The Search for Hope

Then Mary gave birth to Jesus, her firstborn son.

She wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger,

because there was no space for them in the home’s living area.

Luke 2:7 (based on the CSB)

As we celebrate Christmas, are you looking for hope?

Some of us have given up on that quest.

It’s understandable; there are many reasons for despair: What government can end war? What leader can heal a country? Will the church be a place of healing – or traumatic hurt?

But what if we lack hope because we’re looking in the wrong places?

In Luke 2, the author explains that Mary and Joseph are temporarily living with Joseph’s family in Bethlehem. As Dr. Michael LeFebvre explains, their relatives can’t turn them away, but they also don’t have adequate room for another family to live with them.

So, because the main living area of their relatives’ house was fully occupied, the only remaining space was downstairs, next to the animal pen. It’s a crowded, uncomfortable situation, but at least they’re with family.

Dr. LeFebvre shares this historical reconstruction of the home’s construction:

As I’ve meditated on this image, one question repeatedly comes to mind:

Is this house where I would expect to find hope?

The more I think about it, the clearer the answer: no, this home, much less the manger next to the animal pen, does not appear to be the launching pad for world-changing hope.  

Yet from that simple starting place, a revolution began.  

In Bullies & Saints, the historian Dr. John Dickson confesses the many sins of the historic, global church.

Yet he also explains an unexpected hope that arises from, as he puts it, “the central moral logic of Christianity: God’s love for us must animate our love for all” (283). 

In painstaking detail, he shows us how Christianity made an unexpected contribution to our world. He concludes:

Violence has been a universal part of the human story. The demand to love one’s enemies has not. Division has been a norm. Inherent human dignity has not. Armies, greed, and the politics of power have been constants in history. Hospitals, schools, and charity for all have not. Bullies are common. Saints are not (286).

I might venture to add: overcrowded homes are commonplace.

Finding God in the lower floor manger is not.

But once you see this feeding trough as the place where Jesus spent the night, it changes where you look for hope.

The focus on the manger raises another question: why did Luke mention that Jesus was born there?

In Luke 1:3, he claims to have “carefully investigated everything from the very first.”

So, it’s understandable that Luke connects Jesus’ birth with the fulfillment of Micah’s prophecy that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem (see Micah 5). It’s a grand, important claim. 

But where did Luke get the details about the manger?

After all, let’s say Jesus was born in the main lodging room. What, if anything, would that change about Luke’s birth narrative?

Further, why invent this detail if it never happened? Who would even think about the manger as the place to put Jesus for the night?

It’s speculation, but I wonder if Luke personally visited the home.

Perhaps Joseph’s family showed him the lower floor and the manger where Jesus spent his first night.

Then Luke talked with some of the shepherds, who shared the angelic vision with him, and they told him how the angel directed them to look for a baby lying in a manger.

It’s a microscopic detail, but Luke testifies to its validity by referencing Mary, the shepherds, and what they heard from the angel of the Lord. It suggests his account is based on eyewitness testimony.

And that led me to another question: Why might Luke make the journey to Bethlehem?

I wonder if it’s because there was a time when Luke trembled at the name of Caesar, felt threatened by a Roman centurion, and longed to own a few more denarii. 

It’s the same reason we vote for political leaders who vow to destroy our enemies, trust nuclear weapons to keep us safe, and count on the stock market to meet our needs.

But when Luke placed his hope in Jesus, his perspective changed. 

He wanted to see how the story started.

To his surprise, he found that hope was born in a manger.

If that’s true, then what will change our world today? Is it power, wealth, and fame?

These idols often capture our hearts, even though they’ve already fallen short.

But the more I meditate on Jesus sleeping in a manger, the more reason I have for hope.

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