One of my contributions with this modest little blog is to continually ask the tough questions.
Recently I listened to “Away in a Manger” at a Christmas program. You likely know verse three of the song.
The cattle are lowing
The poor Baby wakes
But little Lord Jesus
No crying He makes
As I listened an important series of inquiries popped into my head. What noise were the cattle making when they started lowing? Was this normal cow talk? Did lowing just sound better than mooing in the lyric? And then the most important question came to mind…what is wrong with me?
I can’t answer the last question but I can help with the others. Lowing is in fact defined as…
The characteristic sound uttered by cattle; a moo. – dictionary.com
So Jesus was awakened by the characteristic sound uttered by a cow. The next part of the lyric is disturbing to those of us who are parents. If any of the babies who grew up in our household were awakened by cattle lowing they would be squalling (the characteristic sound uttered by a ticked off baby; a scream). I also discovered that this verse was not original to the song. It was added in the early 1900’s by a Methodist minister named John T. McFarland for a children’s program.
I remember as a child singing “Away in a Manger” and picturing the baby Jesus with this beatific smile on his face and a little halo hovering over his head. The animals were swaying and smiling like the campfire scene from the movie “Three Amigos”. Mary and Joseph were awed spectators as the baby Jesus acknowledged the shepherds and welcomed them to his place (the earlier lyrics told us he didn’t have a crib).
My images of the baby Jesus were indeed childish. But I wonder if we don’t carry a little of that into our adult Christian journey. This Christmas I have taken time to think about the implications of the incarnation.
C.S. Lewis called the incarnation “the Grand Miracle.” He wrote: “The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation…. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this…. It was the central event in the history of the Earth–the very thing that the whole story has been about” (Miracles, chapter 14).
By a miracle that passes human comprehension, the Creator entered his creation, the Eternal entered time, God became human–in order to die and rise again for the salvation of all people. “He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity; down further still … (to) the womb … down to the very roots and sea-bed of the Nature He has created. But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him” (Miracles, chapter 14).
Take a moment to meditate on the mystery of that. Fully God and fully man. I am sure the little Lord Jesus had the normal response to being awakened by cattle. His swaddling clothes had to be changed just like any baby. Chuck Swindoll described Him as diety in diapers.
How does that affect me this Christmas? When I suffer Jesus understands. He has been there. When I am lonely or feeling betrayed He understands. When I am joyful and laughing He understands. By becoming like me Jesus can empathize with me. He gets it.
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. I John 2
The miracle in the manger was not Jesus ignoring stupid cows. The miracle was God becoming flesh.
Merry Christmas!
danny
I am responding to Brian’s question as to whether or not you meant that God couldn’t get it before He became man. There are two passages that address this question: Gen. 6:6 and Heb. 5:8.
In Genesis 6:6 we read: “The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” (NASB)
It’s an interesting verse because we know, as Brian alludes, that God knows the end from the beginning and nothing that happens takes God by surprise. And yet it says God was sorry He made man, but the end of the verse gives the insight: for “He was grieved in His heart”. God as God, knowing the end from the beginning, knew that He would at this point in the timeline address the culmination of evil that had overcome man in an act that prophesied of the baptism of all mankind into the death of Christ (2 Cor. 5:14). Yes, “And He died for all, that they which live should no henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again” (vs. 15).
So if He knew that, why did it repent God (as some versions say) that He made man. As you said Dave, the great thing about our God is that He has been in all points, tempted as have we. Knowing it is one thing, but living it out is another. And our God is not above living through the experience of suffering. In this passage in Genesis we see that “He was grieved in His heart”. Living through the rejection of the object of that which was not only His creation, but His passion, produced much grief in the heart of God. There is something that is worked in by living through the experience, and in this instance we see that our God does not subject His creation to the dynamics of development that He has established without first submitting Himself.
We see the same thing in Hebrews 5:8, where we read that “although He was the Son, He learned… through suffering. In connection with this verse I like Hebrews 2:10 in the Amplified which says “it was an act worthy of God… to make the pioneer of the salvation perfect… through suffering.”
Even though He was God, He learned, as God and as the Son of Man, through the experience of suffering. The original intention is to make man in His image and after His likeness. We who have received the Spirit of The Son (Gal. 4:6) are being trained, conformed, even transformed into His image, by His Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). “It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline” Only He knows how to make sons of God out of a fallen race of humanity. Turns out it is the same process through which He is developing Himself, for “of the increase of His government and peace, there shall be no end… The zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall perform this.” (Is. 9:7).
Sandra
We all see things from our own perspective and forget there are other perspectives. Babies growing up in this valley, and on farms the world over, find cattle lowing very peaceful as do we adults living on this farm. A day without the sound of cattle lowing is a day where all is not right with my world.
I am sure the Christ child would not have been frightened by the lowing of cattle as, in the womb, He would have already heard the sounds of an agricultural society. He would have already been acclimated to same.
“Deity in diapers” indeed but deity in diapers in an agricultural world.
Pax.
Brian R
Dave,
Good article. It’s good always to bring God’s becoming man into any discussion of Christmas! I really liked your quote from Lewis. He always has great perspectives.
I’m curious about this phrase of yours: “By becoming like me Jesus can empathize with me. He gets it.” Did you mean God couldn’t get it before he was man? It kind of looks like that’s what you’re saying. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Although it definitely is comforting to know that he went through what I go through, it’s even more comforting to know that the reason God became man wasn’t mainly to empathize with me, but to represent me as a part of the human race.
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. – Gal 4:4,5
All the empathy in the world won’t matter one bit, unless I know the historical fact, that two thousand years ago, God became man to represent me; to obey, bleed and die for me, so I wouldn’t come under the Father’s wrath.
Thanks for your thought-provoking article!
Brian