Jesus wasn’t born in a stable. He was born in the living room, where the animals feed, because there was no room in the guest room (not the ‘inn’).
But that isn’t the point.
Luke, in his Gospel, isn’t interested in the fact that Jesus wasn’t born in a stable. Now, in our our day, we might need to spend a bit of time deconstructing some interpretations that have developed around the mistaken idea that Jesus was born in the stable. But if we devote too much attention to that task of deconstruction, we risk missing the actual point.
What is the point?
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them (Luke 2:4-7, all quotes from the NIV).
Luke is particularly interested in the manger and the cloths. How do we know that? Because he repeats it, and repetition is a sign of emphasis.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields near by, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger’ (Luke 2:8-12).
Again, Luke mentions the cloths and the manger.
Skipping ahead a few verses:
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger (Luke 8:16).
No cloths this time, but there’s the manger for the third time.
The point of the manger is not a roundabout way of saying that Jesus was born in the house surrounded by extended family. If Luke wanted to emphasise that, I can think of easier ways of doing so!
What is the point of the manger?
A manger is a feeding trough, made of stone.
The shepherds are told that the manger and the cloths are a ‘sign’. In other words, they signify something.
What might the manger signify?
A manger is a feeding trough. So the significance of Jesus being born in a manger is that Jesus is … food.
Specifically, Jesus is food for sheep.
Jesus is the ‘good shepherd’ who ‘lays down his life for the sheep’ (John 10:11). He is also the ‘bread of life’ (John 6:35). He said, ‘Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world’ (John 6:51).
These themes return at the end of Luke’s Gospel.
Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid (Luke 23:50-53).
Here we have another ‘upright’ Joseph, and the body of Jesus is wrapped in a cloth and placed into something made out of stone.
A couple of days later, Peter, who came to think of himself as one of the ‘shepherds of God’s flock’ (1 Peter 5:2), came to the tomb.
Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened (Luke 24:12b).
If we want to grasp the significance of Jesus being wrapped in cloths and laid in a feeding trough made out of stone, we need to head to the stone tomb, where Jesus was wrapped in cloths.
Jesus is the food we need, and he feeds us by dying and rising again.
And that is the true meaning of the manger.