Some folks yearn for rather extravagant gifts on Christmas day or at least companies like Lexus and Toyota think so with ads that show their SUV’s sitting in a driveway with a nice red bow ribbon. Perhaps that is what prompted one wife to say to her husband, “On Christmas day there had better be something in the driveway that goes from zero to 200 in ten seconds flat.” That morning, she found a small package in the driveway. She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale. By the way, funeral arrangements for the husband have been set for next Saturday.
Much has happened since that first Christmas in Bethlehem so long ago. In the past century, we have commercialized this feast and sanitized it. The typical Christmas card image of the nativity often depicts a scene of angelic choirs, a babe in a manger, Mary and Joseph in clean clothes, humble shepherds with well-behaved sheep nearby or three kings presenting fabulous gifts. I venture to say that what we often imagine is not an accurate portrayal of the first Christmas.
Consider the shepherds. They were the dregs of the earth, men who couldn’t find a better job. Many were conniving thieves, much like our own proverbial used car salesmen. They were considered irreligious by the self-righteous because they did not participate in regular worship.
Mary and Joseph were not physical models of perfection either. Remember, they were poor peasants, clad in travel-worn, dusty, dirty clothes. They had traveled 80 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, a scruffy village south of Jerusalem. Unable to find a place to stay, they were lodged amid livestock. The stable animals were no different than what you would find in a local barn. And the manger? We aren’t talking about a nice crib from Babies R Us, but a feeding trough for animals, likely dripping with slop. By creating a scene to look like one from a Hollywood set, we miss the point of this feast, namely the incarnation of God’s son.
God came into human existence with all its limitations and flaws. God desired then and there to embrace us in spite of our brokenness. From the very start, his son mingled with the poorest of the poor among people like the shepherds and poor peasant parents. He came into our lives to nourish our brokenness too and feed our hungry souls.
That child, born in a manger, grew up and didn’t change one bit. He was later criticized for socializing with the outcasts of society; tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, the marginalized. He broke bread to feed sinners, telling his critics, “I come to call sinners, not the just.” In due time, he died between two thieves, who had likely been shepherds. From the cradle to the grave, Jesus, the Son of God and the son of Mary, dwelt among us, reaching out to anyone and everyone.
The big question for Christmas that we often overlook is why don’t we pay attention to all this? Instead, we allow ourselves to fall for the commercial sentimentality of this season and be smitten by whatever gifts we find or don’t find under the tree. By becoming incarnate in his son, Jesus, God echoes the reality that love is a harsh and dreadful thing. Harsh is being born among the scum of the earth, and dreadful is dying naked on a cross with holes in your body.
What we too easily overlook is that God lives every day among us. In practice, we ignore that. We think that we are beyond his concern, his care, his love. We portray Jesus in royal trappings and place him beyond our reach, much like a resident in England would place the queen. Consequently, we don’t experience his care and embrace. How can we think this about a God who aches so badly to be among us?
Christmas isn’t a day; it’s a season. I suggest that the only way we will find the true meaning of Christmas is to discard the pretty Christmas card images of the birth of Jesus and rediscover that Christ is here where he has always wanted to be: among the small and ordinary folks, like you and me. That is why of all places, he chose to be born in such a lowly setting. The Son of God became flesh so that he could be close to us and empathize with our personal struggles.
If he had no reservations to mingle among the dregs of biblical society so long ago in a dank, smelly cave, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger, then be assured that he has no qualms being welcomed into your life, however you judge yourself to be in his sight. Jesus wants to be close to you; bringing his love into your lives.
Love is what the stable scene is all about, what Christmas is all about. But to hear that message, we have to get close and find our place among the shepherds, the wise men, the animals, and all the other outcasts Jesus came to save. We have to go to the trough, to the feeding station.
It comes down to this: if you look to the media and to popular culture, there is no way that you will find anything other than a tinseled image of the first Christmas. But gathered in a faith community where Jesus still humbly comes in the spoken word and in a small piece of bread, we know he is here for the shepherds, the outcasts, the downtrodden. In Christmas he has fulfilled his desire to be with us, offering us the most precious present we could yearn for, himself.
Remember, Christmas isn’t a display in a store window. Christmas is the celebration of the Son of God coming into our lives, not just to celebrate his birth, but also to celebrate love in the midst of our broken lives.