The Messiness of Christmas

We have all seen the cute Nativities that make their way to the mantles during Christmas . A visual representation of the birth of Christ. Have you noticed how clean everything looks? Jesus was born in a stable. You may be visualizing a modern day barn, but in reality it probably looked something like this (Source):

Think about the residents of a stable and how they live. A horse stall should be mucked at least once per day. If you can imagine, the home of a bunch of animals is not the cleanest of places. I also imagine that it did not smell too great either. I have never witnessed a birth or experienced what that is like. From all the research I have done, it seems bloody and messy. Combine defecating critters and a messy childbirth with the messiness of life...oh my!

Think about the chaos of Mary's life. A young girl (maybe about 15 years old) is promised to be married to a young man. She is visited by an angel announcing that she is to give birth to a son and she is to name him, Jesus. (Luke 1:26-38). This girl has just been told that outside the normal, biological, natural way to conceive a child, she was going to become pregnant by supernatural means, without the help of a tango partner.

Joseph, when he found out about the pregnancy, didn't want to put her to shame. He was seeking a way to quietly end their betrothal (Matthew 1:18-25). According to the Law: “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death" (Leviticus 20:10). More than likely, she would have been stoned to death.

Both Joseph and Mary were told by an angel of the greatness of this child. "He will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 1:32-33). Mary and Joseph both came from the line of David (see the genealogies in Matthew and Luke), they were good Jews and followed the law. They even went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover (Luke 2:41). They had to have known the Scriptures, they were likely waiting for the coming Messiah. They would have known the prophesy of Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14) stating the Messiah would be born of a virgin. If they indeed knew this baby was the Messiah that was to come, they may also have been aware that the Messiah was also prophesied to die, like a lamb led to slaughter (Isaiah 53:7).

Imagine what it must have felt like to be a young couple with a baby on the way, having to travel because of Caesar's census. Envision being pregnant in your last trimester walking from Nazareth to Bethlehem; Scripture never mentions that she rides on a donkey. According to Google maps, if you walked the 145 kilometers (90 miles) today, it would take you 31 hours nonstop. So many things could have gone wrong, she may or may not have had a midwife present. She gives birth to a healthy baby boy. After cleaning him, Jesus was swaddled and placed in a feed trough. The King of Heaven, who was born to save us from our sins, who stood at the right hand of God's throne in heaven was born...a baby. Defenseless. I know the song said no crying he made, but really, have you known a baby, any baby, never to cry?

The first Christmas was messy. There is no doubt about it in my mind. Then, after all that excitement of a new baby being born, shepherds, with their sheep probably, show up and told this grand story about these angels telling them to come see the Savior, who is Christ the Lord laying in a manger (Luke 2:15-30).

There are so many small nuances and facets of the Christmas story that get left out when we try to neatly package the story with a pretty bow. Life is messy. I know mine is. But think of the magnificence of a God who wants to have a relationship with us despite our sins that keep us away from him.

God's game plan for mankind to be saved was Jesus. Jesus was sent to earth to be born fully man and fully God. He lived just as we do. He took his first breath when he was born. He learned to walk and to talk. He might have chased a ball around with his friends growing up. Jesus was fully human so he can relate to us; fully human so he can know what we are going through. The Bible tells us that Jesus "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). He knows what a messy life looks like because He lived one too.

Jesus lived a perfect life without any disobedience (sin) against God. Many people, including the religious leaders, did not like Jesus. They plotted to kill Jesus and tried Him in an unjust trial. Jesus was sentenced to death by crucifixion, even though He did not do anything to deserve it. Robert Gidley explains, "Crucifixion was the most disgraceful form of execution. As a punishment [it was] designed to maximize pain and suffering. It wasn't about killing somebody — it was about killing somebody in a really horrible way. Someone who was crucified suffered the maximum amount of pain" (Source). Crucifixions were reserved for the most vile of criminals.

Jesus chose to die in this way…for you, for me, for everyone throughout time after the time of his death. He did this to demonstrate God's love towards humankind, that even though we all were still sinners, Jesus died for us (Romans 5:8). But Jesus didn't stay dead. It was prophesied, by prophets in the Old Testament and Jesus himself, that he was going to rise from the dead. And He did! There was eyewitness accounts from over 500 people of Jesus's resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-8).

Jesus died to be a propitiation for our sins (Picture Source). Ligon Duncan explains, this "refers to the turning away of the wrath of God as the just judgment of our sin by God’s own provision of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross" (Source). In God's eyes, our sin is replaced by Jesus's righteousness when we believe and put our trust and faith in Jesus. Romans tells us that "if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). Believing and having faith in Jesus is the only way to have a right relationship with God (John 14:6).

So it always comes down to a choice. What are you going to choose to believe this year? Does the Christmas story touch you in any way? Do you believe that Jesus can relate to you? Do you believe that he lived a perfect life, died on the cross to save you from your sins, and was raised from the dead? Do you want to put your trust and faith in Jesus? Comment or send me a fan letter if you would like to know more if your answer to any of the above questions is "yes."

Until next time, Merry Christmas!

*21 August 2023: Removed potentially copyrighted photos, added URL source to photos used and/or replaced with open source photos.