Born in a stable

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2: 6 – 7

If there is one thing that almost everyone knows about the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus, whether they be Christian or not is that Jesus was born in a stable and placed in a manger or feeding trough.  They may know little else but stables and mangers are usually remembered.

Various people have commented that Joseph should have been able to find accommodation with his relatives in Bethlehem which would have been the normal thing in those days but that because of the great number of people in Bethlehem for the census, there was no spare room.  The BBC series called The Nativity went further and gave the reason that there was no room was because Mary had become pregnant outside of marriage so Joseph and Mary were ostracised by family and society.

I expect Mary had been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism and unkindness about her baby. It was shocking in those days to become pregnant before marriage but Joseph had honourably still married her and brought her under his protection. However I expect there would have been a lot of knowing looks and comments behind her back if not to her face.

So Mary ended up in a stable or more likely a cave to give birth to the Son of God. I don’t know about you but I would be devastated to have had any of my children born in a stable.  Mary knew who this baby was and for 9 months she had literally had the Son of God growing inside her.  Now at his moment of birth she ended up not in a nice guest room but outside of the family and society with the animals.

However God takes what appears a humiliation of giving birth in a stable and turns it into a sign that makes people wonder. When the angel told the shepherds a Saviour has been born, he identifies the baby as ‘wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.’ It wasn’t the rich, famous or religious leaders who come to see Jesus but the poor of society and they found the baby because he was in a manger and not comfortable in the guest room of a house.

Today God will take our humble beginnings, our lack of education or broken family, the things that others may consider weak and shameful and turn them into signs of wonder. Jesus used rough, illiterate fishermen to found his church and this too became a sign of wonder. When they (religious leaders) saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Acts 4: 13

Jesus, the Lord of glory, was not diminished by being born in a stable and lowly beginnings do not need to hold us back either. The very fact of his lowly birth is what makes Jesus known today. It may not have been Mary’s ideal place to give birth but the manger became not a shameful but a glorious place because of the presence of the baby born there.  Our circumstances, our lives can also become glorious as the presence of Jesus touches and changes them.

This will be a sign to you

When Jesus was born, an angel told the shepherds that, ‘a Saviour has been born to you, He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger’ (Luke 2: 11 – 12).  Then, just in case an angel appearing with a message was not enough, suddenly the heavenly host appeared singing praises to God.  That got the shepherds on their way! Then when they saw that what the angel had said was true, they told everyone about it. 

The Bible is full of signs and wonders.  Noah was given the rainbow as a sign of the covenant that God would never again flood the earth and that the seasons would follow on one after another. Abraham was told to circumcise the men and this too would be a sign of the covenant.  Fearful Moses was given signs to help him persuade the Israelites that the God of their fathers had not forgotten them. Then both the Israelites and Egyptians wondered and marvelled at the signs God did as he released his people from bondage. No one was in any doubt who was the Lord.

Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Eli, Samuel, Saul, Hezekiah and many more were given signs to show God’s working.  Then Jesus came full of signs and wonders and taught his disciples to do likewise.  Signs can be incredible things and reveal marvellous miracles but signs are just that – signs.  They indicate or point to something else.  A road sign is not the destination – it points to the destination.  Even a town or city sign is not what people come to see but shows they have arrived.  They then look at the place and its attractions or find the person they have come to see.  No one goes to a place to look at a sign. 

There is a marvellous increase in signs, wonders and miracles today.  God is healing people, setting them free, releasing them from bondages and we must seek to be used by God increasingly in this area.  But the signs are only indications that God is at work.  They show that the Kingdom of Heaven is amongst us.  They are not the destination.  Jesus is. 

The religious people in Jesus’ day wanted more signs to help them believe but no matter how many signs they had, their hard hearts would never believe.  They didn’t need any more signs.  They had the one the signs pointed to standing before them but due to unbelief they could not see that.  Those that looked at the signs and saw the Messiah came to saving faith.  Those that looked at the signs and asked for more, never came to faith.

Let us eagerly pursue more signs, wonders and miracles not as a destination in themselves but as an indication that God is amongst us, loves us and wants to reveal himself increasingly to a hurt and broken world.  Let God use you today to show his love through signs and wonders that many will come to know that the Kingdom and the King is amongst us.