by Don McLellan

Scripture: Luke 2:1-20

Somewhere, buried in all the trappings of a modern Christmas, you will occasionally find nativity scenes. Such scenes are invariably kind of “nice.” The manger looks rustic but suitably reminiscent of a basinet, the straw looks clean, the animals usually manage to have adopted a kindly and knowledgeable look. Mary sits demurely by, apparently unfazed by the exertions of childbirth, the Christ child is lying peacefully there with a halo around his head, and “all is calm, all is bright.”

The reality was almost certainly very different, as anyone who has lived on a farm would know. For a start, even though you can purchase scented cards, no card manufacturer has ever thought it worthwhile to make Christmas cards that smell like a stable – and for good reason. Even in our modern world, where farmers recognise the importance of keeping their animals in hygienic conditions, perfume manufacturers have never considered Eau de Stable a marketable product.

There are some cultures in the world in which the Christmas stories are a great stumbling block to people considering Christianity. It is quite incredible to them that anyone claiming divinity would stoop that far. There are plenty of people who have been exposed to Christianity all their lives who appear to have the same mentality. The idea of the Son of God being born in a stable seems to be against all dignity. Why would God allow a thing like that?

God allowed it, because human value systems need to be challenged. We look down on this, turn up our noses at that. We set up structures that show where our priorities lie: in wealth, power, and status. God sends his son, and in that very process shows us how warped our values can be. The birth of Jesus reminds us of the dignity of things we would never have thought important, let alone dignified. The humble surroundings of his birth do not diminish him. On the contrary, his coming invests dignity to the things he touched.

There is Dignity in Being Human

People have always wondered what to make of being human. The ancient Greeks believed that matter is intrinsically evil, and only the spiritual is good. So, in the cause of spirituality, the human body was subjected to terrible rigour. Alternatively, and for much the same reasons curiously, the human body was pampered and indulged. Sculptors idealised the human form, as seen in the beautiful statue of Aphrodite usually known as Venus de Milo.

I think that kind of dichotomy is still here. People either abuse their bodies or worship them – or do both at once. Yet there is a longing for spirituality as seen in the popularity of New Age ideas. So there is great confusion over what to make of being human. There can be more sadness over a whale stranded in a creek than over a million souls perishing in a brutal civil war.

But the Son of God takes human flesh. In doing so, he says it is okay to be human. In doing so, he says that human beings can become “partakers in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).” This is very different to New Age thinking, which suggests that we are gods already. The Gospel says that human beings are alienated from God by sin, and because of that alienation, the Son of God comes to reunite us with the Father, and to make us children of God.

The idea of God taking human flesh always looked awesome, but today we may contemplate it against the background of the vastness of the universe. We don’t know whether God has created other creatures in his image on one or other of the myriad planets that must be out there. If God made us, it must be possible for him to duplicate the feat. Yet in our fallenness and feebleness, God sends his son, born of a woman, to tell us that there is dignity in being human. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).”

There is Dignity in Families

Christmas tells us that the all powerful God once put himself into the hands of human parents. Jesus came into the world at a time when marriages were contracted long before the union was consummated – the exact opposite of modern Australia, where it seems unions are usually consummated long before marriage. Mary and Joseph were more than engaged, they were betrothed, and as Matthew tells us, divorce proceedings would have been required to end the union. The angel told Joseph to take Mary as his wife and to raise the child as his own, and he did just that.

To all the other ways in which the Son of God humbled himself, he could have added this: he could have been born to an unwed mother. But he was not. Now I do not want to castigate women for keeping babies born out of wedlock, or to devalue the life of anyone so born. It is a terrible thing to stigmatise a child because of anything its parents may have done, or to stigmatise a woman for proceeding with a pregnancy when many voices would clamour for its termination. But let’s be clear on this: God intended children to grow up with a mother and a father. In giving his Son, God dignified fatherhood. In having him born of a woman, he dignified motherhood. In placing him under Joseph’s care he dignified adoption. In coming as a babe, he dignified childhood. The whole event dignifies family life.

There is Dignity in Weakness

History has thrown up great leaders who were able to inspire the masses; but when some of them could no longer inspire, they used their incumbency to coerce, often resorting to violence. It is very instructive to recall that every despotic leader of this century had a popular mandate at some stage: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein. But then they became intoxicated with power.

These are extremes, of course, but let’s face it: human beings tend to think in terms of power. Insecure men beat their wives. Managers who take delight in firing people left and right – usually the week before the company announces record profits – are lauded by their shareholders. The late Fred Daly of the Labor Party once told a newcomer to Canberra [where the Australian Federal Parliament is located] that there are three things to keep in mind: policies, principles and numbers. But, he added, “If you’ve got the numbers you can forget about the other two.” Unions were founded with the very legitimate goal of counterbalancing the power of unscrupulous bosses – but in many cases power went to the heads of union officials. Power is what people look for.

But there is dignity in weakness. There is honour in being a nobody. The Son of God was born of the princely line of David, but that was not what people mostly knew about him. Rather, he was known as the son of Joseph, raised in a nondescript town. And he was born in a stable and laid in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn.

The Bible predicts a time when God will deal powerfully with his enemies, but at this time when he extends his grace to all who will receive it, he chooses to be weak. Jesus did not cling to his equality with God. Seeing our helplessness, he became helpless himself so that he could truly help us. He put himself in a position of total vulnerability. Why?

“He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness (Heb 5:2).”

It was in weakness that he went to the cross, and there won the greatest victory of all. The forces of evil delighted in his vulnerability and had him killed, but in that very act they mortally wounded themselves.

“For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him to serve you (2 Cor 13:4).”

Do we really know the dignity of weakness?

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things–and the things that are not–to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him (1 Cor 1:27-29).”

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me (2 Cor 12:9).

This century has proved over and over again that the church is at its strongest when it is at its weakest. Who would have believed that the day would come when Eduard Shevardnaze, foreign minister in the communist government of Leonard Brezhnev, would be baptised? Who would ever have believed that the old church in Red Square, used as a museum under communism, would once more open its doors to people to come and worship God? Who would have thought that the church in China would multiply sixty-fold under the bitter hand of Maoism?

So the birth of Jesus brings dignity to many things that the world thinks have no status at all. Let those who truly seek to follow the one who came as a baby rejoice that God became a man; that he lived in a family, and that he died in weakness. Let us stand tall, not with the arrogance and pride of this world’s systems, but with the dignity that is ours because we belong to Jesus Christ. And let us rejoice today in the wonder of Christmas!

(Don McLellan is a Baptist Pastor from Queensland, Australia.)