A “Sign”? : A New View of the Nativity Scene
Luke 2: 1-19
As we read the Christmas story in Luke 2: 1-19, it is such a familiar passage that it is easy to just blow through it without deeply considering about it. Year after year, Christmas after Christmas, we have heard this passage quoted so many times we can just about cite it verbatim. The biblical Christmas story becomes so often repeated that we assume we already know the story and fail to ask questions and dig deeper into some of the rich insights that God would have for us. We sometimes settle for sameness rather than searching out the many mysteries that the mind of God has for us.
But, let’s do something different this year. Let’s read it afresh and anew, as if we were reading for the first time without all the assumptions we usually have when we come to these verses.
[Read Luke 2:1-19; KJV]
Christmas Under Attack
It’s that time again for the annual anti-Nativity scene onslaught. You probably have heard how a judge struck down the annual Christmas displays in Santa Monica due to some atheist protestors. Each year Christmas is under attack by proponents of the purported “separation of church and state.” If we are to believe these secular extremists, Americans are supposed to celebrate the multicultural “diversity” of all religious and belief systems, EXCEPT Christianity.
Consequently, this social and political controversy has lead to the banishment of public displays of the Nativity scene. They have been banned as a uniquely Christian icon, and this restriction has been rationalized that they might be offensive to other religions in society.
One adversary said it was because “little kids seeing a manger display just might develop a curiosity about this baby Jesus.” (1) Whoa! ... How dangerous! Indeed, liberal politics has been the driving force behind the crusade against Christmas. (2)
New York City public schools banned Nativity scenes, while allowing other religious symbols. In a lawsuit brought against them by the Thomas More Law Center, Richard Thompson, the chief counsel stated,
“When you disallow the Nativity scene by calling it religious and allow other symbols categorized as religious, then you are underlying the fact [that] it becomes a less favorable religion…[and it] shows a callous indifference and hostility towards Christians during one of their holiest seasons…. This policy relegates Christians to second class citizens.” (3)
Indeed, our present post-modern culture is attempting to dismiss Christianity as a non-relevant and extremist religion.
A resident of Miami-Dade County, Florida noted that a nativity scene had been excluded from the prominent holiday display at a public building, while Jewish and Kwanzaa symbols were present. She inquired and was informed that only “non-religious seasonal symbols were permitted” and private individuals had donated the other icons. (4) When she offered to provide a nativity display at her own expense, she was declined because “a Christmas display would violate the ‘separation between church and state.” (5) What an irony! Other religious symbols are allowed, but the supposed “separation between church and state” (which is not in the Constitution) forbids Christian Nativity scenes.
Since society has become so adamant in restricting Nativity scenes, we should revisit what is so powerful about the scene of Christ’s birth that the secular culture is so adverse to them.
Why would Nativity scenes be particularly attacked? Why would our culture be so threatened by Nativity scenes to try to ban them? It is because Nativity scenes depict the second most powerful Christian scene – the incarnation that God “became flesh and dwelt among us.” The first most powerful Christian symbol of course is the cross.
But, it is also because there are powerful pictures God has embedded in the Nativity scene, and the enemy knows this. He wants to deceive our culture away from the deeper significance God would have us see in the birth of Christ. Our culture has concealed from us what God has revealed in the mystery of Christmas.
When we examine the Nativity scene more deeply, we find that the scene of Christ’s birth has been changed, and these alterations which typically depict Christ’s birth distract us away from the original scene. These changes, even done by religious traditions, have deceived us away from the important and significant spiritual truths God has embedded in the Nativity scene.
So, while society wishes to restrict our Christian portrayals of Christmas, instead we need to unveil the mysteries embedded in the biblical Christmas story which would point others toward the True Purpose of Christmas- that Jesus is our Reason for the Season. When we see the spiritual symbolism and significance that God has provided in this sign of Christmas, our hearts will awaken to the richness God has used in the very simple elements of swaddling clothes and the manger to demonstrate His power … and plan.
Signs of Christmas
We all look for signs of Christmas, don’t we? We notice when our favorite stores first put out their Christmas displays, which seems to be earlier and earlier each year. We watch for when Christmas lights begin to go up in shopping centers and on city streets. Radio stations start to play Christmas music wall-to-wall. Magazines and newspapers advertise Christmas sales. Parties and get-togethers are planned. We look forward to the rituals of the season.
Why do we have such anticipation for Christmas? What are we looking for? Are we reenacting the expectancy that wise people long ago had in looking for the Messiah? For God coming to Earth in the flesh?
We also start thinking about Nativity scenes and the Christmas story, and we reflect on the traditions we have heard from this Christmas story in Luke 2. So, let’s take a fresh look at this all-too-familiar passage in Luke 2.
Notice that God as the Author of all scripture seems to repeat Himself that the baby Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manager.
We are told in verse 7: “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7). But, in verse 12 the angels announced Jesus’ birth to the shepherds saying, "And this shall be a sign to you: Ye will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger" (Luke 2:12). We already know from verse 7 that the babe is wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. Why is this phrase repeated? Now, it could be argued that this description was necessary to include so the shepherds knew what to look for and where to look for The Child.
But then, scripture seems to repeat this again once more in verse 16 as if to emphasize it; “And they (the shepherds) came with haste and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger” (Luke 2:16). Why were we told again that the Babe was lying in a manger when we were already told this twice before?
This is particularly unusual and curious because “every word of God is pure” (Proverbs 30:5). God does not waste words when He writes. He includes precisely what He wants and excludes what He does not. John 21:25 reminds us, “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (NKJV). So, why would God take the extra words to state three times that the baby was lying in “a manger” and twice that he is in “swaddling clothes”? Is God trying to make a point here? This should not be lost on us nor readily overlooked. It IS significant that God seemed to repeat Himself that the baby Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger as though He was emphasizing these signs to draw our attention to them.
The key to understanding these repetitions of the manger and the swaddling clothes is that they were “a sign”: "this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12, emphasis added).
So, what was so significant about a manger and swaddling clothes as a sign of the Christ child? Why would this be “a sign” to the shepherds? It certainly wasn’t a flashing neon sign at the front of the Bethlehem motel inn blinking against the dark Bethlehem sky “The Christ Child Here”!
Did the shepherds need “a sign” to tell them where to locate the child? You would not think so. The shepherds would not have needed this type of “sign.” With just a few questions in the small town of Bethlehem, the shepherds should have easily been able to locate a newborn babe. Maybe they could have heard the cries from far off. Just the mention of the manger would have indicated for them to look in a stable. How many stables could there have been in the small town of Bethlehem?
Could this sign have been to indicate which infant was the Christ child? Possibly, but even with the many travelers who had converged on the little town of Bethlehem for the census, there could not have been that many babies born that night, and it is possible that Jesus may have been the only one.
Rather than just to indicate the location or which infant was the Christ child, the swaddling clothes and manger were far more significant signs than just directional indicators. Embedded in the Christmas story is a mystery of pictures with cryptic connections.
Let’s first raise three relevant questions about this passage:
1. What is a “sign” in the Bible?
2. What exactly was this sign?
3. What is the significance of this sign?
What is a “sign” in the Bible?
A "sign" was a mark, indication or token that was used to distinguish a person or thing from others, an admonition or warning (such as the book of Ezekiel which is full of “signs” of foreboding warnings to the nation of Israel ), or miraculous, supernatural acts as indications to signify Divine authority or power. (6) “Signs” in the Bible were an indication that distinguished a person or thing as being authentically sent from God or that their cause was of God, (7) such as the miracles and wonders that Jesus performed during his earthly ministry. The first signs in the Bible were when God turned Moses’ staff into a serpent and back and his hand becoming leprous and being healed (Exodus 4:3). These events demonstrated that Moses indeed was God’s messenger who was sent and empowered to deliver the Israelites from Egypt.
As New Testament believers, we need to be cautious about seeking “signs.” I Corinthians 1:24 warns, “For the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness.” Thus, signs were for the Jews, but they even took this too far in overemphasizing the importance of signs.
Christ rebuked the Pharisees for seeking a sign rather than having the faith to believe in Him. Jesus rebuked, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign” (Matthew 12: 39) and “… when the people gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet” (Luke 11:29; emphasis added).
So, not that signs are bad because God provided them, but they were primarily for Jews to believe. Gentiles of the secular world tend to emphasize the wisdom of philosophy, such as the classical Greek philosophers Socrates, Aristotle and Plato, or technology. However, as Christians we are to focus on the crucifixion of Christ and “preach Christ crucified.”
What exactly was this sign?
When we think of swaddling clothes and the manger today in our modern culture, these signs are traditionally portrayed in our Nativity scenes as a baby in a loin cloth laid in a wooden trough with crossed legs on each end. And consequently, when most people think of the scene of Christ’s birth, this is what they visualize or imagine. However, these were not what the signs or the scene of Christ’s birth were at all.
Swaddling clothes for newborn infants was a common custom and is still practiced today in many Mid-eastern countries. (8) These were bands of cloth wrapped around a baby’s body to keep it warm, give it a sense of security, and was believed to help protect its internal organs. It also helped to keep the baby from crying, and some think it promoted a familiar feeling for the infant of being in the womb. Swaddling is actually making a comeback today among many parents of newborns.
[Visual Aid:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/momentscaptured/2386700347/
In our western culture, we traditionally think of a stable as a wooden barn where animals are kept, and indeed the stable where Jesus was born served a similar purpose as did the livery stables of the Old West. It was a place where the travelers were able to keep their camels and donkeys. But, it was more than that. In Palestine during those times, stables were not wooden buildings or barns, but caves! (9) These natural formations were readily available and convenient to provide overhead shelter without having to build a structure. This knowledge also helps alter our understanding of what a manger was.
Mangers were not little wooden boxes with crossed legs on the end we have traditionally seen in every Nativity scene. Instead, they were rocky ledges that had been carved out of the rock walls at the height where animals could eat feed out of them. (10)
[Visual Aids:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39023475@N08/5387712175/
AND
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://lh3.ggpht.com/_P9VTpQ-5-1M/R1XaBMhRL7I/AAAAAAAAAQ0/ZgbGkRoB6bU/IMG_8455.jpg&imgrefurl=http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/32xVX0GuAQa-uSzZl_LWhw&h=600&w=800&sz=17&tbnid=JZNreUk8kZ0J::&tbnh=107&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcave%2Bmanger%2Bphoto&hl=en&usg=__NPZ6Jiz2GQfCw4fl9xzQdNHhcU0=&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=1
So, our Nativity scenes and Christmas pageant stage productions have it wrong! Jesus, our Savior was not born in a barn (11) and then placed into a wooden box with crossed legs at each end. These depictions from our traditions have distracted and deceived us away from the deeper significance of the signs of the manger and swaddling clothes of the Christ’s birth. He was born in a cave and placed on a rock ledge carved out from the rock wall.
So, let’s put the whole scene together. Try to see it in your mind’s eye. As Paul wrote the Ephesians, I pray that “the eyes of your understanding (will be) enlightened" (Eph. 1:18). The body of the baby Jesus was wrapped up in strips of cloth lying on a rocky ledge in a cave stable.
What does this sign of Christ’s birth mean?
So, how could these simple items of swaddling clothes and a cave manger comprise a miraculous, supernatural sign showing Jesus as authentically sent from God and possessing God’s power and authority?
The key to decoding the enigma of this sign is asking two salient questions. The first question is: “Was there another time when bodies were wrapped in cloths besides birth?” The answer is Yes! It was the practice of the Mid-eastern cultures to bury the dead wrapped in strips of clothes like we see on the mummies from Egypt. Similarly, we see this in the Bible in John 11:44. Lazurus’ body had been similarly wrapped in bands of cloth when Jesus resurrected him from the dead, and bystanders released him from those wrappings of death.
The second question is: "Was there another time when the body of Jesus was wrapped in bands of cloth?” Yes, after Jesus’ death on the cross, John 19:38-40 tells us that Joseph of Arimethea and Nicodemus took Jesus’ body and wrapped it up a linen cloth!
"And after this Joseph of Arimethea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
Then they took the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury." (emphasis added)
So, the body of Jesus was wrapped in strips of cloth at his burial just as it was at his birth! The baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes would have looked like a little mummy.
Where did they take the body of Jesus after his crucifixion? Into a tomb which was a manmade cave! Where did they lay him? On a rock ledge carved out from the wall of this manmade caver! The similarity of these scenes is too great to be a coincidence.
Here is the secret to this mystery of Christmas. This is the significance of the sign of the manger and swaddling clothes. The scene of Jesus’ birth foreshadowed the scene of His burial! The scene of Jesus’ birth was a sign or picture that this little baby Jesus wrapped up like a little mummy lying on a stone ledge in a cave like a tomb was a baby who was born to die!
At his death, the body of Jesus was wrapped up in cloth just like the swaddling clothes he had been wrapped in when he born. His body was taken into a tomb which was a cave just like the stable where he was born, and then they laid his body on a shelf carved out of rock just like the manger he was placed on after he was born.
It would likely or reasonable that his mother Mary saw the scene of his burial (after the resurrection), or at least she would probably heard about it from the other Marys who were there (Matthew 27:61; Mark 15:47). If she did see the place of her son’s burial or just saw it in her mind’s eye, as a mother she would have naturally thought back to the scene of his birth. She would have compared the shroud of his death with the swaddling clothes of his birth. Certainly the similarities of those two scenes would have evident unto her.
What makes these signs of Jesus’ birth so cryptic is that this scene is God’s powerful premonition of His Son’s death and burial crypt thirty-three and a half years before it occurred! This illustrates for us once again that the Bible is not an archaic piece of literature. It is a Book that is alive written by a supernatural mind. God the Father was orchestrating the minutest details of His Son’s birth to show the real reason why Jesus came - not just to be born, but to die for us.
More than a birthday party
But, these insights into the connection of the Christmas crib with Christ’s crypt should not stop with just our intellectual interest. Since the Christmas scene points to the portrayal of his death, it should prompt us to review the emphasis of our celebrations. Most people find it easier to celebrate Jesus’ birth in our Christmas traditions rather commemorate his death, burial, and resurrection at Easter. Maybe it is because a little baby in swaddling clothes lying helplessly in a manger is less threatening and dismal than a man martyred and laying in a cold, foreboding sepulcher.
In our culture, we have it backwards. We remember and celebrate birthdays and want to forget funerals. However, in the Bible bad things happened on someone’s birthday. There were two birthdays noted in Scripture, and on both of them somebody died. Genesis 40:20-22 recounted that on the Pharaoh’s birthday, the chief butler died. On Herod’s birthday, after Herodias’ daughter had danced for him, John the Baptist was beheaded (Matthew 14:6,10; Mark 6:21,27). Two birthdays - two deaths.
At no place does Scripture tell us to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. Instead, Jesus commanded us to commemorate his death until he comes:
"After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come." (I Corinthians 11:25-26).
This principle is also consistent with Ecclesiastes 7:1b which instructs us that “the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.” Indeed, the day of Jesus’ death and burial was better than the day of his birth, because the day of his death was his substitutionary sacrifice that liberated us from the bondage of sin. His death-day became our new birth-day when we could be born again into the spiritual freedom we have in Christ.
But, Jesus did not stay dead in that cold cave tomb but rose again after three days as a sign to us that his death had been acceptable to the Father as a sacrifice for sin and he was victorious over sin and death.
"Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." (John 2:18-19; emphasis added)
“And when the people gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign, but the sign of Jonas the prophet” (Luke 11:29; emphasis added).
Jonah being in the belly of a great fish was a picture or sign of Jesus being in the “belly” of the earth.
God had provided signs both of His Son’s birth and death.
Invitation
When we compare the life of Jesus from his crib to his crypt, we discover that there really was a circle of life from “the cradle to the grave.”
It is a myth that Jesus was born in a wooden barn, wore a little loin cloth, and lay in a wooden trough. The mystery is that Jesus was born in a cave which would have resembled a tomb, wrapped in strips of clothes which made him look like a little mummy, and laid on a stony ledge in cave that resembled a crypt. This scene was a miraculous picture or “sign” which foreshadowed the scene of his burial and showed he was a baby who was born to die for our sins.
God supernaturally provided the scene of Jesus’ birth as a premonition of the scene of His burial 33½ years before he died. The signs of Jesus’ birth being wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger were a sign to the shepherds that Jesus was indeed the Christ child, the Messiah. He was the Lamb of God who came to be sacrificed for the sins of the world.
Our current Nativity scenes have been concealing from us the deeper significance of the true signs of Christmas. But on a slightly different front, society and government have been attacking Christmas. They want to thwart Nativity scenes in particular as Christian icons unacceptable in our post-modern culture.
If those who want to oppose Christianity are offended by our Nativity scenes, they haven’t seen anything yet! Wait until we transform our Nativity scenes into the actual depiction and something they will not even recognize. In the tradition of Luther and his contemporaries, we need to have a Christmas reformation! This could inspire people to rethink Christmas and its meaning of God coming to earth in the flesh and form of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The key question is: What will you do with these signs? Do you see and believe that Jesus is the Son of God, not just to be born, but as God came to die for our sins? Do you believe that He came to die for you?
This is the mystery of Christmas that God became flesh in the form of His Son Jesus Christ who came for the purpose to die for our sins so that we could live an abundant life now and forever with Him eternally. All we have to do is believe in Jesus and receive his sacrifice for our sins.
"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12).
"That if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God had raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Romans 10:9-10).
The real question now is: What will you do with Jesus? Do you prefer to perceive of Him only as a helpless baby? Or will you receive the new life that His death FOR you provides TO you?
References
(1) O’Reilly, Bill , Culture Warrior. (New York: Broadway, 2006), 81.
(2) O’Reilly, Culture Warrior, 82.
(3) Limbaugh, David, Persecution: How Liberals are Waging War Against Christianity. (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, (2003), 41.
(4) Limbaugh,Persecution, 160.
(5) Limbaugh,,Persecution, 160.
(6) Vine, W.E. “Sign.” A comprehensive dictionary of the original Greek words with their precise meanings for English readers. (Peabody, Massachuetts: Hendrickson), 1052.
(7) Strong, J.. A concise dictionary of the words in the Greek Testament. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1890), “sign”.
(8) Life Application Bible notes (San Jose: Ephiphany Software, 1996) Bible Explorer 2.0 edition. Originally published Life Application Bible notes (Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale, 1991), Luke 2:12.
(9) Life Application Bible notes, Luke 2:12.
(10) Life Application Bible notes, Luke 2:12
(11) Notice how the derogatory pejorative “born in a barn” is a subtle innuendo against the birth of our Lord.
