Scripture: Luke 2:1-7; Micah 5:2
Theme: The S of Christmas – THE STABLE
Title: Surrounded by family and friends
Stable – Barn – Cave – What did the place look like where Jesus was born and what were the conditions? Let’s see what we find in Luke 2:1-7
INTRO:
Grace and peace in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This morning I would like for us to take a little trip. It’s to the town of Bethlehem where Jesus was born. And I would like for us to go to the very location where Jesus was born. The place that has been called a barn, a cow stable and even a cave.
Do you know where you were born?
Was it in a nice, sanitized county or city hospital?
Was it in your parents’ or grandparent’s home?
Was it in a car, ambulance or even police car on the way to the hospital?
For little Rosita, it was a tree in Mozambique, Africa. Her mom, Sofia Pedro climbed a tree to escape the flood waters and delivered her baby holding on to the branches. A few minutes after the birth, both mother and baby were rescued by a South African helicopter crew.
Dominique Trevino was on her way to the hospital by bus in 2009 and started having contractions. Another passenger, who worked at the hospital realized that Dominique was never going to get there on time. She told her to get off at the next stop and go immediately to the library. Dominique barely made it to the library before she had her baby.
Keven Raymar Francis Domingo came into the world at 40,000 feet in the air. His mom, Aida was flying from Manila to San Francisco when she went into pre-term labor and with the aid of three nurses and some cabin crew members, she gave birth to her sky baby.
For Jesus, his birthplace has been called a barn, a cow stable or a cave.
Let’s look at this story in a little more detail and see what it has to say to us today:
I. The Stable
Many of us here this morning has stood in a makeshift stable and played the part of a shepherd, a wise man or if we were of the right age and appearance – Mary, Joseph or even Jesus.
However, the more we really dig into the story of the Stable the more we need to see things not through Gentile eyes but through Jewish eyes.
What I mean by that is sometimes we get these pictures in our heads that have been handed down to us from people that never even visited Israel or studied what life was like in ancient Israel.
For example, have you ever looked at Lenardo de Vinci’s Last Supper Picture. It’s an amazing work of art but it is a flawed work of art when it comes to being accurate to the real Last Supper.
For example:
+Lenardo paints it taking place during the day when the real Last Supper took place at night.
+The people around the table are dressed in Renaissance clothing.
+The bread that is on the table is raised bread made with yeast instead of being unleavened bread made without yeast.
+There is no main cup at the table. Each person has their own individual clear glass cup.
+There is no lamb on the table, instead it is fish.
+They are all sitting in chairs with Jesus in the middle. At the true Passover meal, they would have been reclining with Jesus at the head of the table.
Now, of course we know that Lenardo took some artistic license in his painting to get certain messages across. But at the same time part of his inaccuracies resulted in the fact that he had never consulted a rabbi about Passover or had never visited the Middle East to do some research.
Sadly, the same has happened in our story as well with the Stable.
Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem.
Jesus was laid in a manger full of straw or hay.
Jesus was born where animals lived or at least where they stayed at night.
But Jesus was not born in:
+A barn – that idea comes to us from the Middle Ages
+A cave – that idea comes to us from Justin Martyr and Origen
Now, both of those ideas are not bad, they just are not accurate.
Over the last 50 years or more there has been an ever-growing dialogue between rabbis and priests and between scholarly Jews and scholarly Gentiles. There has been a great deal of study to understand Jesus and the First Century Church not only from a Gentile point of view but from a Jewish point of view.
As a result, we have been able to have a more accurate picture of Jesus’ life and even some of his teachings.
How we see the stable and the place where Jesus was born has come under some review.
The traditional picture of this horrible man at the inn throwing into the street this poor weary couple ready to have a baby doesn’t add up.
The word that has been translated as inn can also mean guest house or visitor’s room.
From what Jewish scholars and archeologist share with us, this is what happened.
+Joseph and Mary traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem. They may have even stopped over for a couple of days in Jerusalem. They would not have been able to go very far each day as Mary was near full term.
+At some point they finally made it to the town of Bethlehem.
With a census being taken at the time the city was no doubt overrun with people coming back home from all over the Middle East.
People needed a place to stay and the place to stay for the majority of them would have been with family and friends. And when I say family, I not only mean immediate family but ancestral family.
Joseph was of the tribe of David and could accurately pinpoint his heritage all the way back to David. We read that in Matthew chapter one. Joseph like most Jews following the Babylonian Captivity had his heritage memorized. He could rattle it off in a matter of minutes – I am Joseph, son of Jacob, the son of Matthan, the son of Eleazar, the son of Eliud and so on and on until he got back to King David.
That was important. It gave him standing and it also opened the door to many of the families that were still living in Bethlehem.
Also, no man in his right mind would have traveled to Bethlehem with a wife near full term and not had somewhere in mind to stay. No woman would have ridden on the back of a donkey or walked a few miles each day near full term and not had some plan in place.
Especially when you consider that the baby that was coming into the world was God’s only son. That’s what the angel Gabriel told Mary and what Joseph had been revealed to in a dream.
What was unavailable to them was the guest house or the visitor’s room. From our Messianic Jewish friends and from records and archaeological studies done on that time period, Joseph and Mary went to a home and while they were welcomed, they were not put in the room of honor.
Instead, seeing that Mary was about to have the child they put the couple in the downstairs room where the animals were kept out of the cold and for safety.
Most Jewish homes at the time were two stories. The family lived upstairs and downstairs was where they had their kitchen, their store rooms and had a little place to the side where they kept their animals. They might have had some chickens, a goat, or a lamb and perhaps even a cow.
Upstairs would have been chaos at the time. With the census going on the house would have been filled with relatives and friends from all over the Empire. There would have been people everywhere and no doubt people having to sleep everywhere.
Not the best of places for a woman to be when she is getting ready to give birth.
I mean who wants to give birth in the midst of a family gathering.
So, what we see is Mary and Joseph have been given the bottom room, a place where a person can have a baby. A place where some of the women staying there can be with a woman having a baby.
We all know if you have either had a baby or been with someone who is having a baby that it is at times loud, chaotic, and can be quite messy to say the least.
Being somewhere that is out of the way, surrounded by women who know what to do and having a place full of clean hay and straw was not the worst of places.
Yes, it would have been nice to have been in Bethlehem Medical Center in the Labor and Delivery Department except that it didn’t exist back then.
I am sure that Jesus was not the first child to be born in such conditions.
So, while that may destroy all your ideas about Jesus’ birth, it does open for us some things that we can see that happened that night.
I. It was a humble birth.
Nearly all births are humble births. Humble in the fact that they are modest and plain. Our moms usually are not dressed in party attire but are dressed to bring forth a baby.
Our doctors and nurses are not dressed in party attire or in royal robes, instead they wear hospital scrubs and masks. They are ready for all that must happen and can happen during a birth.
Jesus’ birth was perhaps a little more humble than average when you consider that there was a house full of people upstairs while his mom was doing her best to have him downstairs in the stable area.
II. It was a makeshift birth.
There was no birthing bed, no warmer for Jesus and no hospital gowns or cloths to put around the baby. No, Jesus just had strips of cloths that were used to clean him up and dress him. There were no cute little pampers and little toboggans or footies to put on him.
You use what you have and at that time they just had strips of cloth. No doubt one of the women in the house grabbed whatever material they had and began to pull it into strips for Mary and Jesus.
III. It was a family event.
The picture of Jesus out there in the cold with his parents being all alone just didn’t happen. Instead, Jesus was a welcomed sight when he was born. He was surrounded by his mom and dad along with the women who help Mary and the family members who were gathered on the second floor.
It had to be like watching an extended family waiting out in the waiting room being anxious for the birth of the baby.
I have no doubt that Mary’s mother and dad along with Joseph’s mom and dad either were not too far away or they had made sure that some of their relatives were close by; perhaps even upstairs.
After all, who here today would not have done the same for your son or daughter. We would do our best to make sure that they had a place to stay. We would have written letters to our families telling them that Joseph and Mary were on their way.
The more I reread this story in light of what Jewish rabbis tell us, what archaeologists tell us and what ancient Middle East histories tell us the more I really appreciate this story.
Yes, Jesus was born in a stable. A stable that was on the first floor of a home. A stable that had a manger that became Jesus’ first bed.
A stable that had to be a substitute birthing area. However, - I am sure it had been that many times before for both animals and humans.
It was a stable that had family just upstairs. A family that was taking care of Mary and Joseph and welcoming this little new son of David into the tribe.
The wonder of the story is not merely Mary and Joseph and the manger. The wonder of the story is that God’s Son, Jesus came into our world as 100% human and 100% God. On that night, Immanuel (God with us) arrived.
Not being born in Jerusalem or even in Rome. Not surrounded by thrones, jewels, or even royal clothes but as billions of other people – just a simple birth in a little town called Bethlehem.
A town that had been spoken about in prophecies. A town that on that night became the center of both Heaven and Earth. A town that became ground zero for the biggest rescue mission ever attempted.
The rescue of humanity from the power and penalty of sin. A rescue that had its beginning in that little town of Bethlehem but that would have its greatest battle on the Cross of Calvary and its ultimate victory in the Garden of the Resurrection.
So, when you think of the stable don’t think of it being the worst possible place for Jesus to enter our world. Instead, think of the care and attention Jesus received from the women of the house. Think of the anxious family upstairs waiting for a successful birth. Think of the joy that filled that house once they heard Jesus’ first cries.
Think of the shepherds that would soon be knocking on the door. Think of the miracle of a God who so loves us that He leaves Heaven’s Majesty to come to our earth to love us and die for us. All to make it possible for us to be Born Again and filled with His Holy Spirit.
Closing Hymn/Invitation to Holy Communion
