A Feeding Trough

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Luke 2:1-7 ESV).

The last verse of our reading today is very interesting. In most of the translations we see the word “manger” used to translate the Greek word, φάτνη (phatné). We all know the story of the birth of Jesus well. However, I think we rarely think of the real circumstances of this event. The word “manger” should best be translated “feeding trough.” It would have been made from a hewn log or block of stone. It would have been anything but clean and comfortable. It was used day after day with little care for those things. Sheep, goats, donkeys, and other farm animals wouldn’t have cared about the sanitary conditions of their trough, neither did the inn keeper. It’s easy for us to sanitize the reality of the situation, and thereby remove some of the irony. The fact is the Savior of Mankind, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, was wrapped in rags and set to rest in a trough. We might question why Joseph and Mary would allow such a thing is of some interest. The truth is they simply had no choice; there was no room for them anywhere else. The better question would be why would Jesus’ heavenly Father His only begotten Son to be treated in this manner? Well, in addition to prophecy being fulfilled, maybe God also knew that His Child had to experience humanity. He needed to know what it was like to be homeless, helpless, and in poverty. Later, He needed to understand hunger, the death of loved ones, persecution, and even death itself. Jesus needed to experience humanity fully to identify with mankind and redeem us. And that, my friends, is the real Christmas story. Think of what that means to us today. Whatever circumstance we may find ourselves, Jesus has already been there. The pain and disappointments of life are not foreign to him. He both understands and walked in that path. Our journey is of such concern to Him that He traveled it before us. When the carol declares that he “will bring us goodness and light,” it is a much deeper truth than God declaring it. This great gift of eternal life and renewed relationship with God was much more involved than that. His love extends to every detail of our lives both in theory and practice. Ponder that this Christmas season and rejoice in such a wonderful heavenly Father!