Advent Day 17
THE LIGHT AND THE MANGER
Thousands of years led to this moment. The heavenly hosts waited in eager anticipation and held their breath. We all know the story. Mary and Joseph were alone on the outskirts of Bethlehem—only they weren’t alone. Joseph’s whole family would have arrived for the same census. They seem to have remained unconvinced by the tales of angels and immaculate conceptions. They offered no refuge to the laboring mother except the family stable.
Mary would have lived in two realities at once. On the one hand, she was the least fortunate woman in the world. She entered labor while riding the back of a donkey, traveling in a strange country, scorned by her in-laws. The pangs of labor would have been accompanied by anxiety and exhaustion. Joseph must have struggled with rising dread as they passed each home, and each new onlooker failed to offer hospitality to his struggling wife. When finally the boy was born, they placed him in a dirty manger, for there was nowhere else to place him.
On the other hand, Mary was the most fortunate woman in history. Her son would be King forever. He was the very presence of God. She did not have to fear miscarriage, or SIDS, or sickness, or death, because the boy had the promises of God. Mary would have lived at that point where both these realities overlapped, and faith in God’s promises invited her from the first reality into the second.
When at last Jesus arrived, the gospel author Luke placed special emphasis on him as the firstborn. This is strange because God had rarely used firstborns. Firstborns were favored by ancient cultures, but God generally chose the unfavorable. Scripture is full of latter-born and lastborn siblings, like Able, Seth, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Judah, Ephraim, Moses, David, and Solomon. Almost every time siblings are mentioned in the Bible, God chooses the younger in direct violation of the cultural norms. In some cases, God made this extra obvious, like when Jacob crisscrossed his arms to bless Ephraim and Manasseh, physically depicting the reversal of the expected blessing. Or recall David’s brothers being passed over, one at a time, so that David, the youngest, could finally be selected as God’s king.
But Jesus is the firstborn. It’s almost like the whole story of Scripture was saving this special honor for him alone. For millennia, God had invited his people to follow the ways of younger brothers, and here at the climax of the story—at the dawn of the new Kingdom—we see why. The spot of the firstborn was already taken. The Scripture would later reflect on this, calling Jesus the firstborn among many brothers (Romans 8:29). Now all of us, regardless of birth order or any other kind of privilege or pedigree, are called to yield our place and join his family.
Jesus is the light of the world. He was born in fulfillment of eons of echoing prophetic promises. Jesus is the Crusher of Evil, the Lion of Judah, the King from David who shall reign forever. Jesus is the Suffering Servant of God, the virgin’s Son, the Light dawning in the darkness. Jesus was, and shall always be, Emmanuel, God with us—the very presence of God born as a human.
As many generations have sung, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight!”
DAILY SCRIPTURE READING
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 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 2:1-7
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things.
– Colossians 1:13-20
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
– Mary had to choose between two realities, two stories—the one she saw with her eyes, and the one she saw by faith. Do you feel torn between competing stories about reality?
– In ancient cultures, firstborn sons typically received primary authority and a double share of the family inheritance. Why do you think God resisted this cultural impulse to favor firstborns?
– Jesus perfectly fulfilled the many seemingly contradicting promises of God. Why do you think many leaders of his day failed to follow him?
– Biblical peace comes when we realize that the finished work of Christ is ours. Our security does not rest on our own effort or pedigree, but on God’s promises and Christ’s work. Is it difficult to lay down your privilege and pedigree to follow Jesus? Are you willing to?
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, you are the King of heaven, yet when you came to earth, you stooped down to the dust. You humbled yourself as an outcast within your own family. You felt our shame. You were despised and rejected. But Jesus, we praise you that you are king forever. May our hearts be humbled as we consider how you were humbled. There is no one like you. We love you, Lord Jesus. Amen!