Listen for God’s word to you from Luke 2:1-14…
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
One Christmas at my brother’s house they delegated to their young daughter Amanda the job of setting up the nativity scene on the mantel above their family room fireplace. Amanda quietly went to work and sometime later when my brother walked into the room, he was surprised to see all the characters turned away from view. My brother asked his daughter why she arranged the figures that way. She said, “Well, they are all facing the baby Jesus. He’s what the story is all about.”
Well done, Amanda!
I invite you to meditate with me this evening on the nativity scene, who was present and who was not present.
I was present for the birth of each of my three sons, as was Becky, of course! For the birth of our first son, my mother and sister-in-law were also in the room. For the other two births it was just me, and Becky, and the baby, and a doctor and a nurse or two.
Joseph and Mary did not have a doctor or a nurse to help deliver the baby.
We also know from Matthew’s Gospel that the Wise Men were not there when Jesus was born. When the Wise Men got there, Jesus may have been as much as two years old, and by that time he was living in a house with his parents. So, we can remove the Wise Men from the scene…
We know the shepherds showed up after the birth because they were given the sign of a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. So, according to the story we have read this evening, the baby was already born when the shepherds got to the manger. So, we can remove the shepherd from our nativity scene…
Of course, one of the things almost everyone remembers from this story is that the baby Jesus was laid in a manger, a feeding trough for animals. So, that is where we get the idea that there were animals present at Jesus’ birth. But Luke doesn’t actually tell us that. So I think we can safely remove the animals from our scene…
Presumably, Joseph was the one who caught the baby Jesus when he came down the birth canal. And Joseph too must have been the one to cut the umbilical cord.
It must have been messy to give birth to a baby in a place where animals dwelt, even if the animals weren’t there at the moment of the birth. As far as we know, Jesus was born in a cave. So, we can remove the barn from our nativity scene.
A cave is the most likely place that animals would have been kept in first century Bethlehem. In fact, if you visit Bethlehem today and the Church of the Nativity, you will be led down a set of stairs into the Grotto of the Nativity. If you ever do make that visit, and you happen to be tall, watch out as you descend those steps into the grotto. When I was going down those old stone steps, I hit my head on an overhanging lamp and was immediately anointed with hot oil.
Mary and Joseph, of course, did not have any of our modern conveniences. There is not a single artistic representation of this scene that I have ever viewed which captures the messiness of the scene as it must have really been. And the messiness of it all is important, vitally so. It is a reminder of the fact that the Son of God chose to enter the messiness of all our lives. He was not put off by any of it.
So, Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus were present. The shepherds showed up later. We don’t even know if angels were present at the birth, though they were present to make the announcement to the shepherds. So, if you have an angel in your nativity scene at home, you might as well remove the angel. Mine doesn’t have an angel so we can leave it as is.
But what a strange announcement the angel made to the shepherds: “Unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” Perhaps the shepherds looked at one another in bewilderment. Perhaps one said to his fellow shepherd, “Fred, I didn’t know your wife was having a baby!” And Fred said, “She isn’t. I don’t know what this angel is talking about.” And yet, the message engaged the shepherds’ attention enough that they ran off to Bethlehem to see what was going on.
Now, if the angel could say to those shepherds that this child (who was not physically part of their family) was born for them, then maybe, just maybe, do you think this announcement might be for us as well? I suggest to you that when we read all the Gospels and the New Testament, we find that this announcement is for us. This baby was born for us.
As fascinating as it is to think about the characters that we usually see in the nativity scene, it is also intriguing to meditate upon the people we never see ranged around the manger…
- Caesar Augustus, the most important person in the world at that time, was not present for the birth of Jesus. If he had known about the birth, and known who Jesus was, would Augustus have wanted to be there? I don’t know.
- The governor Quirinius, whoever he was, was not present for the birth of Jesus.
- The innkeeper, if there was an innkeeper, was not there.
Frederick Buechner, in one of his Christmas sermons, gives a great line to the innkeeper…
All your life long, you wait for your own true love to come—we all of us do—our destiny, our joy, our heart’s desire. So how am I to say it gentlemen? When he came. I missed him.
Who else missed the birth of the baby Jesus?
- Well, the religious leaders of Jerusalem missed him. Though Matthew tells us they were able to give to the wise men clear instructions about where to find the Messiah, they themselves could not actually be bothered to go and visit the baby Jesus.
- Neither could Herod be bothered. But in one way, Herod was very bothered. Hot and bothered. Hot under the collar. Hot enough to want to kill this baby Messiah along with any other pretenders to his, Herod’s throne.
So, Augustus was not there. Quirinius was not there. The Innkeeper was not there. The religious leaders were not there. Herod wasn’t there. Also, Mary and Joseph did not have extended family present. They were far from home. They had no doctor, no nurses.
But I have a sneaking suspicion that there were two other people present for the birth of Jesus who are never pictured in the scene, perhaps because it is too difficult to picture them. These two people aren’t mentioned by name in Luke’s text.
Who are they? Well, I imagine God the Father and God the Holy Spirit were there for Jesus’ birth. I know it’s a big truth to swallow on Christmas Eve when our stomachs are filled with spiked eggnog and our ears are filled with the sound of Jingle Bells. But if God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are really one, can they ever be truly separated? I give you that question to meditate on tonight.
I believe that God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit were present to witness the birth of God the Son in human flesh. Maybe that cave was not so empty after all.
And now I have just one more question for you to think about. The question is this: were you there? We sing the question on Good Friday: “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” It’s a good question to ask because I believe the best way of reading the Bible, especially the stories of the Bible, is to imagine yourself in the scene.
Can you imagine yourself in the nativity scene? Can you see yourself as Joseph, or Mary, or one of the shepherds, or the wise men? Can you hear the message of the angel being addressed to you: “Unto you a child is born.”?
I hope you can picture yourself in that scene. I hope you can hear that message addressed to you tonight, because if you miss it, then, I believe, you have missed the arrival of your one true love.
Comments