The Majesty of the Manger

Luke 2:1 – 21

 

Christmas day is almost here, and with that often comes a lot of family travel. And with travel, especially long distance travel, often comes shenanigans on the road that leave us with lasting memories. One such traveling hiccup for my family had nothing to do with Christmas but certainly has left us with memories.

 

Back in 2011, when I was preparing to go to Cal Poly in SLO to get my bachelor’s degree in Dairy Science, I took the trip that spring to go to Cal Poly’s open house and preview day as a newly admitted student. Unlike the other students, I took my wife and infant son along with me. It was a wonderful trip, and a wonderful spring. God was showing off His creation, the hills were alive and popping with green, it was unforgettable.

 

What I do wish we could forget was the drive home. It has been a long standing bucket list goal of ours to drive the entire PCH, and we’ve knocked out a solid chunk of it, perhaps close to half, in different increments. But this one time, as we were heading home in our little Ford Focus, we decided to head north from SLO on the PCH to Monterey and then head inland from there.

 

Well, as we neared highway 46 by Cambria, Cal Trans signs started popping up saying that the PCH was closed some 60ish miles away. As we passed highway 46, I told Julie that there must be another mountain pass further north that we could take and therefore maximizing our time on the PCH. Yeah, you can figure out where this is going.

 

There were no other roads inland from the PCH after highway 46 in Cambria. I dragged my young wife and infant son along a pointless drive as far as the road closure and back, over 100 miles round trip on the PCH, several hours, just to get back to where I should have turned inland. And here I thought of myself as a gifted navigator, but boy was I humbled by the Cal Trans sign that I disregarded.

 

As we continue in the Gospel of Luke, we get to witness the first Christmas family trip, with its own challenges, when Joseph and Mary travelled to Bethlehem and Jesus Christ was born. Let’s read about the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: Luke 2:1 – 7.

The events leading up to the birth of Jesus leave us with more questions than answers. It all seems circumstantial and unfortunate that this pregnant woman had to travel far from home to give birth in a barn.

 

But nothing is further from the truth. The first of three major themes in our Scripture for today emerges here in this section. Despite His silence in the 400 years prior, God has not stopped moving. His sovereignty is on full display here.

 

“In those days” begins today’s passage about the birth of Christ. Scripture doesn’t say precisely when Jesus was born, but the specifics of when are less important than the fact that it did happen. Historians, even Jewish historians like Josephus attest to the fact that Jesus was real.

 

God has been working out His salvation throughout all of history. No part of it is by accident. Caesar Agustus was born Gaius Octavius, and the Roman senate gave him the title Agustus in 27 B.C., and he ruled the empire until 14 A.D. and was succeeded by Tiberius. These real historical facts demonstrate that salvation had both specific (Jewish) and universal implications. Salvation came from & first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles.

 

Caesar Agustus issued a decree that a census be taken of the entire world, really the empire because as far as the Romans were concerned that was the world. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor. This was the kind of census that required everyone to return to their ancestral home.

 

This is the earthly reason that Joseph needed to go from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea for the census, because he was from the house and lineage of king David, and that family line came from Bethlehem. Mary, pregnant and all, went with him to be registered because she was going to be his wife. That trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem was about 90 miles. Not quite as long as my pointless trip on the PCH, but at least we had a car, and my wife wasn’t 9 months pregnant!

 

Like Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and Cyrus king of Persia, Caesar Agustus served as an agent of God’s divine purpose. His census was the earthly driver of God’s divine plan to facilitate the Messiah, His Son, being born in the City of David, as prophesied long before by the prophet Micah in 5:2. The census was by God’s providence, because God’s Son had to be born in David’s city.

And while there, Mary goes into labor. So often in the nativity story it’s said that the inns were full, there was no room at the inn for them. The inn likely was a very public and crude place for caravans to spend the night, not exactly the place any woman in any time in history would want to give birth.

 

It’s not that Joseph and Mary were refused by a heartless innkeeper, it’s that there wasn’t a suitable place to give birth. I can’t imagine what passes for suitable if giving birth in a barn is good enough, but at least there was privacy there that they wouldn’t have had at the inn.

 

And so it happens that in the quiet of the night, Mary gives birth to a baby boy, her firstborn son. And she swaddled him and laid him in a manger, in the feeding trough of animals.

 

After the miraculous events surrounding the conception of this baby, Mary being a virgin, John in Elizabeth’s womb leaping for joy and the Holy Spirit inspired words of Elizabeth to Mary, this child is born in a barn. Maybe the next time someone asks if you were born in a barn you can take it as a compliment.

 

In the ancestral home of the greatest and most revered king in all of Jewish history, was born the King of kings. He should have been born in a palace, but instead in God’s sovereign plan Jesus the Christ is born in a barn and laid in a manger. There’s a very real truth to be gleaned from the irony of the most important birth in all of history taking place in a manger.

 

That truth is humility. In the City of David, the city of the king, is born the King of kings and He is born in a barn and placed in a manger. Rejecting the earthly splendor of kings, God’s Son is born in the humblest of circumstances. It reveals how God raises the lowly and humble and rejects the proud and mighty of this world. And that is the second them in our passage, and it carries us into the next scene. Let’s read Luke 2:8 – 14.

 

The story moves from the barn out into a field where shepherds were watching over their flock at night. Understand that what was once a revered and family profession, King David was himself a shepherd, had become a lowly and despised occupation. By the time of Jesus’ birth, many shepherds were often accused of theft and using land they had no rights to. Sounds a lot like the free grazers in the movie Open Range.

 

God didn’t choose wealthy rulers and religious leaders to be the first to hear the good news, to see the work of His hands, and to worship Him. He didn’t bring the elite of society to be present at the incarnation of the Son. Instead, God chose lowly shepherds, precisely the kind of people He sent His Son for, to seek and to save the lost. Only God would visit those in such a low station in life and elevate them to witness the coming of His salvation.

 

So, while they tended to their sheep, an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and God’s glory, His presence, shone around them. And as is par for the course with a theophany, the appearance of God on earth through a messenger, in this case an angel with no name, great fear and awe struck the shepherds. And in speaking to the shepherds, the angel presents the third theme in our Scripture passage today, Christ.

 

The angel reassures the shepherds, telling them to “fear not” and that he brings them good news of great joy for all the people. What was this good news? That on that day, the Messianic age was inaugurated, the time of salvation had begun. On that day, in the city of David, a Savior was born, Christ the Lord.

 

So much is contained about Jesus Christ in that one verse, verse 11. Christ was born, He took on human flesh, became fully man because He needed to make the perfect sacrifice for the sins of man. Being born in the city of David and being born to Joseph through Mary gave Jesus an earthly claim to the throne of David, to be the long promised Messiah, to be the Savior of God’s people, who’s name (and title) is Christ, the Lord.

 

What was greater about Jesus over the greatness of John the Baptist was rooted in who Jesus is. Who Jesus is, is indeed good news and cause of great joy. True joy centers not on something you earn or possess. True joy comes from God’s gift, this tiny baby in a feed trough in a barn. And this child, born in David’s town, holds heaven’s greatest titles in his tiny fist. Savior, Christ, and Lord. This baby in the manger is God Himself, with all power and authority under heaven.

 

The sign the angel gives the shepherds is that they’ll find Him as a baby lying in a manger, wrapped in swaddling cloths. There would be no mistaking this child because it wasn’t every day a baby was placed in a manger. And suddenly there joined them an angelic host, praising God, saying Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to His people.

It is truly significant when not just those with whom God is speaking praise Him, but all of creation sings praises to Him, including His angels. When John the Baptist was born, his father Zechariah prophesied. When Jesus Christ was born, an entire angelic host sang a doxology to God. How glorious and beautiful must that have been?

 

But angelic appearances don’t last forever. Angels leave, and people must respond. How would these shepherds, these outcasts whose only theological training came from the heavens and the field rather than from the synagogue and its rabbis? Let’s read the rest of our passage: Luke 2:15 – 21.

 

They get up and go! When they angels left them and returned to heaven, they looked at one another and immediately said let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that happened, that the Lord just made know to us. Don’t miss that, they knew enough to know God was present there in that field and He was the one who told them what He was doing, not the angels.

 

They recognized God’s presence in the angel speaking to them. And the dregs of society were immediately obedient. If only everyone who hears the gospel would respond like that. They heard the good news, and the Spirit of God drew them to be a part of what God was doing in his world, and when they found Mary and Joseph they got to see God, and His salvific work, in the face of the baby lying in a manger.

 

And while they found ultimate joy and satisfaction in meeting the Lord for themselves, they didn’t stop there. No, they felt compelled to tell the story of what they saw, to share the good news with everyone around. That is the most appropriate response to coming and bowing before Christ, to knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, to go and tell others. The gospel message was never meant to stay hidden with someone once they hear it and believe it; it must continue to be shared until it has spread across the whole earth.

 

Once they saw Jesus they made known to anyone who would listen what God had told them about this child, including Mary. And everyone who heard them wondered and were amazed at what they were saying. But Mary responded differently. She may not have understood fully in the moment what all of this meant, but she no doubt recognized her child’s divine calling and destiny.

The young woman who had carried the Lord within her for nine months now treasured these experiences and carried them in her heart, as each showed her something new and special about her son, confirming the greatness that Gabriel had promised her for this Son of David and Son of the Most High. Nothing was impossible with God.

 

And just like that, the shepherds went on their way, back to their field to tend their flock never to be seen or heard from again, but as they did so they went glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as God had told them it would be. Those shepherds have the best response anyone should have after meeting the Lord and witnessing God at work.

 

And finally, in accordance with the Law of Moses, on the eight day He was circumcised. And like John the Baptist, He was named on that day, Jesus, the name given to Him by God through the angel Gabriel before He was conceived. What a birth story. This is the beginning of the greatest story ever told, and it is such a glorious beginning.

 

Because of the glorious work of God through Christ, you can have peace with God, on earth and in heaven, and you ought to respond with praise.

 

I want to return to v.14 for a moment, because this is the key verse to this whole passage. The miraculous work of God taking on flesh through the virgin birth is certainly something worthy of praising God for. Like the angels, you should cry out, glory to God in the highest, but not because of the event, but because what the event signifies: your salvation.

 

The angel set up the heavenly chorus from the host of angels by telling the shepherds, and you and I through this Gospel, who Jesus is. Savior, Christ, and Lord. That truth has the ability to transform your life in ways you can’t even imagine, if you just believe in it and submit to it.

 

The peace on earth is peace from God, which is ultimately peace with God. Peace refers to the fullness of blessing which our Savior, Christ, and Lord brought to this earth. Because we were once enemies, at war with God, He brought us peace and reconciled us to Himself through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of His Son. It is a peace for those God is pleased with, those who believe in His Son. It is the salvation found in Christ alone that is the peace the angels praise God for.

The true majesty of the manger is found in the three main themes throughout this passage. They should encourage you in your own walk with God because each of them has an application to your life and should always lead to praising and glorifying God in the highest.

 

Trust in God’s sovereignty. His sovereignty should encourage you to place your trust in Him. Just look at how He moved throughout human history to bring about the birth of His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Even in the darkest and most silent of seasons and circumstances in your life, you can trust in God’s sovereignty.

 

Model Christ’s humility. His humility should drive you to your own humility. The King of kings was born in a stable, and instead of a throne He was placed in a manger. God’s glorious work came through the humblest of beginnings and was announced to the lowliest of people, shepherds, to go and see the face of God incarnate in a baby. Since Christ humbled himself and took on flesh in this humble way, humility must be a part of who you are in Christ.

 

Put your faith in Jesus. He is Savior, Christ, and Lord. Recognizing those truths about Jesus is foundational to your life as a Christian. Because Jesus is precisely who Scripture says He is, you should give all your life to Him, not just part of it, but all of it. Because when you do the miraculous happens, you have peace with God, reconciled to Him forever. You are saved.

 

And it is your salvation in Christ alone that should compel you to praise God, not just on Christmas but every day, but especially on Christmas.

 

Merry Christmas everyone.

 

Let’s pray.