One of the prominent religious emblems of Christmas is the nativity scene. It had its modern origins nearly 800 years ago (AD 1223) when St. Francis of Assisi brought together a manger, an ox, and a donkey for an outdoor Christmas midnight mass in Grecio, Italy. Since then, manger scenes have sprung up all over the place – in and beside churches, in community spaces, and in homes – even on our dining room tables.
Now, stop right there! A stable on
our table? Who would ever in their right mind put a barn complete with
animals (and the accompanying manure – and smells) right where they’re going to
eat?!
We have sanitized the events of that
first Christmas to the point we no longer really think about the actual
conditions into which Jesus Christ was born. “She wrapped him in cloths and
placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke
2:7)
I grew up on a dairy farm in Perth
County. One of my earliest jobs was to spread straw in the loose housing area
where the cows were bedded down – this added fresh layers so they wouldn’t have
to lie directly in manure. Periodically my father would arrange for the inside
of the barn to be whitewashed, after the manure pack had been removed in the
annual spring cleanout. For a few brief hours the walls were sanitary and
fresh... until the inevitable manure pack started building up again.
We have tended to whitewash or
sanitize the Christmas story to make it more palatable, something of which we
would tolerate having a model inside our homes. But when you really stop and
think about it, we might have been saying to Baby Jesus, “Welcome to our mess!”
Which is precisely the point of the
Incarnation: in Jesus, God mysteriously took on flesh, His Son so identified
with us messy sinful humans as to become a perfect substitute suitable to take
our place and atone for our wrongdoing. The author of the letter to the Hebrews
puts it, “For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in
order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to
God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself
suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
(Hebrews 2:17-18)
You may recall the ‘messiness’
around Jesus’ entry to Planet Earth didn’t end with the upheaval of a
tax-related census, a long journey over tough terrain while nine months
pregnant, and not being able to find any suitable accommodation (hence the
necessity to be born-in-a-barn). After the birth, an angel warned Joseph that
King Herod was out to kill the newborn, so the holy couple packed up and
emigrated to Egypt until the heat died down. Furious at being outmaneuvered,
despot Herod gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and vicinity up to
the age of two.
Matthew the gospel writer draws a
parallel between this and God delivering the Hebrews from Egypt under the
leadership of Moses (Mt 2:15). This is described as Jesus “recapitulating” the
history of the people of Israel. Messiah the Deliverer first of all identifies
with the trials of those He comes to save.
At Christmas now in 2016, the news
headlines reveal that the world is still in quite a mess. Refugees on the run
from Syria and Sudan could relate to Mary, Joseph, and the baby fleeing to a
foreign country with scarcely more than the clothes on their back. Civilians
kill one another, including young children, in incidents of ‘road rage’ – a
brutality akin to that of Herod’s soldiers carrying out their slaughter.
Meanwhile, moderns seek diversion or solace in a drug epidemic that could be
related to a surge of local vehicle thefts, and recently in a major western
Canadian city killed nine individuals through overdoses in just 24 hours. What
a mess!
Yet, despite the atrocities and
hopelessness, the message of Christmas is that help is available. In our mess,
there is One who understands, who has been through it with us, whose very name
means He can save us from our sins. Matthew sees this as fulfilling what Isaiah
had prophesied some seven centuries before Jesus was born: “"The virgin
will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him
Immanuel" —which means, "God with us."” (Mt 1:23)
‘God with us’ - right here,
alongside us, in our mess. Whatever desperate situation you may find yourself
in today, whatever problems you may be facing this season, Jesus understands.
He’s been through it. This high priest is able to sympathize with our
weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15). He was even tortured and crucified as a result of
others’ base human jealousy and the desire to cling to power; yet God raised
Him from the dead. Call on Him today for help in your time of need.
“Peace on earth”, as announced by
the angels, becomes more of a reality when we experience Jesus’ forgiveness and
love for ourselves, so we can then start extending it to those who’ve wronged
and disappointed us. Instead of just a temporary covering of whitewash, God’s
grace found at the cross really cleans to the core, and makes fresh starts
possible.
Merry Christmas!
