"WHY THE MANGER?"
Written and preached by David P. Nolte
LUKE 2:1-20
A Persian prince looked out the window of his palace one day and saw
the teeming masses. He'd seen them countless times but now he looked at
them differently than he had before. Something about their faces, something
about how they wearily trudged along the way, something about the droop
of their shoulders caught his attention. Then he noticed a vendor hawking
his wares and wondered if the man had a family and if he made enough to
feed them. As he watched, it dawned upon him that he had never walked in
their shoes, never eaten their food, never experienced their lives. An
idea presented itself to him and he decided to try it. Disguising himself
as a peasant and telling no one of his plan, the prince sneaked out of
the palace to assume his new identity. He walked the streets among the
urchins, the infirmed and homeless. Dusk fell and he sought food and shelter
at an inn but was rudely rebuffed as a beggar and sent on his way. He found
shelter in an alley and spent a cold night there alone in the shadows.
As we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ we are reminded that He, too,
left palatial glory to come to our level. He, too, was refused a welcome.
He came to His own and His own received Him not. He found no room in the
inn and was born in a manger. A manger! But why a manger? Let me suggest
a couple of ideas this morning. The first answer is obvious:
THERE WAS NO ROOM IN THE INN:
V7:
"And she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths,
and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."
We've heard the story a hundred times. We've seen the pageants where the
stern and forbidding voice of the innkeeper thunders, "No room!" It may
not have been that way at all!
Remember: the crowds were unusually large that day. The emperor's recent
decree had brought people from far and wide. Bethlehem was no convention
center; it had no Rose Garden, there was no "Motel Row!" So think about
it for a moment:
You know how it is when unexpected company shows up! "What will we do with
Aunt Matilda? Where will Uncle Festus sleep? Maybe we can hang Cousin Nerdley
on a coat hook!" It's pandemonium city! It's Excedrin headache #129! It's
overcrowded-to-the-max!
You know, too, the panic of driving from motel to motel in a strange city
trying to find just one with a vacancy! It's just your luck that the Lug-nut
Makers Convention is in town and every room is booked up!
We took a trip to Victoria B.C. in 1975 and failed to make reservations.
We drove from one end of the city to the other seeing one "No vacancy!"
after another. We ended up sleeping in our car in a campground, much to
the delight of our kids and much to our own chagrin. What a dismal way
to start a vacation in a strange city far from home.
Imagine how Jesus feels when He seeks entrance into our lives, homes, thoughts
and activities and encounters "No vacancy!" We may not rudely send Him
away, but we may carelessly do so if we:
Fill our lives with secular, mundane and temporal pursuits.
Emphasize Xmas or Santamas or Turkeymas or Presentmas or what-ever-else-mas
over the real reason for the season.
Focus on activities and busyness and frenzy.
Fill our lives with materialism and commercialism.
Allow pride and self to take center stage.
Permit bitterness, anger, and unforgiving hearts to crowd out his love
and peace.
So, "Why the manger?" There was simply no room in the inn. Just so, lives
filled with so many things flip on a neon sign blinking, "No room for You
here, Jesus! No vacancy! You can just go sleep in a manger!"
There was no room for the incognito prince, either. Turned away from food
and lodging he began to feel the bitter loneliness and despair that his
people lived every day of their lives. He encountered the vendor the next
day and engaged him in conversation. He found him an amiable man and in
a couple of days they were fast friends. The vendor even invited the prince
to share his home and fare. As the prince did so, he began to savor the
life of his people. He saw how they toiled and scrimped simply to exist.
So Jesus did that same thing. He walked as man among men, temporarily forfeiting
His heavenly glory, to know how it is and what it is to be one of us. So,
why the manger?
TO IDENTIFY WITH THE LOWLY
OF EARTH: V8:
"And in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields,
and keeping watch over their flock by night."
The shepherds were common, lowly folk. They were held in disdain by the
cultured, the aristocratic, the religious. Tending flocks made it difficult
to observe the minutia of the law and traditions of the elders such as
Sabbath keeping and hand washing, so these men didn't measure up in their
eyes.
But it was to just such Jesus came! He was born in obscurity, to a peasant
girl, and His birth in the manger was announced first to shepherds in the
field. The manger was no accident! God made a reservation there from the
foundations of eternity! From His conception, God would have His Son identify
with the lowly!
That's just God's way! He always chooses the unchosen; brings in the left
out; has an eye for the overlooked; remembers the forgotten! Paul said, 1
Corinthians 1:26-29
"For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according
to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things
of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things
of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not,
that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before
God."
Because Jesus Christ was born in a manger, He has a heart to identify with
us, whoever we are, wherever we are, whatever we experience!
He feels with and heals our broken hearts.
He understands the downtrodden and abused.
He sympathizes with the poor and the needy.
He labors alongside those who struggle and are overworked, overloaded and
overwhelmed.
He bears every cross, shares every burden, feels every thorn.
He is touched by the feeling of our infirmities!
Hebrews 2:17: "Therefore,
He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become
a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make
propitiation for the sins of the people."
So, "Why the manger?" So He could identify with the lowly of earth. And
you'll find a heart of compassion when you turn in faith to Jesus Christ.
He's been there! He's felt it! He knows it all and what's more: He cares!
The prince decided to reveal his identity to his new friends. He did so
and offered them gifts of gratitude for their hospitality. His host protested,
"you need give nothing more than you have already given! I have all I need
for life and happiness! You have added to that your best gift: you have
given us yourself!" And that's what Jesus gave, too. He gave Himself. From
God's heaven to a manger, from God's riches to the poor, from eternal glory
to a lowly cattle shed came the Prince of heaven to identify with all of
us. There was no room for Him in Bethlehem. Is there room today? He identified
with the lowly then and He'll do it for you, too. Come to Him. Make room
for Him. Make room in your plans. Make room in your relationships. Make
room in your business. Make room in your leisure. Make room in your attitudes.
Make room in your heart! Let Him be born afresh in the manger of your heart
as we sing; ask yourself the question, "Is there any room for Jesus?"