The sign and surprise of Christmas

Steven Hmangte *

Christmas Eve at Imphal, Manipur on 24 December 2013:: Pix - Ashok Ninghoujam / Gnet Cyber Cafe

Christmas is full of surprise, surprise from our families. Surprise from our relative, surprise from our friends, surprise from our love and dear ones. Look at the church decorated in different style fill with light and Christmas trees. Look at each house stars are hoisted up and look around you everything is surprising.

If you know about Christmas, then you know about Mary and the angle Gabriel's, about the dangerous journey to Bethlehem, about Caesar's decree, about Herod's insane and jealousy, about the inn with "No vacancy" sign, about the angles the shepherd's and about the mysterious wise men from the east and the last second fight into Egypt. All of these stories are well known that we heard them again. We don't really heard them at all before. That is indeed a problems familiarity can breed, if not contempt at least a kind of casual disinterest which is sad because the story of Christmas if full of surprise. There are unexpected miracles in every hand and after all it tells the most amazing story that God invaded human history in the form of tiny helpless baby

Well, I am sure it is true, and it will always seem true. Christmas poses a yearly challenge to those of us who have heard the story since we were children. After you have attended a year of 15, 20 or 25, Christmas pageants and after you heard and sung every Christmas carols, a few hundred times, what more is left to be said that hasn't been said before.

After announcing that a savior had been born in Bethlehem, the angle tells them how to find the baby that this will be "sign" to you.

"And this will be the sign to you: you will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a Manger" Luke 2:12

Before we jump up into the above context. Let me just add you some personal notes. I have heard it over hundreds of times, in fact the stronger quotation of Luke 2 whenever I read it or heard reading by someone; something doesn't sound right and would just think it over and again. The context is "The angels have just declared the best news, anyone has ever heard" for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11) we forget, how utterly unprepared the Shepherds were to hear those words and how awesome they must have sounded. A savior from heaven is here! And in Bethlehem ?

But, where in Bethlehem? How will they find the Baby? That's where the verse12 comes in the angels speak of "The Sign" and that's how these verse 12 sound abit strange to every ear. This will be the sign. And I expect the next sentence to read. "The moon will turn to blood and the stars will spell out his name" or something like that. But it's not like that, "The sign is this." Your will find a baby wrapped in Swaddling cloths, and lying in a Manger"

Several questions come to mind. In what way is a baby "a sign from God"? Why did God chose to enter human race like these? And why does the text mentions about "Swaddling cloths"? And what does the Manger signify? After all Jesus was almost certainly not the only baby in Bethlehem that night. Herod had the baby under the age of two, put to death. So there just have been other infants and toddlers. What's so special about a baby in a manger?

Luke 2:12 is telling us that the particular circumstances of Jesus birth are important. They are part of the message from God. After all, Jesus could have been born in any circumstances God chose: what is the message of the Manger? What is God saying to us? What do we learn about the way God works?

The "Sign" of the President.

Perhaps on the important occasion of India who do you recognize the president. Well, the answer is simple go to the Republic Day or Independence Day. Take the front row or seat. Look around your surrounding and after sometime you will see a man dresses in plain standing in a vehicle with his driver and weaving his hand around followed by some security guard. And that's how you notice and recognize the president. In fact, that's the "sign of the President"

And what sign is the "sign" that a heir has been born to the throne of England? The answer is simple look out for people magazine and you will see a picture of Prince William. That is the sign. And read the gossip columns. That's the part of sign too. And what sign did God choose to signify his coming to the earth? He choose a baby wrapping in a strips of cloths lying in a Manger?

But somehow the world miss the "sign" we know that we the people were looking for Messiah. Even the Herod scribe knew that Christ would be born in Bethlehem. Why can't they recognize him when he came? They could not see the divine in the ordinary. They missed him altogether! They wanted something spectacular, a political messiah who could deliver them from the Roman denomination. The Jesus wanted "a sign" but they were not expecting a baby. God gave them a sign and they missed it. It was too simple then and for many people it is still too simple today.

Just for a moment, let's suppose we don't know anything else about Christmas. If Luke 2:12 were the only verse we had, what would we know about the birth of Christ?

First we would know something about

I. His Humanity "You will find a baby".

This tell us that Christ come into the world just as we do. Even thou we often speak of the virgin birth. It should be remember that the real miracle occurred at the moment of conception nine month earlier. Jesus physical birth was completely normal.

To say that Christ was born as a baby brings us face to face with the truth of the incarnation although he was full and truly God from all eternity, the son of God took on true Humanity when he was conceived in Mary's womb and born in Bethlehem. He was not Half God and Half man but full God and fully man. He did not cease to be God. Although he laid aside the outward's glory of his deity. In some way mysterious to us, the Lord Jesus Christ was the God-Man two natures joining together in his one person.

This is the central truth of Christianity. God has entered human history in order to provide for our salvation. What we could not do he did for us through his son. Everything else flows from his truth. If he had not been born, he could not have deed for our sins. And he would not have risen from the dead. He has to become like us in order to save us. There is no other way.

II. His Helpless "Wrapped in Cloths"

In that day new born babies were wrapped in strips of cloths to protect them from the harsh elements, usually mother would wrap the arms and the legs separately like an Egyptian Mummy. This seems cruel and indeed with little medical care where babies but in a world with little medical care where babies dies before their first birthday, it was a way to provide a crude Kind of protection.

What do we learnt from the binding of baby Jesus? It reminds us of another time authorities bound and guarded as if he were a common criminals. When falsely accused, he made no reply, when reviled, he refused to answer in kind. He stood before the verdict that would end his life. It is left it – bound and helpless.

Looking at the baby this way, no one can say he came only for the rich and powerful. And no one can say that he used his heavenly prerogatives to make an easy entrance into the world. He comes for the faith of a few but to be a savior of all. He was bound that we might be set free.

III. His Humility "Lying in a Manger"

One of the problems we have with the story is that the word "Manger" doesn't easily communicate clear images to us even to myself. Many of us get our concept of a "Manger" from watching the yearly Christmaspageants at Church, but the world itself means something like a stable or perhaps and feeding trough.

This baby lying forgotten in an exposed stable, resting in a feeding trough is Gods appointed "sign" to us all. This is a true incarnation. God has come to the world in a most unlikely way. This is what Philippian 2:7 mean when it says that he "made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servants being made in human likeness" nothing about the baby Jesus appeared supernatural. There were no Halos, no angels visible and no choir singing. If you had been there and if you had no other information you would just concluded that this was just a baby born to a poor young couple down on their luck. Nothing about the outward circumstance pointed to God. The God of great surprise and this is why Christmas is being full of surprise.

A Savior is Born

The disinterest of the world had no room for him. The force shadows of the cross while sleeping in a manger. The simplicity of the gospel that night. Manger were not the beautiful, clean place we see in the Christmas pageant. They are lonely, dirty, smelly places made for animals. If you are looking for Jesus, don't start in the Nursery. Go out to the Barn and find the oldest part where the boards needs to repair and the ground it covered with dirt and the air smells of manure, when you heard the baby cry, you'll know you have found the Lord. He is not in the nursery with the rest of the children; he is out in the barn with the animals. It is only by the eye of faith that the majesty of Christ is seen.

Recently there are some several visitor at Calvary although they are religious they do not know Christ personally, in discussion that followed the service, it was clear that the visitor just don't get it". Although they never sunk in, why? I believe the answer is simple, "Faith is a gift from God. Without faith it is impossible to see God, to know God, or to understand the things of God, without faith you cannot watch a thousand Christmas pageants and never be converted. The unsaved heart is blind and simply cannot see the gospel. Until God take away that blindness no amount of arguments or beautiful music, for that matter will make any difference.

God's surprising sign is a baby in strips of cloths and resting in a feeding trough in a vase behind's a village. It is not a very likely beginning for a movement that will change the world. What a rebuked to those who love the world. Jesus was once a "small things" himself. Even the poorest child would not be found in Manger but there he was God appointed "Sign" from heaven.

If the world need education, God would have sent a teacher, of the world need army, God would have sent a general. If the world need- if the world need Money, God would have sent a Banker. But since the world needed a savior, God sent a baby! And that is the surprise and the wonder and ultimately the delight of Christmas. God did what we would never have done and in so doing, he opened the door of heaven for all of us.

The scene at Bethlehem is one of utter simplicity, a mother, father and a baby. Thus was "The word is made into flesh" to dwell among us. What God does is simple and clear. And the message to us is just simple and clear. To those who come in simple faith to the Lord Jesus Christ find peace, we need once again to preach the plain man's gospel, free of speculation and centered of Christ.

I urged you my dear hearer to come in faith to the babe of Bethlehem. Who would one day die for the sin of the world. Little childr3en should come for he was once a little child himself young women should come, for Mary was young woman Young man should come for Joseph was a young man who have great faith in God. Old women should come, for Anna was an old woman who looks for the coming of the Lord. Old men should come for Simon waited for the consolation of Israel. The working men and women should come to Christ because the shepherded represent all those who work with their hand for a living and they too come to Bethlehem. Finally the highly educated of the world should come to the Lord, for the wises men came bearing gifts they too bowed and worship the King.