn’t fix it. We couldn’t save ourselves. We must be rescued.

  Our world’s greatest need isn’t a new government program or more education or better housing. It’s not even affordable healthcare.

  2,000 years ago the angels announced our greatest need,  “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

  What we desperately need is a Savior! Thankfully, Jesus came to be our Savior. And while you may not find a nativity scene, you can’t hide Jesus. He’s already come to earth. My friend, have you let Him into your life?

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