This is the season that practically every facet of our lives will be
touched by the story of the birth of Jesus – the child in the manger..
Even in Hollywood, which for 51 weeks out of the year mentions
the name of Jesus Christ as nothing more than a curse word, an epithet,
a byword and a vulgarity will take time out for its annual, obligatory,
“Christmas Show” on TV, which frequently includes a tribute to the birth of
Jesus and the “spirit of the season.”
The virgin birth is critical to the gospel and must be told (see Isaiah
7:14; Matthew 1:18-21; Luke 1:30-37), but we find it curious that the whole
world prefers the first two chapters of Matthew and Luke to the exclusion
of everything else taught about and by the Lord.
It’s as though they would like to keep Jesus “Away — in a manger.”
And we think we know why:
I. The Child in the manger (Matthew 2) never grows up…
a. To be baptized to fulfill all righteousness. (Matt. 3)
b. To conquer Satan, temptation and sin (Matt. 4)
c. To teach proper conduct in all ways of life (Matt. 5-7).
d. To teach believers they must also confess and labor in His
vineyard (Matt. 8-11).
e. To expose the dangers of rejecting the testimony of the Holy
Spirit and embracing religious error (Matt. 12-15)
f. To promise to build His church, be acclaimed by the voice of
God, warn against being unmerciful, or tell the rich it will be
hard for them to inherit the kingdom (Matt. 16-21)
g. To be betrayed, crucified and resurrected (Mt 22-28).
h. To ascend to His Father and receive the kingdom and
everlasting dominion previously prophesied (Mt. 28; Dan. 7).
II. The Child In The Manger Is Under Adult Control
and Supervision:
He must be nurtured, nursed, and cared for by those who
are older. He is without any of the properties of adulthood that
would render him His own man, with His own will and way. He
is, at this early stage of His life, whatever each man would like
to make of him.
III. The Child in the Manger Poses No Threat:
When Jesus grows up He becomes a preacher (MK. 1:14,38)
whose words come directly from God (John 12:48-50). They are
filled with references to heaven and hell. People must actually
answer the question “What think ye of Christ…Who do ye say
that I am?” (Mt 22:42; 16:13). While in the manger the child
never causes any to think about these things.
IV. The Child in the Manger Never Dies:
Therefore, He is never raised (1 Cor. 15:20), and does not ever
become the one who will judge the world in righteousness (Acts
17:30-31).
By His death, burial and resurrection He is proved with
power to be the Son of God (Romans 1:4). Many people do not
have to think about, consider, or decide anything about Jesus as
He is lying in swaddling clothes in the manger.
To them the Child in the manger is harmless; Jesus the
Christ, the Son of the living God is not (Mt 16:16-18).
Therefore keeping the Lord “away — in a manger” is
preferable since He is much easier to manipulate. Life is much
simpler and less threatening for this wicked world while Jesus is
still a baby.
But thirty-three years after Bethlehem Peter pinpoints our
world’s dilemma with the child in the manger, saying, “Let all the
house of Israel know assuredly He has made Him both Lord and
Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified… Repent and be baptized
everyone of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of
your sins” (Ac 2:36-38).
At that moment “trouble” begins to brew for the atheistic,
secularist, humanistic society that we have built.
For this reason, few people object to promoting Matthew
1 and 2 as long as they can ignore Acts 1 and 2. It is not until
then, the beginning of the gospel dispensation, The Christian era
and the church age that Jesus the Christ – the all grown up child
in the manger – ceases to be as much fun to play with.
By Randall Morris