“While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.” (Luke 2:6-7)
While in Bethlehem the time came for Mary to give birth of her son. It was the time God had chosen. All had been made ready. The InterVarsity Press Commentary makes a good point when they mention the contrast between the commonness of the surroundings when compared to the greatness of the child. There was no room at the inn … any inn. Consider this: you have been driving all day into the night. You are tired. Your eyes are heavy. It’s late. You decide to pull off the road and get a hotel room for the night. One problem: there are no vacancies. Try as you might you cannot find a room. You stop at one hotel after another only to find that there is no place available. You are weary. You just want to rest. In a way, that may have been in some small measure what Joseph and Mary felt when they were turned away. Compound the situation by having Joseph walk on foot and Mary, great with child and ready to give birth, riding on the back of a donkey. We find no comparison in modern day life … at least not in America.
There is wide speculation as to whether the manger was a stable filled with animals or a cave that acted as a stable or even a person’s small home where the animals lived among the family. In the end it is irrelevant. The fact remains that Jesus was born in less than ideal surroundings. Whether stable or cave, it was not befitting His true stature. Yet it made a point, this birth among beasts. He was to be a common man among common men. He was to become closely connected to His surroundings by virtue of His presence among men. For the time being He was under the care of two individuals hand chosen by Almighty God.
Babies are born into this world every day. All are God’s creation. All are unique. All are loved by God unconditionally just as we love our children. Yet no birth throughout the course of time would ever mean what the birth of Christ meant to all of mankind. If there was no birth, there was no sacrificial death on a cross as prophesied in Isaiah of the Old Testament. It was one birth at a singular moment in time. He was the God-man. Wholly God, yet wholly man. Under the constant care of two created beings. It is truly remarkable, if you choose to believe it as true, that this event that took place over two thousand years ago would transform the world like no other event that had or ever would take place. God had come in the form of man and we knew Him not.
NOTE: “‘Swaddling cloths’ were strips of cloth used to wrap a baby. That the Child was put in a manger may mean that the birth was in a stable.” [Reformation Study Bible; P & R Publishing; 2008]
NOTE: “In all likelihood, the manger is an animal's feeding trough, which means the family is in a stable or in a cave where animals are housed. Swaddling clothes were cloth wrapped around the baby's arms and legs (see Ezekiel 16:4); they kept the limbs covered and protected. The contrast between the birth's commonness and the child's greatness could not be greater. The promised one of God enters creation among the creation.” [The IVP NT Commentary Series; IVP Academic; 2010]
