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“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”

᛭ INI ᛭

It seems that everyone likes baby Jesus the best. There’s a bit of letting your guard down when it comes to interacting with children and babies, especially when they aren’t your kids…

Everyone always wants a picturesque, photo-worthy Christmas, and the Baby Jesus apparently allows for such a thing! Nice photo-op for the family by the nativity, or by a tree… or santa… Christmas cards with sanitary, photoshopped families, with a sanitary, photoshopped nativity, or at least a wintery scene… So is it really the Baby Jesus everyone’s fawning over?

A baby’s an approachable. In our minds, we’ve also got the likable shepherds in a beautiful country side, under serene starlight, along with some majestic, only somewhat startling angels. (Angels more in line with Jim Shore or Precious Moments rather than what the Bible actually describes…)

We imagine ourselves following the shepherds, visiting the baby Jesus, maybe cooing over Him, cuddling him, little infants are so cuddly, and then you just leave Him in His manger. Yes, baby Jesus, like every other kid that isn’t your own, is approachable but just as equally leave-able. You can leave Him behind without a second thought, no guilt. Someone else to take care of Him. Move on, off to your life, rinse and repeat next year.

Baby Jesus is everyone’s favorite because most fail to wrestle with who baby Jesus actually is. It’s true: if you were there that night, you would’ve seen newborn, infant Jesus. Didn’t even know a word. 100% newborn! Yet, He’s not your standard newborn!

Christmas hymns, and the Christmas carols that actually deal with who Jesus is, try to wrestle with what the angel says: “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” That Baby isn’t just some kid. He’s Christ. He’s Lord and God! So, it’s no joke to say the little cuddly infant is still omnipotent. “The babe, the Son of Mary” is the enteral Word and Son of God.

We, too, must wrestle with the angel’s sermon about Jesus. For Jesus isn’t just the Jesus of the manger. He grew up!—“Nails spear shall pierce Him through the cross be borne for me for you.” For our not so sanitary, photoshopped lives… The Jesus of the manger is the same Jesus of the cross, the Jesus of the empty tomb, the Jesus on heaven’s throne, the Jesus who instituted Baptism and Communion, the Jesus with scars who will judge you on the Last Day. There’s only one Jesus—born Savior of shepherds and the world and you. Savior in manger, but a Savior who grew up and actually did some saving!

Many approach just the infant Jesus with only passing wonder and affection! “He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.” (Is 53:2) The innumerable angels gave way to a handful of shepherds, then the Magi, eventually just His two parents. The 5,000 reduce to 12 apostles. The 12 apostles scatter with only John at Calvary.

Many no longer follow after Jesus, certainly not to Calvary, nor the daily cross and death Jesus gives His disciples in Baptism. But eventually all, you and me, too, will have to stand before grown up Jesus on the Last Day. He’ll Judge, and His sentence shall have no end.

You see, kids just keep growing. With our own kids we see them change and grow from baby to adult. With other people’s kids, just a little time passes and we go, “I didn’t recognize them!” The danger with Jesus isn’t that we won’t recognize Him. (Hard to miss the Guy with nail scars, glowing brighter than the sun.) No, it’s that our lifetime’ll pass, and He’ll go, “I don’t know you.”

“Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour!” The Savior wasn’t anywhere else except “wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” In the manger, the eternal Son of God lay for you. There He was flesh and blood. He’s forever flesh and blood for you! He isn’t done being your Savior. He’s just wrapped and lying in different mangers to make you, your heart, and your daily life His.

“Dismiss your own opinions and feelings, and think of the Scriptures as the loftiest and noblest of holy things, as the richest of mines which can never be sufficiently explored,” as a field that can never be completely harvested, so that “you may find that divine wisdom which God [there] lays before you in such simple guise as to quench all pride. [There you’ll] find the swaddling clothes and manger wherein Christ lies… To [Christ] the angel points the shepherds. Simple and lowly are [the] swaddling clothes, but dear is the treasure, Christ, who lies in them.” God’s Word for you.

So also, the bread and wine are the manger to bear Christ’s flesh and blood into your mouth for the forgiveness of your sins, that His forgiveness, His peace, and even He Himself would dwell in your heart only by faith. As Jesus says, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” No wonder, “after [saying that] many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”

Everyone apparently likes baby Jesus the best, or at least seeing their kids or grandkids playing Mary, Joseph, shepherds, or angels. Many assemble just at some idol of His long since decayed manger.

Those whom He gathers to follow in His train receive from Him Himself—their babe of Bethlehem, their crucified and risen Lord, their eternal Friend, Savior, and God, who grew for 33 years or so and traveled toward one goal: His death at Calvary—your salvation! He also delivers that salvation in His Word and Sacraments. He’s your Redeemer not just in the manger and on the cross, but in the manger of His Word and Altar, that He would be your Redeemer and Vindicating Judge on the Last Day.

O God, You make us glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Grant that as we joyfully receive Him as our Redeemer, we may with sure confidence behold Him when He comes to be our Judge; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.