Luke 2:1-20
The sign of the birth of Christ is the baby in the manger. When I first understood this, it came to me like a revelation from heaven. I had decided to prepare a sermon on Luke chapter 2, and as I read it and asked myself what the most important thing in the text was, the Holy Spirit drew my attention to precisely this. There are three scenes in the account, and in each of them the focus is on the baby in the manger. First we are told that when Mary gave birth to little Jesus, she placed him “in a manger” because there was no room for them in the inn (v. 7). But according to the angels, this was to be the very sign, the “token” by which the shepherds would recognize that this baby was the long-awaited Messiah (v. 12). And indeed, when they go to Bethlehem, they find the baby in the manger (v. 17). A baby in a manger? Isn’t that strange? When our babies are born, they are born in special conditions; they are kept apart, protected from disease and infection. But Jesus was born in a stable. A baby in a manger — this is not something ordinary; this is a sign, the sign of Christmas! A baby in a manger? It is something that makes us stop and think, “What?” and ask ourselves, “Why?” But let us hear the story for ourselves (Luke 2:1-20).
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 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 2:1-7)
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, (Luke 2:8-13)
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:14)
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (Luke 2:15-20)
The sign of the birth of Christ is the baby in the manger. And this sign raises two questions in us. First, who is this baby, and second, why does he lie precisely in a manger? In fact, the baby in the manger is the miracle of God’s incarnation. The baby in that manger is God revealed in the flesh. And the manger discloses the purpose of that incarnation — redemption. If we think about it a little more, we will see that the baby in the manger reveals to us the person and the mission of Christ.
THE PERSON OF THE BABY IN THE MANGER
Who is the baby? His person is revealed in several ways. First, through the “annunciation” — the words of the angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary (Luke 1:26-38):
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. (Luke 1:26-31)
Do you see? Even before he was born, the baby in the manger already had his name. What was it? Jesus, in Hebrew Yeshua. What does that name mean? “The LORD saves.” Jesus means Savior. He saves us. From what? From our sins. The evangelist Matthew tells us how the baby’s name was made known in a supernatural way not only to his mother but also to his father (Matthew 1:18-21).
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:18-21)
And so, the baby’s name is Jesus — the Savior from our sins. And what is his title? In Luke 1:32-33 the angel tells Mary that he “will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.” The baby is not only Savior. He is King. His title is “Son of the Most High.” This means that his reign is the most supreme of all, higher than any other. His kingdom is eternal.
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end. (Luke 1:32-33)
Isaiah prophesied of him in this way (Isaiah 9:6-7):
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)
Jesus is King. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. The wise men from the East rightly sought him out to bring him gifts and to worship him (Matthew 2:1-12).
The baby’s name — Jesus — reveals his character. The baby’s title — Son of the Most High — reveals his royal glory. And the way he was born reveals his nature. For he is not merely a man, but the God-man — the Son of God and the Son of Man.
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:34-35)
Besides the annunciation, the divine nature of the baby in the manger was also revealed through the greeting of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, to Mary (Luke 1:39-45).
39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” (Luke 1:39-45)
Notice that here it is explicitly said that Elizabeth speaks filled with the Holy Spirit. She blesses Mary and calls her the mother of her Lord. Mary is not the mother of an ordinary man. She is the mother of the Lord. Not that Jesus began his existence through his birth — for as part of the Trinity he has no beginning — but through the miracle of the incarnation he was born as a man whose mother was Mary. That is why she can rightly be called the mother of God. Not that she is higher than God or equal to him. Nor that she is a mediator between mankind and God who better understands our sufferings, for such a belief belittles the truth of the incarnation. Rather, she is the instrument through whom God became flesh, and the fact that she is called the mother of God emphasizes not so much her own character as the character and dignity of her Son — namely, that he is God.
And finally, the divine nature of the baby in the manger was revealed through the words of the angel to the shepherds (Luke 2:10-11):
10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. (Luke 2:10-11)
- “Savior” — this is the meaning of the name Jesus — Savior from our sins. In order to redeem us, Christ had to become one of us, and he did!
- Christ — this is his title: in Hebrew, Messiah; in Greek, Christ; in English, the Anointed One, the King. This is how Matthew begins his gospel — by tracing the genealogy of Jesus back to King David, he demonstrates his royal descent.
- Lord — this is his nature. It is explained most clearly in the Gospel according to John 1:1-4, 14, 18. To understand these verses, we must know that the name John gives to Jesus is the Logos. According to Greek philosophy, the Logos is the one through whom God creates all things. The Logos — in English, “the Word” — is not merely words or knowledge or culture. The Logos is Jesus Christ. He is God, who becomes part of his own creation.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. (John 1:1-4)
From these first verses we understand that the Word, or the Logos, Jesus Christ, is God. But a little further down, in verse 14, we are told that this same Word becomes “flesh.”
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
The purpose of this incarnation is that God should reveal himself to us and draw us to himself (v. 18).
18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. (John 1:18)
The baby in the manger is the Lord Jesus Christ — the God-man and King. But why does this most exalted and supreme person in the entire universe lie in a manger amid the squalor of the Bethlehem stable? Should he not have been placed in the most exquisitely embroidered blankets in the most beautiful palace on earth? The answer to this question directs us to the mission of the baby in the manger.
THE MISSION OF THE BABY IN THE MANGER
The manger reveals the mission of the baby who lies in it. In the briefest terms, this mission could be summed up in the words “redemption” and “reconciliation.”
We have already seen that the name of Jesus means Savior — Savior from our sins. Romans 3:23 says:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23)
By human standards, or by our own standards, we may not seem so sinful, but I have to tell you that no matter how good we are, we have completely fallen short of God’s standard of righteousness. We are slaves of sin, and what sin pays us as wages for our service to it is death (Romans 6:23). And so it is clear from what we must be saved — from sin, Satan, and death. But how can this salvation come about? Only through a ransom. God is at the same time merciful and just. In his mercy, he sends us a Savior, but in his justice, he requires a sacrifice for our sins. The golden verse of the Gospel according to Luke tells us that “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10), and the golden verse of the Gospel according to Mark tells us that this salvation comes about through a ransom (Mark 10:45).
45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)
In order to give his life for our life and his blood for our blood, Christ had to lay aside his heavenly position and attributes, to humble himself and lower himself to the point of becoming flesh and becoming one of us — becoming a man. In Philippians 2:6-8 the apostle Paul says the following, which is thought to be part of an ancient Christian hymn:
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8)
The baby Jesus was born in a stable and was laid in a manger. He was born where the sacrificial animals were born. His very birth defined his mission of ransom and sacrifice. His death on the cross was already contained in his birth. However hard we try, at Christmas we cannot escape the question of death and the cross, for it was precisely for this that Jesus was born; this was precisely his mission. The purpose of Christ’s incarnation is his sacrifice, for the sacrifice is precisely the way in which he saved us.
Until that time, the whole of humanity groaned under the yoke of sin and the power of darkness. The situation looked as though Satan and death would destroy us once and for all. But behold, against this terrifyingly dark background there shone the star of the baby in the manger. He is the embodiment of all human longings and yearnings, the only hope — hope for salvation and eternal life. He became a sacrifice for us. He redeemed us with his own blood… But he did not remain in the grave. He rose from the dead. He lives! And he will come again to reign over the earth and to judge the world.
The baby in the manger came to bring us not only redemption from our sins, but also reconciliation with God. This is precisely why the heavenly host sang (Luke 2:13-14):
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:13-14)
Sin had placed man on the side of God’s adversaries. God could take no pleasure in human sin. But with the birth of Jesus, God’s peace also came to earth. Through the miracle of the incarnation, we human beings once again gained God’s favor. In Colossians 1:19-23 the apostle Paul says:
19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. 21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. (Colossians 1:19-23)
Thanks to the incarnation, thanks to Christmas, we can once again rejoice in God’s presence with us. This is precisely what the Christmas name of Christ tells us — Immanuel — “God with us” (Matthew 1:22-23).
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). (Matthew 1:22-23)
Yes, Christ came to bring us peace; he came to restore to us the presence of God, which we had rejected with our sin. But the price of God’s peace, of his favor toward us, is the blood of Christ. Only it could be sufficient to pay for our sins; only it could satisfy God’s holiness; only it could restore the broken harmony and bring reconciliation between the righteous God and sinful man.
The apostle Paul explains the process of reconciliation and those who take part in it in 2 Corinthians 5:18-6:2.
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: (2 Corinthians 5:18)
Reconciliation is from God. He is the one who reconciles us to himself. But this reconciliation has two stages. The first is the one accomplished by Jesus, and the second is the one accomplished by the apostles. The role of Christ is to satisfy God’s just wrath against sin by sacrificing himself for us. God laid our sins upon him, so that they would not be counted against us.
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19)
The sacrifice of Christ, however, is only the first stage in God’s process of reconciliation. The second is the carrying of the news of Christ’s redemptive work to perishing humanity, and the reception and belief of that news on our part. The apostles are ambassadors of God and of Christ, who plead with us on God’s behalf to be reconciled to him — to the one who has proved his love for us by sacrificing his Son for us.
20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)
What a wonderful and marvelous message! But for it to work for you, you must receive it today and now!
1 As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:1-2)
Through Christ, God reconciled us to himself. But you personally — are you reconciled with God? Is the birth of Christ a celebration of your reconciliation with God? Does it bring you God’s peace in your own heart? Do you have God’s presence in your heart? On the answers to these questions depends whether the birth of Christ will bring you the inexpressible joy of heaven, or will be merely one more empty occasion to eat and drink your fill.
But today, we too, together with the apostles, plead with you: “Do not receive God’s grace in vain!” Come to the baby in the manger. Believe in him! Receive him into your heart! And he will save you from your sins. He will bring you God’s peace, God’s presence, God’s favor, and an immeasurably great, “inexpressible and glorious joy” — the joy of salvation, the joy of Christmas.