Note: If you're unfamiliar with Christianity, see the next section, Back to Basics.
Many Jews didn’t recognize Jesus as their Savior. Why? I believe that one reason is that a newborn laid in a manger - a feeding trough for animals - and raised as a village carpenter didn’t fit their expectations of a Savior.
Nazareth Marketplace. Bethlehem was a large town when Jesus was born there, and whatever marketplace Joseph and Mary found food for themselves in was probably akin to this peasant scene of narrow alleyways, peeling paint and ramshackle roofs. Photo courtesy of bibleplaces.com.Would people recognize you as a feeding-trough-Baby worshipper?
I’m talking about your character, not your actual job. Would people who know you outside of a church setting be astonished to find you cleaning up baby spit or hammering nails in a forgotten corner? Is your character testament to the reality of the manger Baby?
Some people, including me, are intimidated by being above peons at church; this is not testament to the Savior laid in a food bin for animals. There are status ladders in everybody’s life, and I challenge you to consider which one people would be surprised to find you at the bottom of and how you could change that.
Whoever wants to be the greatest must become the least of all.
A manger, a feeding bin for animals, with a toddler named Mark in it. Photo courtesy of bibleplaces.com.I grew up in an affluent town that values success, and I drive the rattiest car conceivable to me. I was mortified when I first got it! I wouldn’t even drive it into the church parking lot, because I wasn’t comfortable in an animals feeding bin. I'm quite sure my manger car clashed with peoples perception of me - and if not, given my shame regarding it, it should have. It took ten months of prayer to get me fully past my embarrassment.
Not resembling the manger Baby can cost others dearly. Many years ago some Christians I admired acted remarkably un-Christian, and for months I consciously reflected, “They’re prominent, admired Christians by many and have been for a long time, so they must resemble Christ pretty closely. If they’re like this, Christ is like this.”
I struggled to believe in the merciful Savior when I read about Him in the Bible because I was looking at two different pictures. The one they lived out had gritted teeth and glaring eyes. The Gospels painted compassionate eyes and a tender heart. There was no way they were the same Jesus - we may as well have been reading different Bibles - so I believed the visible and counted the character of the cross as empty words.
All because I couldn't recognize Him.
Study Questions
1. Am I jumping way ahead of your understanding? If so, see the next section, Back to Basics.
2. Would people be surprised to find out that you went early to help set up for a Little League game AND didn’t tell anybody? Would they be surprised to find out you sacrificed something important to you because the bottom rung needed you AND you kept it quiet?
Or would they expect to find you, outside of something you have a leadership position in, among the success-types? You know them. They look perfect, they talk perfect, they’re taking charge even when they’re not in charge, they’re probably in a rush and usually don't have time for you.
3. Would everyone you know recognize you as a feeding-trough-Baby worshipper, or is there an area of your life where people, knowing your character, would be surprised if they found you at the bottom? If so, if they could see your heart, would it correlate with their surprise? How do you think this affects non-believers?
4. What can you do this week to reflect the feeding-trough-Baby?
If you’re interested in additional feeding-bin perspectives, Andrew Murray and C.J. Mahaney both wrote books entitled “Humility.”
Back to Basics
This section is for those that don’t understand who Jesus Christ, the feeding-trough-Baby, is.
John 1:9-13: The true Life that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The apostle John, who wrote the book of the Bible containing the above quote, kept references to Jesus as ‘him’ instead of ‘Him.’ To clarify things for the uninitiated, I capitalized them.
God is a triune God, 3 in one; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are one God. God the Father sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to the world in order to save us from our sins.
Jesus was born to a woman, Mary, who was miraculously impregnated by God the Holy Spirit and gave birth to Jesus as a virgin girl. She and her husband went on a trip to Bethlehem, where she gave birth to Jesus. Because there was no room in the inn for the Son of God, she had Him by the animals, wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger – a feeding trough for animals. Thus, the feeding-trough-Baby referrals above.
Jesus was raised as a carpenter in a village called Nazareth, in Israel. When He was about thirty, He began His ministry as the Savior, the Son of God, preaching God's message of forgiveness and mercy and healing everyone that asked.
A street in Nazareth, where our humble Savior was raised, in the late 1800's. Photo courtesy of bibleplaces.com.The Jewish authorities didn’t care for this ministry, and they crucified Jesus. When He was crucified, God the Father looked away, and laid all the sins of the world – every action that separates us from God – on Jesus.
God did this because He loves us so much that closing the gap between sinful humans and a holy God was worth enduring His Son's crucifixion.
Two days after his crucifixion, His disciples found Jesus' tomb empty; He had conquered death and appeared to many of the disciples before He ascended to heaven.
Thus, Jesus Christ paid the price for all our sins, and God the Holy Spirit can reside in each of our souls – if we ask Him to. We must acknowledge that we aren’t perfect, that we can never earn our way to God by being a good person, because God is perfect and even one mistake separates us from Him. We must confess our sins (things we think and do wrong) and acknowledge that Jesus Christ paid the sins, and commit our hearts to following His ways, as described in the Christian New Testament.
When we acknowledge this, we become a child of God. Thus this Scripture, quoted above:
Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
John 3:16 is also relevant: For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Basic Books
If you’re not sure whether you believe in God, I recommend the Case for a Creator, by Lee Strobel.
If you’re not sure whether you believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, I recommend the Case for Christ, by Lee Strobel.
If you’re wondering how on earth this stuff applies to your life, I recommend a personal application Bible.
If you want to know what the Gospels say and mean without reading them through from start to finish, I recommend the novel Jesus, by Walter Wangerin.
If life seems meaningless and you wonder what on earth you were born for, I recommend the Purpose-Driven Life, by Rick Warren (the second bestselling book in the world for all time – second only to the Bible.)
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