“And this is the sign unto you: Ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:12
We have learned to judge the seasons of the year by all kinds of sights and sounds around us. Recently, prior to the Thanksgiving season, we saw shocks of corn and pumpkins and the horn-of-plenty on display in many places, symbolizing the harvest from the land. Weeks before the Easter season we are confronted with a barrage of advertisements for the latest Spring fashions, along with the bunny and the basket. And the signs of Christmas are plainly evident even before the Thanksgiving leftovers are consumed. The world has learned to capitalize on these special days, and we have learned to identify them with ample signs appropriate to the season.
Most all of the popular signs of Christmas around us today do little, however, to point us to its real meaning. Were some stranger, totally unfamiliar with the Christmas message, to visit your city or community, would he be able to be pointed to the heart of Christmas by reading the signs he sees around him? Would he be led 10 believe that the success of the season is determined by the size of the sales receipts and the value of the gift given or received, or would he really he pointed to the Christ? I have a hunch that the former would be considerably more obvious than the latter.
When the shepherds who were caring for their flocks on the hills of Bethlehem received the message about Christ’s birth, they were given a sign by which they would be able to identify Jesus upon arrival in Bethlehem. They may have been surprised at the nature of that sign, for it hardly seemed compatible with the greatness and glory of the One to whom it pointed. “And this is the sign . . . a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes . . . lying in a manger.”
What! Can this be true? An announcement from the lips of an angel, telling about the Savior who is Christ the Lord, and that this should be confirmed by the sign of swaddling clothes and a manger? Is this the birth of a king or a pauper? Shall divine royalty be signified by such lowliness? Is this for real?
Yes, it is! And properly so! For this is God identifying with man, God becoming man. This is God taking on flesh and blood for the purpose of redemption. The image-bearer of God had become a sinner, and for the sinner to be restored to fellowship with God, it was first of all necessary for God to become man. And this lowly birth in a humble manner could only serve to confirm this complete identification. When God becomes man, it is not in the royal palace in Jerusalem that the event occurs, but in an unsuspecting place and the lowliest of all surroundings. There is no “looking-down-the-nose” in this reconciling work of God, but there is a “coming down” to effect a “lifting up.” He became like us in order to restore us to fellowship with Him. And so, though the sign spoken of by the angel to the shepherds may have surprised them (and us), it was altogether appropriate.
And how important it is for us in all the frenzy of this Christmas season to remember what it is we are celebrating. To draw attention to that may seem wholly unnecessary, and yet it so important that repetition is vital. We are not immune to the secularization of the season. By the time this special day arrives, we may find ourselves so weary and worn by all the shopping and buying, the planning and the parties, the feasting and celebrating, that we haven‘t had time to meditate on the central event of Christmas. And if that is true for liS, then the season meant to be a blessing—turns out to be more of a curse.
Oh yes, let us celebrate to he sure. Let us rejoice in the “good tidings of great joy” which is ours to know and share. And let there be no silencing of the praise and prayers of thanksgiving in response to this greatest of all gifts.
But at the same time, let us make sure these things are genuine. And it will help us to be more genuine if we remember the sign accompanying His coming and which was to identify the Savior to the shepherds—the swaddling clothes and the manger. As Paul wrote in n Corinthians 8:9, “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich.”
Christmas makes us very rich, neither because we give so much nor get so much in terms of material gifts, but because our Lord Jesus was willing to become a “babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.” May that sign point us to Him anew this Christmas.