The Empty Manger

As I mentioned before, Karen and my decorating for Christmas has been pretty sparse this year. Our outside lights are up, but our main tree has just one ornament besides its built-in lights. There are one or two snowmen in view (not the melty type), and one nativity scene. Without company coming, and us still dealing with my sister’s stuff, the idea of getting out bins of decorations for a couple weeks just didn’t do much for us this year.

And then there’s the little wooden stable I made years ago for my sister. It sits in full view in our family room, but what’s left of the balsa-wood figures I made for that nativity scene are still wrapped up somewhere. So it sits empty: empty stable, empty manger.

One day, Karen looked up at it and said, “The manger is empty. Jesus isn’t in it.” To which I replied, without even thinking through what I was saying, “He’s not here; he has risen!” I hadn’t meant to quote Luke 24:6 (or its parallels in Matthew and Mark), but as soon as I said it, I realized how profound a statement that could be. Jesus is not here in the manger anymore; the manger is empty, as is the cross and the tomb. All are empty, because after they fulfilled the purposes which they played, Christ went on to fulfill his purpose, and provide us forgiveness and eternal life. Each played a part in his journey, but though he spent time in each, none could hold him forever.

Note that all three were man-made objects which were fashioned for earthly purposes: the manger as a feed trough for animals (and the stable to hold and shelter them), the cross as a brutal execution device to kill criminals and terrorize the population into obedience, and the tomb, as the burial chamber for a dead person. Man-made and -purposed, yet God took those objects and used them to fulfill his plan of salvation for you and me, and a multitude of other believers.

The manger. Do you realize that if God had wanted Jesus to be born in more comfortable surroundings, he would have made sure there was room for Mary and Joseph in the inn? But he didn’t; he chose the stable for their shelter and Jesus’ birthplace, and the manger for the newborn’s bed. It was part of God’s plan that Jesus would be of humble birth and childhood; not a social celebrity well-connected to the wealthy and influential of his day. He would be welcomed by humble, unclean shepherds in a stable, and grow up the son of a carpenter, eventually to not even have a home of his own. (Matthew 8:20 -“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”)

In addition, I think that the manger was significant because it was where food was placed for the animals to eat. Jesus said of himself, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  (John 6:51) As in Holy Communion, Jesus offers up himself as our life-living bread from heaven – his flesh for our salvation. Again, in God’s working all things for his purposes, Bethlehem was not only the “City of David” and home to an ancestor of Jesus, who happened to start out as a humble shepherd named David; the name Bethlehem literally means, “House of Bread.” Appropriate for the first earthly home of the living bread come down from heaven to give us life.

The manger fulfilled its purpose: to cradle the Christ-child with earthly and symbolic shelter, but it couldn’t hold him forever; if that child had not grown up and gone on to die on a cross and rise from the dead, we wouldn’t be celebrating just another child born into poverty in some obscure back-water of a country, over 2020 years ago. If that manger still exists, it is now empty.

The cross. While we feel all warm and fuzzy looking on scenes of the babe lying in a manger, surrounded by Mary, Joseph, shepherds, sheep and cattle (and an angel hovering overhead), the cross hits us with horror and revulsion. Especially if we consider what happened there, and not think of the cross as a nice, symmetrical piece of shiny jewelry. Echoing what the ancient patriarch Joseph said to his brothers who had sold him into slavery in Egypt, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). So it was with the cross: something contrived to be evil, and the placing of Jesus on it an act of even greater evil; yet God intended and used that evil act for our good.

As is so often the case, people think they are in charge, and do things for their own purposes, but even their evil intentions fulfill God’s plans. They wanted to get rid of a trouble-maker; God allowed the death of his Son to atone for the sins of the world and provide us a way to forgiveness and eternal life. Without the sacrifice of the innocent Jesus, we would still be lost in our sins and doomed for eternity. But because Jesus went to the cross and willingly paid the price for our sins, we have hope – and a Church called by his name.

There has been some debate among Christians as to whether crosses should be bare, showing Christ is risen, or adorned with images of the dying Christ (in what is called a crucifix). I think both carry important messages, one a reminder that Jesus did suffer and die on the cross, and the other that Christ died once and for all time at Golgotha, and never again. I have no issue with either form, for we do not worship the cross, but the One who died on it.

One more thought about the cross: notice the differences between the birth and death of our Lord: in the one, Jesus was held and sheltered by a wooden box; in the other, he hung and died on a wooden cross. During the one, a supernatural light appeared, both with the angels and from the star; during the other, a supernatural darkness covered the land. One a celebration of joy, peace, and goodwill; the other of sadness and evil. And yet, like the manger, the cross couldn’t hold Jesus; if it had, we wouldn’t call that day, Good Friday.

The tomb. Finally, we come to consider the tomb in which Jesus was laid. It, too, had a human intention, a purpose for which it had been hewn from the rock.  Specifically, it belonged to a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea, but when Jesus was killed, Joseph offered his unused tomb for the Lord’s burial. (I wonder if he knew he was only lending it to Jesus for a couple days .  . .).

The tomb fulfilled God’s purposes as well: first, by providing visible proof that Jesus was dead; second, by providing a situation where Jesus’ enemies guarded the body under their watch to make sure the disciples didn’t steal the body; and third, to prove Jesus had bodily resurrected from the dead in a miraculous way, attended by angels and an earthquake (Matthew 28:2). When the disciples rushed to the tomb and found it empty except for Jesus’ grave clothes, they knew he had risen. (Thought: Jesus had been wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger; now he had been wrapped in burial cloths and laid in a tomb. You could say he “outgrew” both!)

Well, we know the rest of the story about the tomb: though closed by a stone, marked with a seal, and guarded by soldiers, the tomb was empty on the third day. Jesus appeared alive to the women, to the disciples, and to 500 followers at one time (not to mention to Paul, “as to one untimely born” – 1 Corinthians 15:5-8). The empty tomb was one proof of Jesus’ resurrection, and the sign that he had overcome death, our final enemy.

Because the tomb was empty, we can celebrate the empty manger and the empty cross; if the tomb had remained filled with Jesus’ lifeless body, there would be no celebration of Christmas, Good Friday, or Easter. There would be no Christian Church, no hope of life after death, and no promise of forgiveness nor proof of God’s love. And no Pastor Eddy’s blog, but that’s the least of our worries!

I hope you celebrate Christmas, keeping in mind the life journey of our Lord Jesus Christ, who came into the world, humbling himself to a manger, a cross, and a tomb, only to rise triumphantly, leaving them all empty behind him, ascending to heaven and awaiting God’s appointed time for his return. Only this time, he won’t need a manger, a cross, or a tomb.

We hope you have a very blessed and Merry Christmas!

Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you ad give you peace. Amen.

Read: Luke 2:1-21; John 6:22-51; 1 Corinthians 15; Matthew 27:45-66