Articles

We like to have things under control. We like to be in control of our own destiny. Many of us, because of the advantages that birth, education and prosperity have given us, can, for a while, live with the illusion that we are in control. But we all know how easily that sense of control can come crumbling down.

On the surface the Christmas story might look like God seemingly giving up control. God the Son in the weakness of human form. God the Son willingly giving up being in control. The one who had always been the true king of all allowed himself to be acted upon.

But in reality the Christmas story is the story of the one who was truly in control. The one who controlled all of history.

In Luke 2 there are three key words that describe how Jesus was handled by his young mother Mary. We see Jesus wrapped in cloths. We see him placed in a manger. We see him laid down to sleep. What an incredible sight. What a beautiful picture. God allows himself to be wrapped, placed, and laid down. He who had always been the one acting is now the one who is acted upon.

If you had been there on that first Christmas night you would have seen a fragile baby lifted up and placed down. We are never more out of control than when we are babies, and yet here is God the Son. Jesus seems to be at the mercy of history, even down to the fact that his family is there in Bethlehem because of the rule and authority of another king, Caesar Augustus.

Of course this is only part of the story...

Those three words that Luke uses to describe how Jesus was handled as a baby - wrapped, placed, laid-down – are used again on another dark night.

In Luke 23:53, after his crucifixion, his body is “wrapped in a linen cloth and placed in a tomb”. And then his body is “laid down” in a tomb (23:55).

On that first Christmas night as we see Jesus wrapped in cloths, placed in a manger, and laid there to sleep, we think of that day 30 years later when his lifeless body is wrapped in cloths, placed in a tomb, and laid to rest. What staggering condescension! God allows himself to be acted upon – at Christmas as a baby, and then at Easter as a man.

It looked like God had lost control, but all of this is an illusion. God is perfectly in control. This was his

plan. As the Apostle Peter said on the day of Pentecost… “you plotted to have him put to death, but you only did what God had decided beforehand was going to happen.” And on the third day Christ throws off those linen cloths that had wrapped his lifeless body.

He rises up from where he had been placed in the tomb, and neatly folds the graveclothes that had surrounded him.

Jesus came and was acted upon. He was wrapped, placed in a manger, and then laid down in a tomb so that he might bring life and peace as he rises in victory.

Of course, for us to benefit from what Jesus did we actually need to admit to God that we are not in control, but that he is.

I pray that God’s blessings of life and peace in Jesus will be ours this Christmas.

Amen.

Jesus came and was acted upon. He was wrapped, placed in a manger, and then laid down in a tomb so that he might bring life and peace as he rises in victory.