Read Philippians 2:1-11
There’s a wonderful line in The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis that has stuck with me: “In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”
It’s amazing to think of a humble stable holding something bigger than the world. How can such a thing be possible? How is omnipotence encompassed in an infant? How can divinity exist in the contents of an earthy feeding trough?
Jesus had equal status to God, but didn’t demand the advantages of that status. Jesus, the true King, wasn’t born in a lavishly carved wooden crib with plushy toys, or in a nursery surrounded by gold-leafed walls, and servants and nannies to tend to His every want and need.
As He grew, Jesus didn’t position Himself with the leaders of His day to pilfer others for money or power. He didn’t clamber for the top. At any moment of His life, He could have chosen differently. Instead, He continued to upend the order of things, by telling us things like the least will be greatest, the last shall be first, and that power comes through weakness. I guess that explains why He was born in such a humble and unassuming way—would any other option make sense?
On Christmas, we celebrate the birth of “infinity walled in a womb” as poet Luci Shaw describes the nativity. This is how the infinite became finite and came to us: vulnerable, small, tender, born in the most modest of circumstances.
God ripped open the doors between heaven and earth by sending a Savior. Then God zipped up the chasm between heaven and earth permanently when Jesus died. In so doing, this birth cauterized the world’s pain, and ignited the hope of reconciliation of humanity to God. Death is destroyed; new life is kindled.
So yes, a baby was born that day, and placed in a stable, a gift bigger than the world. We have reason to rejoice, because this humble baby born on earth is now a man in heaven, seated at the right hand of God.
For REflection:
- What does the story of Jesus’ humble birth mean to you?
- Philippians 2 tells us the Christmas story from a different perspective: the view from Heaven towards earth. Read it alongside one the traditional tellings of the story (Matthew or Luke. How does it deepen your understanding of what was really happening in those moments?
* Place the shepherds near the stable. The angel told them that the Savior had been born! They believed, and there were the first to see Jesus and to tell others about Him!
by Prasanta Anumolu
