A Baby in a Manger

A cold hillside. Sheep shuffling in the dark. A few shepherds huddled by a small fire. And then, without warning, the night sky blazes with light.

But the story starts months earlier, in Nazareth, a small village in the hills of Galilee. Hardly anyone outside the region has heard of it. A young woman named Mary lives there. She is engaged to a carpenter called Joseph, a descendant of King David. Their lives are ordinary. Work, family, village life. The Roman Empire rules the land, and God's people have been waiting a very long time for the king God promised them.

One day the angel Gabriel comes to Mary. “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.” Mary is troubled. What kind of greeting is this? “Don't be afraid, Mary,” the angel says. “You will have a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be called the Son of the Most High, and his kingdom will never end.” Mary asks the obvious question. “How can this be? I'm not married.” Gabriel tells her the Holy Spirit will come upon her, and the child will be called the Son of God. “Nothing is impossible with God.” Mary is quiet for a moment. Then she says, “I am the Lord's servant. Let it happen to me as you have said.”

Months pass. Then a decree comes from Caesar Augustus in Rome. Everyone must be registered, each in their family's town. For Joseph, that means Bethlehem, the town of David. So he and Mary make the long journey south, several days on foot, and Mary is close to giving birth. Bethlehem is crowded. While they are there, her time comes. She gives birth to her firstborn son. She wraps him snugly in strips of cloth and lays him in a manger, because there is no room for them in the guest room.

Out on the hills nearby, the shepherds are keeping watch over their flocks. Suddenly an angel of the Lord stands before them, and God's glory shines all around. They are terrified. “Don't be afraid,” says the angel. “I bring you good news of great joy for all people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. Here is how you'll know him. You'll find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Then the sky fills with angels, praising God. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” When the angels leave, the shepherds don't wait. They hurry into town and find Mary and Joseph, and the baby, just as they were told. They tell everyone what they heard, and everyone is amazed. And Mary treasures all these things, and turns them over in her heart.

Matthew's Gospel adds another visit, some time later. Wise men from the east follow a star, all the way to Jerusalem and on to Bethlehem. They find the child with his mother in a house. They kneel and worship him, and open their treasures: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Then, warned in a dream, they go home by another road.

About that manger. It was a feeding trough for animals. Kenneth Bailey, who spent decades living and teaching in the Middle East, pointed out that in village homes of that region, families often brought their animals inside at night, into a lower part of the house, with mangers close at hand. If he is right, Jesus may not have been born out in the cold, but in an ordinary family home, among ordinary people, because the guest room was already full.

The birth of Jesus. You'll find it in Luke chapters 1 and 2, and in Matthew chapter 2. The first people invited to see him weren't kings or priests. They were shepherds on a night shift. So here's something to think about. Why do you think God announced this news to shepherds first?