The Folly of Christmas

As I reflect on the traditional Christmas nativity scene, I have become more and more aware of how foolish the image of the nativity scene is. Let me elaborate.

The first Christmas

I am sure you are well aware of the story of the first Christmas. Luke 2 tells us how Mary, who was with child, travelled to Bethlehem with Joseph. When they got there, the baby couldn’t wait, and she had to give birth to him in a manger – a trough used to feed livestock.

Luke documents for us how an angel appeared to shepherds who were working that night, telling them that their king had been born in a manger. The shepherds went, found this baby, and returned full of praise to God because of him.

Then there are the magi (or wise men) documented in Matthew 2. These men came to the baby Jesus bearing expensive gifts, coming before him and worshipping him.

A foolish scene?

It may be that I am being overly cynical, but this picture of Christmas doesn’t quite do it for me. James Montgomery wrote in the well-known carol:

Angels from the realms of glory,Wing your flight over all the earth; Ye who sang creation’s storyNow proclaim Messiah’s birth.Chorus:Come and worship, come and worshipWorship Christ, the newborn King.

However, to me, the Christmas nativity scene does not seem to be a scene of glory, of kingship, or worship. The baby lying in a manger doesn’t attract me to bow down, to worship him. In fact, if you look at it, the nativity scene by itself is actually kind of silly, foolish even. I mean, how else can you describe a group of people bowing down in front of and worshipping a newborn baby? A baby born in the humble and almost ridiculous setting of a barnyard, in a manger where livestock feed? A baby that is probably bawling its eyes out, drooling, struggling with nappy rash?

For the shepherds and the magi to come and worship such a baby to our eyes is absolute foolishness. This is no king! He has no majesty about him, no glory. The worship of a baby lying in a manger is surely an act of foolishness.

God’s different king

If this image is such a foolish image to the world, then why do we celebrate it at Christmas? Why do we remember it with such fondness? Why do we still sing about this baby as the King, the one who is the world’s saviour? Let us remember these familiar verses in Matthew 1:21-23:

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

God had promised long ago through his prophets that he would in fact send the long promised king into the world, the promised Messiah, the Christ who would be God himself dwelling with us, he who will save Israel, and also the whole world from their sin. This king God had chosen to send into the world humbly, as a child, born in the humbly surrounds of a manger.

God chooses to do things differently to our expectations. His king does not come draped with purple robes, sitting on a throne and bearing a crown. No – God’s king comes humbly, almost foolishly to the world.

A foolish death

Indeed God’s foolishness in his plan is present not only at the birth of Jesus, but at his death as well. What foolishness to the world – that Jesus, the proclaimed king, would suffer death, humiliating death on a cross. This is the folly of the cross that Jews and Greeks could not accept (1 Cor. 1:23).

Why would anyone worship a king that never seems to reign? Why would anyone even respect, never mind worship a man who was humiliated in his death by crucifixion? Why worship a seemingly total failure? Like the nativity scene, the death of Jesus on the cross is a picture of utter folly to the world. But to us, that picture of folly is God’s great wisdom to save those who believe, for we know that Jesus as king died in our place to pay the price for our rebellion. He dies humbly so that we could be saved.

The wisdom of folly

So let us at Christmas time, as we reflect on the birth of Jesus into this world, to remember also his death – a death that is absolute folly to the world. Let us remember how God in his infinite wisdom and mercy sent his son, and our king to die for us, so that those who trust in him may have everlasting lift.

Let us also never be ashamed of God’s message. The Christmas story may seem silly to the world, the cross may not make sense to others. But lets remember that those things are the wisdom of God, so that those who believe may be saved. So let us join with Paul in declaring:

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (1 Cor. 2:1, 2)