“Bible places: the Manger”
Luke 2:12
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
In an article entitled, The Five Most Famous Beds in Contemporary Art, the author writes, “The bed is the place where we fall asleep or where we toss and turn if we’re distressed. It’s the place where we contemplate our mistakes, where we hope to wake up with all the solutions, and where we relive our joys. If our bed could talk, it could perfectly describe us, tell our stories and our experiences; it could easily describe our character, our fears, and our deepest desires.”
Throughout history, there have been many famous beds. One of the most famous is “The Great Bed of Ware.” It’s a huge, four-poster bed, ten feet by eleven, big enough to hold fifteen people. Shakespeare even mentioned it in his play, Twelfth Night, and so did Lord Byron in his Don Juan.
“Beds-Ins for Peace” is another famous bed, where John Lennon and Yoko Ono once spent two weeks to protest the Vietnam War. And you can still see it today. Just stop by the Amsterdam Hilton and ask for Room #902.
And there’s Tracey Emin’s “My Bed.” Apparently, back in 1998, she underwent severe depression and, for three days, refused to leave her bed. When she finally did, and saw the mess she made, she exhibited it as art. Believe it or not, it sold back in 2014 for a little over $3 million.
Walt Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks had a bed, and so did Vincent Van Gogh in his yellow house in Arles. He featured it in his paintings three times. And in the fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea, she too had a bed, some twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds high.
Even the Bible happens to mention a rather famous bed. Moses wrote about it in Deuteronomy chapter 3. He said, “King Og of Bashan was the last of the giant Rephaites. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide.” And he wrote, “It can still be seen in the Ammonite city of Rabbah.”
But certainly the most important bed, the most famous one of all, is the one that’s found in the words of Luke chapter 2. Please turn to page 1090 to see what I mean.
I’ll start where it says, “The Shepherds and the Angels,” Luke chapter 2, verses 8: “And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’”
Today, we often forget just how surprised the shepherds must have been to hear the angels’ news. A Savior was born! The Lord was here! The Messiah had come!
But where would they find Him, and how would they know that He, out of all the babies in Bethlehem, was the One?
Verse 12: “And this will be a sign for you…”
“A sign,” they said. It’s a word we often find in the Bible—something miraculous, something extraordinary, something that shows the power and the presence of God.
In the book of Joshua chapter 10, at God’s command, the sun stood still. That was a sign. In Exodus 14, Moses raised his staff, and the Red Sea became dry ground. In Exodus 17, he struck a rock, and water flowed. In II Kings 6, an iron axe head floated on the water. And in Daniel 3, when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fiery furnace, they didn’t even smell like smoke.
And as Jesus lived and worked among us, He too performed signs. He changed water into wine, He cursed a fig tree, and it shriveled up. He fed thousands with five loaves and a couple of fish, and calmed a storm on the sea.
Those were signs. They showed the power and the presence of God.
And now as angels greet shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem, they said: “And this will be a sign unto you…”
So what would it be? How would they know that He was the One? Would the sun stand still? Would the moon refuse to shine?
This is what they said: “You will find a Baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
A Baby? Wrapped in swaddling cloths? Lying in a manger? What kind of sign is that?
It’s been said that Christmas is full of surprises. Even though you’ve heard the Christmas story and sung every carol countless times, it’s still full of surprise.
You know the story, about Mary and Joseph, about the angel Gabriel, and about Caesar’s decree. You know about their dangerous journey to Bethlehem, the star, and the wise men from the East. You know about Herod’s insanity and their last-second flight into Egypt.
But even though Christmas is so familiar, it’s still full of unexpected surprise.
Who would have thought that God would come as a Baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger?
Think of it! Until that night in Bethlehem, all Jesus had known were the sights and the sounds of heaven. Unlimited power and glory were at His disposal. He placed stars in the sky. Yet now He rests in a cold, dark cave, with animals, manure, and straw.
And what would be His bed, the place He would spend His very first night? Would it be a feather mattress, a royal crib?
Not a chance. It was nothing more than a rock-hewn feeding trough, a cold manger bed.
And so were fulfilled the words of the prophet Isaiah: “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” And the words of John: “He came to His own, but His own received Him not.”
As one author wrote: “Jesus was born in that cold, dark place, because He had no desire to be sheltered from the harsh realities of life of this fallen world of ours. He wanted to experience human life in all it’s blue collar boldness.” And in the words of Martin Luther: “He whom the worlds cannot enwrap, yonder lies in Mary’s lap.”
Do you find it hard to make ends meet? Jesus didn’t even have a place to lay His head. Have you known discrimination or oppression? He was a refugee before His first birthday. Have you known ridicule or rejection? It was part of His daily life. Abandonment? In His greatest time of need, His closest friends fled. Emotional trauma? Physical pain? He endured far more than we will ever know.
“This will be a sign unto you,” the angels said. God’s answer to the trials and troubles of a lost, corrupt, sin-sick world—a Babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.
The scene is Hodgenville, Kentucky. The earth is covered in snow. And beside a split-rail fence stands an old pioneer. His long flintlock rifle rests on his shoulder, and his shivering dog, with its tail tucked between its legs, stands knee-deep in the snow. And to the right of that old pioneer is another old codger sitting on his mule. Frost chills the air.
And as they talk to one another, the old timer says, “Any news from down in the village, Ezra?”
“Well,” he replied from the top of his mule, “Squire McClain’s gone to Washington to see Madison sworn in as president, and old man Spellman down here tells me this Napoleon Bonaparte feller has captured most of Spain. What’s the news out here, neighbor?”
And the old codger replied, “Nothing at all, except for a new baby born down at Tom Lincoln’s. Nothing ever happens out here; nothing at all.”
It’s funny if you think about it. Who could have known that as Madison was sworn in, and Napoleon stormed across Europe, the quietest, most unadvertised thing that could have happened was that a little baby was born in a log cabin out in the wilderness?
But that boy was Abraham Lincoln.
Why was Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger?
So little children could come, for He was once a Child Himself. So young women could come, for Mary was a young woman, God’s instrument for bringing Christ into the world. So young men could come, for Jesus was a young man who had great faith in God. So old women could come, for Anna was an old woman who longed for the coming of the Lord. So old men could come, for aged Simeon waited for the consolation of Israel. So working men and women could come, because shepherds too came to Bethlehem. And so the learned could come, for wise men once knelt to worship their King.
In the words of a poem: “From the mansions eternal to a bed made of hay, I can picture that manger where the newborn King lay. From the pride of His heaven to my sin and my shame, I can hear my salvation in the sound of His name. I can picture that manger on the first Christmas Day, and I know what God traded for a world gone astray. From that innocent Baby to the guilt of the lost, I can picture that manger as it shadows the cross.”
He was born to die, that we may live. His strength for our weakness. His riches for our poverty.
Thanks be to God.
As we come to celebrate Christmas, dear Father, grant us the grace to find hope, peace, and joy at the manger, for Jesus’ sake. Amen