A Christmas Meditation

The story of Jesus’ birth as told by Luke describes Him wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. At the end of his gospel Luke again records Jesus body wrapped in cloths, this time lying in a tomb. I wonder if you have ever put the two together and noticed the symmetry? I wonder if Luke’s first mention was intentionally dropping a hint of what was to follow. Matthew almost certainly was, when he mentioned the gift of myrrh (used for embalming) in his nativity account. 

At His birth, Jesus’ parents wrapped Him up to keep Him safe and warm but unable to move. They would doubtless have unwrapped and rewrapped Him several times during those early days. Thirty years on, He was again wrapped in cloths. That was the custom with dead bodies. After the Sabbath, the women returned to the tomb with their spices, to embalm the corpse. But of course, the body had gone, and the cloths were empty. 

In both situations, there was absolutely no way Jesus, God in the form of a human, could control or influence is situation. “From heaven you came helpless babe,” as Graham Kendrick’s song says. Accepting fully the implications of His incarnation, was His supreme act of trust in God the Father. 

Likewise, in Gethsemane, by accepting crucifixion as the will of the Father, He followed through with more of that same trust and on the cross He was again willingly helpless. 

There is a principle here, that ‘God’s kingdom purpose is advanced by surrender – letting go and helplessness.’ In both cases the cloths that bound and restricted Him were removed. In the first instance by loving parents as they released the babe initially to childhood and then to manhood. In the second, He was released by the mighty power of God by the miracle of the resurrection. 

If we, as disciples, follow in His footsteps, there will be times when we need to let go and simply trust God. The consequence will be situations when we are utterly powerless to free ourselves from things that constrain us. At such times of helplessness, God will step in to release us, either through the actions of others or by His supernatural power. 

Either way, His Kingdom purposes will be advanced. 

Chris Moffett