Look at almost any Christmas card, any manger scene. Impeccable Mary, glowing in sourceless light, looks down at a peacefully sleeping Jesus set in a nice clean manger with perfectly yellow hay, while all the cute animals watch in wonder.
I saw an Easter flag once. It had a pink cross surrounded by colored eggs, baby bunnies and flowers.
Now, don't get me wrong. The Cross is ultimately a symbol of life, and should be celebrated as such. But let's not lose the reality of what went on here.
That stable was mucky and dirty. The floor was hard. It was dark (a cave, most likely). It stank. Anywhere decently near clean was probably covered with the aftereffects of Jesus' birth, because that would have probably been where Mary chose to lay. Mary herself was exhausted and sweaty, and doubtless dirty as well. So were the shepherds who came to worship. Remember this is God being born.
The Cross was an instrument of torture unparalleled in human history. Agony excruciating ...experienced by One who had already been whipped, betrayed, mocked, sweating blood, carrying a cross... Remember this is God dying.
How much we lose when we sanitize our Christianity! Where is the wonder of God's coming to a stable that could have almost been a palace? It is there, but barely. Where is the amazement at Christ's death for our sins if we make it look easy? Or forget altogether that the Cross is really a symbol of death?*
Let us remember the ugly. For it is in the ugly that we find hope. If Christ loved us that much...
"how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8)
*This is why I take exception to some of the Crossway songs. Christ's death didn't really give us life. Christ's resurrection did.
4 comments:
Very interesting. The way the fourth paragraph is written it looks like a quote or excerpt. (...experienced by One who had already been whipped, betrayed, mocked, sweating blood, carrying a cross...) Is it? And if so where is it from?
Thanks
Mmm...quite true. Before I go on all the ways I agree with you, though, I just wanted to point out a couple things:
1) even though today we have taken the manger scene to an extreme of sanity, remember that the original artists who drew the scene drew in symbolism. Those in the middle ages and following years(in which many paintings of the nativity scene were drawn) were acutely aware of the mess of birth and stables--after all, they did not have our hospitals and such--and besides, the artists of the time apparently had no qualms about drawing that which was generally considered unsightly in public. However, they drew the manger scene as pristine. Why? To show the holiness of the moment. To show clearly to the viewer the purity, the sanctity of the people there. To draw the idea that what was happening there was not just another birth, but God coming down in human form.
That, though copied again and again and eventually sterilized and sanitized, I think was the original purpose in the paintings of the manger scene.
2) Likewise, I think the reason the Crossway songs mention that Christ's death gave us life was not to mean that literally, but to bring attention to the atoning death, and bring the hearer's attention to the contrast. True, Christ lives again, and that our life(if He was not raised, our faith means nothing--no need to believe in a dead God)--I think the writers of the songs knew that. However, by His death he bought our freedom, and it brings more consideration to the hearer if they consider that they can only live because someone else died. The sacrificial death--told in so many stories--brings thought; consideration of the one who died to give another life. I think that the intent of Crossway's songwriters was not to say that it was His death that literally brought us life, but rather to show the hearer at what price they were bought.
But that said, it is important to realize the dirtiness. I do enjoy how you put it--"How much we lose when we sanitize our Christianity! Where is the wonder of God's coming to a stable that could have almost been a palace? It is there, but barely. Where is the amazement at Christ's death for our sins if we make it look easy? Or forget altogether that the Cross is really a symbol of death? Let us remember the ugly. For it is in the ugly that we find hope. If Christ loved us that much..."how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?"
Truly, it is an amazement of everything God did for us! And that He is still willing to give us so much!
Praise Him!
--Josiah C.
Nope, it wasn't a quote, Jesse, I wrote it.
Good point about the medieval artists, Josiah, I expect you're right. I was commenting on the present without considering the history :-).
Profound! 'Tis all I have to say.
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