Many people live a sanitized life. They go through life selectively choosing what experiences they will permit themselves to experience close up and which ones they will only view through a television camera or the pages of a glossy magazine. I heard of a person from the city that had decided they wanted to look for land in the country where they might build a house. But they only got a couple miles from town when they caught a whiff of cow manure being spread on a farmer’s field. At the first opportunity, they turned the car around and headed for the city. The picture-perfect calendar of life in the country had failed to prepare them for the reality that country living sometimes has an aroma all its own.
I think the same is true of the Christmas story. We somehow have created this warm and glowing picture of the holy family happily hunkered down in a livestock lean-to. I think that we forget that these were real people whose lives had been interrupted by multiple crisis and they were being forced to make the best of it. And while the baby Jesus is sleeping serenely on clean straw in the manger, the reality of his ultimate destiny is lost on many who simply gaze at a holiday crèche so artfully displayed on the fireplace mantle. The destiny of Jesus was to provide himself as a sacrifice for the sin of all mankind.
I learned a long time ago that people do not like to see mangers and crosses displayed in the same image. In a Christmas musical that I directed several years ago there was a song where Mary held Jesus and softly sang that she knew he would be a king. And as the soloist sang, “I know they’ll crown you a king” the choir, portraying an angry crowd, began to sing “crucify him”. It was meant to unsettle the audience and help them understand that Jesus came with a purpose and a destiny already determined. But not everyone in the audience received the message as we had intended. One lady filled out a comment card with these words – “There is no room for the Easter story at Christmas.”
She wanted a sanitized Christmas, free from the reality of the gospel and the mission on which Jesus had been sent. She wanted the sweet smell of the straw but was unwilling to recognize the stench of the sin of mankind. We all need to remember that what God initiated at Christmas he finalized at Easter.
So as you celebrate the birth of the Savior this year feel free to leave it “unsanitized”. Remember that a Savior was only required because we were sinners. The little baby in the manger came with the express purpose of giving his life as a ransom for many. The cross can never be far from the manger.
