Proverbs 3:34. …to the humble God gives favor.
Luke 2:6-7. 6And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
I love nativity sets. I have around 50 of them on display in my house right now. Nativity sets show the baby Jesus surrounded by Mary and Joseph of course, with shepherds and wise men close by. Almost every nativity places Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in some sort of barn (it’s called a crèche). Why? Because Luke says that Jesus was laid in a manger, which is a feeding trough for animals.
The truth is we don’t know exactly where Jesus was born. The Bible says that there was no place for them in the inn. But that can also be translated as there was “no space for them in the room.” Maybe Jesus was born in a house (often animals and mangers were in the house with the people). Maybe Jesus was born in a barn. Many people think Jesus was born in a cave.
Wherever Jesus was born, he was born in a very humble place. A little town called Bethlehem. Humble parents from Nazareth (can anything good come out of Nazareth?). A humble manger as his bed. The birth of Christ shows us just how humble God would be in order to save us. He would go lower and lower to rescue us. From Heaven to Earth. From the cradle to the cross. Jesus would stop at nothing to save us from our sin.
But it’s not just God that had to humble himself. To be saved by Jesus we must become humble too. Proverbs 3 says that God gives favor or grace to the humble, to those who admit that they can’t save themselves and instead trust in Christ alone to save them. That’s what Christmas is all about. Jesus humbling himself so that we might become humble too. Jesus becoming low so that he can take us higher into his life.
Union with Christ is the source of all life, all love, all power, and all righteousness, and yet it is never the source of pride. Rather, it is the source of our humility. But how can someone who has everything remain humble? How can you share the fullness of God and yet live a life of perpetual emptying? How can we be high and lifted up, seated in the heavenly places and simultaneously going lower and lower, planted like a seed in the earth?
Only in Christ. Only by trusting our glorious beginning and our exalted end can we spend our middle in humble submission to God and others. Only by faith in a shared death and resurrection with Jesus that allows us to consider ourselves alive unto God. Only in knowing that every act of humble service will be met by God’s indwelling grace in the moment. The same grace that met Mary and Joseph at the Bethlehem manger will meet us at the “manger” of our own desperation.
You: When have you experienced God’s grace? In moments of pride or moments of humility?
You in Christ: How does your union with Christ allow you to have everything yet remain humble?
Christ in you: Is there an area of your life that will require God’s grace today? (or, better yet, is there an area that won’t?) How can you humble yourself and receive God’s grace in Christ today?
Pray: Jesus, you went lower and lower for me. Help me to be able to go lower and lower for you too. Amen.
To Live is Christ 