At this time of the year, my social media feed has no shortage of Christmas content and cheerful jingles, but it is also filled with the year-round content one can expect to see: recipe hacks, viral dances, animals doing something adorable and of course, babies. Wholesome posts litter our newsfeeds of a baby giggling, devouring a messy meal or enjoying their first experiences – the list goes on. Yet, even at the time of year in which we celebrate Christ’s birth, it is not Jesus who comes to mind when I see these babies. In fact, apart from the centrepiece of a nativity, it is hard for me to imagine Jesus as a baby and yet, he was. Why does this matter?
When reading about Jesus’ life, it is easy to focus on His adult years since this makes up the bulk of the gospels, possibly causing us to skirt over the fact that He was carried in Mary’s womb, born as a baby. But this part of the story is not left out. We can find the events of Jesus’ birth in Matthew and Luke. In Matthew, we read of the immaculate conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb (Matt 1:18 & 20), the birth of Jesus (Matt 2:1), and the events around his birth, and from chapter 3 we skip forward to Jesus as an adult. In Luke we see much the same in the telling of Jesus’ conception and birth, with the exception that we also meet Jesus as a twelve-year-old boy (Luke 2:42). Once again, we have a time jump in events and by Luke 3, Jesus is an adult man.
When focussing on Jesus’ public ministry and adult years only, this may lead us to see Jesus separately through the phases of His life. For example, we may see Him as the baby in the manger, the teaching adult in ministry, the miracle worker or the resurrected Christ, forgetting that He was not one but all of these. Jesus existed at the beginning with God (John 1:1-4 NLT) and had a purpose to fulfil God’s perfect plan to save us from our sin (Matt 1:21 NIV), but he did so as a human (John 1:14 NLT), born into this world and Gods plan did not shift according to the different phases of Jesus life and age.
The context into which Jesus was born allows us to consider his vulnerability – he wasn’t a superhuman averse to trials of the world, or miraculously raised without the threat of the world. Jesus was born into this world as much at risk as any other human baby. According to the website ourworldindata.org, one in four infants was likely to die in the first year of life around this time and the chances of survival today are as much as ten times higher than in the past. Adding to this we read in Matthew 2:1-16 (NIV) of King Herod’s search for Jesus with the desire to kill him since as “king of the Jews” he was perceived as a threat to Herod’s throne. This threat was so real that Jesus’ father Joseph was warned by an angel to flee. Joseph escaped to Egypt where at this time Herod ramped up his killing spree and ordered all of the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years and under to be killed – talk about being born into a difficult and threatening time. Yet, Jesus wasn’t born on earth able to somehow fight off the odds of infant mortality or go up against King Herod in an awe-inspiring battle, no, he entered the world as a baby.
Henri Nouwen said the following quote: “I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. That is the way Jesus came to reveal God’s love”. Jesus came into this world with nothing else to offer but His own vulnerable self – who is more vulnerable than a baby? In Luke 2:7 (NLT) we read that Mary “…gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped Jesus snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger…”, this isn’t the picture of an autonomous and capable human being, it is the picture of a baby being birthed and then cared for, wrapped snugly by his mother, and laid down with her care and help.
I hope that it is clear this far that Jesus was born as a human baby in a difficult time and that this was not a side-line of God’s plan for Jesus. So, what does Jesus being born into this world as a baby mean for us? There are many promises and truths to be encouraged by in reading of Jesus’ birth and I would encourage you to seek them for yourself and to hear from the Holy Spirit what those are, but one truth I arrived at is that in our acknowledgement of Jesus as a baby, we do not take away from His public ministry or resurrection. Rather, we have the opportunity to humble ourselves before the Lord, with nothing to offer but ourselves, and acknowledge that He too made Himself vulnerable. He did this so that we could have a hope and future through the chance to come to the Father through him (John 14:6 NLT).
No matter where you may find yourself, you can trust that Jesus wants you as you are. If the King of kings could become an unseen baby scrunched up in a mother’s womb, born in a manger in all the gunk and glory of birth, wrapped up snuggly by His mother, vulnerable and trusting in the Father’s plan for Him in a difficult context and circumstance, we too can humble ourselves and be vulnerable and submit ourselves to Him.
– Simone Allen