"She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them."
Luke 2:7b
We all know the story. "And placed him in a manger for there was no room for them in the inn." It's the greatest moment of irony in the whole of written history: there was no room in a hotel for the King of the world. The sad part is that most of us put the story in that box and leave it there. The lesson to be learned from the birth of Christ isn't limited to the fact that He humbled Himself so greatly. There is so much more in this story.
Where was Jesus really born. He was born in what we call a stable. Our modern idea of a stable is a lot different than the place where Jesus was born. From the limited knowledge I have received from taking Intro to New Testament at Carson Newman, I understand that where Jesus was born was a lot nastier than our manger-scenes. The image Christians tend to see is clean Mary and Joseph giving birth to a clean baby Jesus with clean, smiling animals and three Caucasian, regal gentlemen with gifts. The amount that is wrong with this pains me.
First, no one was clean. This place was disgusting. How disgusting? Imagine you're surrounded by sheep (sorry, camels aren't native to Israel) which are bleating loudly, ya know, because humans are in their home, and are pooping. Secondly, no animals are smiling. This is mainly because ANIMALS DON'T SMILE. Lastly, and this is the most important one, I think, the three men. Nowhere does it say there were three. Three gifts were brought, so we do a good job of assuming. These men were very much NOT Caucasian. They were mystics from the Middle East; not white, American Christians. Middle Eastern, Arabic mystics.
But the larger part that we need to correct in our brains is the actual location of Christ's birth. Chances are high that He was born in an underground cave-like structure made for sheep to keep them protected from the weather; this means it was underground. It was not a perfectly constructed wooden structure, but rather a damp, nasty, smelly cave full of dirty, loud sheep. This wasn't just a humble birth, it was a disgusting one.
Why is that important? Because there is a lesson for our lives in this. Like everything in the Bible, there is a larger lesson that is easy to be ignored, but I encourage you not to this time.
When Christ came to Earth, He aimed to be born in the nastiest place partly because He didn't come to overwhelm people with His earthly strength but with His heavenly power and partly because this gives us a message for our lives. When Jesus enters into our lives, He aims for the nastiest place and that's where He wants to be born in our lives. A lot of times we try to put on our best to impress Jesus but that isn't what He's asking for nor what He wants. In Mark 3, we have a story of a man who has a shriveled hand. When Jesus goes to heal this man, all Jesus tells him to do is to reach out his hand. Now how does the man know that Jesus doesn't want to shake his hand, give him a high five, or give him the holiest of bro fists (which Jesus absolutely did)? He doesn't. The man had the choice: give Jesus his best hand and impress Him or give Jesus his worst hand and have Him heal it. Of course, Jesus wanted the shriveled hand because He had the intentions of healing it. In the same way, Jesus wants to be born in and dwell in our disgusting stables.
Today, I'm praying that there is no room for Jesus in my inn and plenty of room for him to be born among my disgusting sheep and that He will transform that area into a beacon showing what only He can do.
