An angel broke the darkness of the night with the glory of the Lord and the shepherds trembled, not realizing that they were about to be the first guests to meet the Son of God in the flesh. Then, more angels appeared praising God. This news was too large for a single messenger to carry; the time had come for the Lord to fulfill all His promises.
When the darkness returned, the shepherds lost no time hurrying into town. Dr. Luke, the gospel writer, said that Mary and Joseph placed Jesus in a manger. For these new parents, Jesus’ feeding-through crib was born out of necessity. Pastor Joane told this story in a recent Sunday morning service: “A Sunday School was putting on a Christmas pageant which included the story of Mary and Joseph coming to the inn. One boy wanted so very much to be Joseph, but when the parts were handed out, the lad was assigned to be in inn-keeper instead. He was pretty upset about this but did not say anything to the director.”
“During all the rehearsals, he thought what he might do the night of the performance to get even with this rival who got to be Joseph. Finally, the night of the Christmas play, Mary and Joseph came walking across the stage. They knocked and the inn-keeper opened the door asking them gruffly what they wanted.”
“Joseph answered, ‘We would like a room for the night.’ Suddenly the inn-keeper threw the door open wide and said, ‘Great, come on in and I will give you the best room in the house!’ For a few seconds, poor little Joseph did not know what to do. Thinking quickly on his feet, he looked inside the door past the inn-keeper and replied, ‘No wife of mine is going to stay in a dump like this. Come on, Mary, let’s go to the barn.’ And once again, the play was back on track!”
But, did the manger itself point the shepherds to a Savior? Did the manger indicate the way in which Jesus would become their Savior?
Nativity scenes are used in most of our Christmas decorations. The manger is a reminder of the true meaning of this Holy Day for some and for others it is a pledge of allegiance to tradition when Christmas’ Christian roots seem to be threatened. But in ancient Judea, a manger was a small, hollowed out stone box where food would be placed for the sheep. In a food box, Jesus was laid as a baby. Years later, Jesus would take bread, break it and tell His disciples that it was a sign of His body that was broken for them. The sign of the manger marked Jesus’ chief purpose in coming to earth.
Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem is more than the happenstance of a census decree. In the Christmas story we discover that the manger sits in the shadow of the cross.
The shepherds were forever changed that first Christmas night – and their example is one we can follow as we celebrate “Christ’s birth. First, they shared their experience with everyone they could find. They could not stop talking about Jesus – and what God had done for them.
Second, they left the manger glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen. Shepherds lived transient lives and were often peasants. As a result, most Judean shepherds spent their lives on the fringe of society, feeling disconnected from God. But now God, through Jesus, had brought these men near and they could not help but become beacons of praise.
Finally, the shepherds broke the first rule of shepherding – they left their flocks. Given the proximity of Bethlehem to Jerusalem, it is possible these men were shepherding sacrificial lambs for use in the temple. But they walked away in search of the new thing the Lord was doing, no longer trusting in the blood of sacrificial lambs for they had found The Lamb of God.
There is nothing we can do to make our own way to God, so at Christmas, God made His way to us! New life will not be found in anything we might do for God – only in what Jesus has done for us. Christmas is good news because of Easter, but there would have been no cross without the manger.
