Away in a manger

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

This is usually the image that people think of when they envision the birth of Jesus. Docile creatures, angelic looking parents and a baby Jesus that looks more like He is from Toledo than Bethlehem. In actuality, the below picture is more like the real birthplace of our Savior.

For whatever reason we have altered the truth of Christmas to fit what we believe Jesus' birth should have looked like, and it's not like it started in the 21st century, this type of art has been around for centuries. It makes us feel better or something, to know that Mary and Joseph were both attractive people, that the animals didn't gore them, baby Jesus didn't really need anything more than a blanket on that cold winter night in Bethlehem, and that everyone involved was filled with peace, tranquility and happiness. Personally, I like the true version more. This little baby was being hunted, he was a fugitive. Although He may have been a cute baby, Isaiah says that He would be a plain looking guy. He was an underdog. He was born into a land that was ruled by a tyrannical government that wanted to control and abuse His people, and specifically wanted Him dead. Not only that, but His idea of victory didn't fit with most of His countrymen. Victory meant death.

“The truth is, a kernel of wheat must be planted in the soil. Unless it dies it will be alone--a single seed. But its death will produce many new kernels--a plentiful harvest of new lives.” (John 12:24)

Jesus was the answer to 400 years of silence. The Old Testament prophets usually told the Nation of Israel to change their ways, or the Lord would change it for them. But after the prophet Malachi, the Lord hadn't said a word for more than 400 years. Jesus was a resounding exclamation point to the words of the prophets, but a baby in a manger, born in a cave, hunted by the government and rejected by an innkeeper, who would eventually be accused, beaten and slain didn't look anything like what the Jewish leaders were looking for. Nobody could make this stuff up.

The two most prominent religious sects, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, believed that the Messiah was going to restore them to power over the Roman Empire, and a little baby born to immigrant peasants did not fit the bill, which shouldn't really surprise us, time and again Jesus worked in non-conventional ways that didn't make sense to the people around Him. The fact is, God sent His only Son into a broken world that rejected Him. From the beginning to the end, from the inn keeper to Herod, this world rejected Him. And even though many of us just love the romanticized version of His birth, His death is what marks our redemption.

“He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:2-3)