“This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” –Luke 2:12
The night started like any other night for the shepherds. They had shepherded the flock to a good pasture outside the small village of Bethlehem. Perhaps they had just finished a snack from their scrip and sat on the ground as comfortably as possible for the long night of watching their flock.
God had taken human flesh in the womb of Mary, and the long-awaited Messiah was born this day in the City of David. The city of Bethlehem. The city of the shepherd boy who became king of Israel. These shepherds heard the heavenly host give them a sign. The infant Messiah will be found wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a stone feeding trough.
These shepherds would be all too familiar with outdoor stone troughs for feeding livestock, but jarred to see “this thing that has happened” (Luke 2:15) as the King would be swaddled and lying in a manger! Yet, Mary laid the infant Messiah in the manger because “there was no room for them in the lodging place” (Luke2:7). Why was Mary in Bethlehem? The mighty ruler of the world, Caesar Augustus, decreed a census (Luke 2:1). God’s mighty King of the world was swaddled, lying in a manger outside.
God took on flesh in Christ. He “was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,” but became a servant (Philippians 2:6-7). This is the mind of His united church who humbly count others more significant than themselves, looking after one another’s interests in love (Philippians 2:2-4).
The shepherds returned to their flock on what appears an ordinary night, but they returned “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen” (Luke2:20). They had not seen an earthly royal scene. No palace, not even indoors! No gold or royal garments, just the night sky and swaddling cloths. They rejoiced in God for the sign was just as they had been told.
Reader, the gospel of Jesus Christ is just as we are told in Scripture. He became like us in every way to suffer as the sacrificial lamb and made atonement as the faithful high priest to destroy the devil’s power of death and death’s fear in our short lifetime of slavery (Hebrews 2:14-18). Christ nailed the believer’s record of death and triumphantly disarmed the devil of his power of death and accusation on His cross (Colossians 2:14-15).
Christmas is a yearly reminder of “this thing that has happened” that, like the shepherds, we may go on our ordinary lives glorifying and praising God for fulfilling His promise in His Word sending Christ into the world to save His children. This is good news to believe for yourself, dear reader. To be freed from death and the power of death, to be reconciled to God to enjoy Him forever, all through Jesus Christ.
Heavenly Father, we glorify and praise You for sending Christ Jesus Your Son into the world to save sinners, that You were pleased to crush Him and give us life. Grant to us, Your church, to have the same mind in Christ. All glory and praise to the name of our God! In Jesus’ name. Amen.
