The Life of Christ

The immediate realization that there was no accessible place for Mary to have her baby undoubtedly gripped both Joseph and his wife with fear.

• This was a very adult situation for two teenagers.

• God, in His providence, however, provided private shelter in a limestone cave used as a stable according to tradition.

• In confirmation, the earliest Infancy Gospel, the Protoevangelium of James (second century) describes Jesus’ birth in a cave, a tradition also attested by Justin Martyr. 7

• In A.D. 326 Emperor Constantine constructed the first basilica over the cave.

• The cave was better than any accommodations the caravansary had to offer; it provided privacy, warmth, and a large enough area to accommodate the soon arriving shepherds.

“Laid in a manger.”

• A manger was a horse trough, symbolic of how Jesus will later become the true staple of life.

“Wrapped Him in swaddling clothes.”

• Before wrapping Him in swaddling clothes, according to Jewish custom the baby was first washed and then covered with a light application of salt to prevent infection.

SECTION 13

Lk. 2:8 And in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.

According to Rabbinical law, the keeping of flocks in Israel was restricted to the wilderness.

• The only exception was for the sheep sacrificed in the temple, which were allowed to graze in this locality just outside Jerusalem.

• Even at birth we have our first hint of His final destiny — the slain Lamb of God.

Lk. 2:9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.

The glory of the Lord was the golden Shekinah cloud, which occasionally appeared at momentous biblical moments.

Mt. of Transfiguration (Mt. 17:5)

•

Mt. of Ascension (Acts 1:9)

•

The appearance of the angel and the cloud struck fear within the shepherds.

• Throughout the Scripture, at nearly every angelic sighting people became afraid.

7 The standard edition is the two-volume work of E. Hennecke and W. Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha, trans. R. McL., Wilson (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1965).

24