Christmas Eve
“She Laid Him In a Manger”
St. Luke 2:7
24 December 2014 – Redeemer
And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Luke 2:7
She laid him in a manger. A manger is not an ancient crib. It isn’t a soft bed that would make for an Anne Geddes baby picture. It’s a food trough – gnarly wood, worn and weathered by animals, hair, splinters, cow drool and pig snot. You wouldn’t put your baby there, but Mary had no choice. She laid him in a manger because she gave birth in corral or stable because that’s where mangers are. We’d like to think it was a stable because then at least the holy family would have a roof over their heads.
The manger is a crib of necessity. Mary doesn’t have anything else. She laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn. With those words Saint Luke is putting the best construction on the situation. There were dozens of places in the inn, if only someone would have said, “You know what – this very pregnant mother needs a room more than we do.”
There’s a Christmas sermon in the manger – a sermon preached to us and a sermon that preaches Jesus for us.
What does the manger preach to us? The manger preaches our rejection of God – or as God simply calls it “sin.” We could become self-righteous about all those guests at the Holiday Inn Express in Bethlehem that first Christmas Eve, but would you have been any different? Would you have given your place for Jesus?
Taking a cue from one my pastor friends let me ask you to complete this sentence – the real meaning of Christmas is fill in the blank. Now being in church you might have put something about God or Jesus in the blank, so let me pose the sentence another way. This Christmas I am most looking forward to fill in the blank. Now you probably put one of the great joys of this season in the blank. Being generous with gifts and charity. Taking time to gather with my family. Setting down our iPads and smartphones long enough to play a card game or watch some classic Christmas movie together. Enjoying food and drink and sweets. Or you might say “This Christmas I am most looking forward to it being over.” You’re exhausted trying to please every relative and hide every problem in your attempt to pull off a Normal Rockwell Christmas dinner. Where does this (being in the Lord’s house) come on the list? Is this important to you? Is this necessary for you? I’m not talking about coming to Church on Christmas Eve for this most memorable service in this most beautiful sanctuary. I’m talking about this God in a diaper, this God in the manger, this God on the cross, being part and parcel of your life, having a place at the Christmas tree, at your dinner table, in your marriage and family, when there’s peace on earth and when all hell is breaking loose.
In many ways, even in our joy at God’s good gifts, we are telling Jesus, “Sorry. I really don’t have room for you – but if you want to camp out in the barn that’s fine. Just not too close because my calendar is booked and my life is full of me.”
Repent for the manger preaches that you have no place for Jesus and if you do, it’s out back in the stable, in the manger, where he won’t bother you too much. Then rejoice because that same manger proclaims that God has taken your place to make room for you in His home.
What does the manger preach? God has become a man. Is it any wonder the shepherds came huffing and puffing to the manger, or that the wise men journeyed from Babylon to Bethlehem. It is not every day that a God becomes a man. Actually it never happened in the history of any other world religion. There is no event like the conception of God in the Virgin’s womb and the birth of God made flesh in Bethlehem. We ought to worship on our knees tonight, or perhaps face down on the floor. God took up residence in human flesh, in the same flesh that you have, born in the same way you were, except His mother was a Virgin.
What does the manger preach? The manger preaches that the work of Jesus is suffering. The rough and smelly wood of the manger points to the rough and smelly wood of the cross. He is rejected at his birth – no room in the inn. He is rejected at his death – no room in Jerusalem. He is rejected at the cross – because there’s no room in heaven for a sinner, and He becomes the sinner for us, the chief sinner, the sole sinner, the Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world into death and hell.
What does the manger preach? The manger preaches the good news of great joy. God has not rejected you. He has not set you aside. He has come in the flesh for your flesh. He comes an infant to undo the sin you were born with. He grows to adulthood in perfect righteousness to fulfill every commandment that you broke as a child, a teen, an adult. He dies on the cross to atone for your sin and He lays in the grave to pay the price of your misdeeds. Then, as He came forth from the womb pure and holy, He comes forth from the tomb risen and living.
What does the manger preach? It preaches the God you need. Whatever you receive tonight under the tree will bore you by tomorrow. Eat all you want tonight. You’ll be hungry in the morning You might push aside your fears and pain and sorrow for a day or two over Christmas, but they’ll come back like night follows day. You need Jesus. He came for you. He came to take your sins away, worst, first, favorite – He takes them all, away! Jesus endured rejection, hatred, abuse, and suffering, including the wrath of heaven – for one reason – you, that you would have a Father in heaven who pursued you, chose you, loved you, and redeemed you to be His own. Jesus came to bring hope – as sure as Jesus was born around 2000 years ago, as sure as He died on a cross (and the Romans made sure he was dead), as sure as He rose again (and about 500 people saw him – that’s a pretty good cloud of witnesses), so you can be sure of this – because Jesus was born, died, and rose – you are forgiven and forgiven you have life with God, and having life with God, He will raise you from the dead on the last day, and being raised you will be free of the sin that clings to your flesh, free of the tears that flow so frequently in life, free from the sorrow and fear of death. Because of Jesus you most certainly have a place with your Father in heaven.
She laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. There is a sermon in that manger – a sermon of our rejection and of God’s gift, of our sin and God’s Savior, of our pushing God away and of His drawing near to us. Hear that sermon and believe that God has come for you, to forgive you and make a place for you in His home – in the name of Jesus. Amen.