And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 

      Here’s a list of things that may cause you to experience a comfortable Christmas.

• Hot chocolate made with candy bars and half-& half creamer

• Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

• Singing Silent Night by candleligh

• Opening presents in slippers and pajamas in front of a fireplace

• Stuffing yourself with Christmas treats

• Surrounding yourself with friends and family…you like

I’m sure there are many others you could list from your own experiences and traditions.

      It was not comfort Mary & Joseph experienced that first Christmas day. How would you feel if you had to go back to your ancestral city and state, traveling on foot uphill, in a caravan, for about a week…and 9 months pregnant? You arrive to find no vacancy signs at every hotel while in labor, and have to give birth to your first child in the parking garage out back.

      Despite the fact that Mary and Joseph suffered the lack of comfort, they still had reason to rejoice. You may be experiencing a lack of comfort this Christmas season. These discomforts may range anywhere from past bad experiences to a lack of finances. Whatever it is, Luke 2:7 contains reasons in which we can rejoice.

First, let us rejoice that the birth of Jesus was miraculous. (And she gave birth to her firstborn son)

      Mary herself wasn’t extraordinary. She was an ordinary human being. She was born with a sin nature just like you and me. She was extraordinary given the mission God place upon her. The Bible does state that she is “blessed among women” in Luke 1:42. What is more extraordinary is what God did in and through her than who she was.

      God sought to glorify Himself through the virgin birth of Jesus. It was prophesied long before it happened.

Isaiah 7:14

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

      Nine months previous to this moment, Mary conceived a child by the power of the Holy Spirit in her womb, made of her (Galatians 4:4), but without sin. Jesus was a real miracle. When God promised a baby to Abraham, it came by ordinary means though extraordinary given the age of Sarah. Even so, Abraham was still very involved in the process. With the birth of Jesus, there was no man involved! It was God taking on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ who is 100% God and 100% Man; two natures in one Person. Only God could, and has the right to, work outside His established ordinary processes.

      To sum up what I’ve said so far, let me read the answer to Shorter Catechism Question #22 which asks How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?

Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.

      Now let’s focus our attention to the next phrase, her firstborn son. Often we skip over the significance of this phrase by thinking it simply emphasizes the virginity of Mary. But the fact that Jesus is the firstborn holds more implication beyond that connection with Mary. Let’s begin with an Old Testament passage describing this doctrine of the firstborn.

Exodus 13:1-2, 11-16

The Lord said to Moses, ² “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.” ¹¹ “When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, ¹² you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord’s. ¹³ Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. ¹⁴ And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. ¹⁵ For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ ¹⁶ It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.” 

      As the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt so He brings us out of bondage of sin. Jesus, as the firstborn, is the sacrifice made for our sins to usher us into the promised land which is heaven.

      This is the part of being the firstborn that is not so nice to think about, especially this season of the year when everything is festive and beautiful. Part of being the firstborn meant there was a bloody sacrifice involved. In the Old Testament, God accepted the tribe of Levi in place of all the firstborn sons of the other tribes. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ became the sacrificial substitute for all who had, did, and would trust in Him alone for eternal life.

      There is another part of being the firstborn that bears explanation. God said in Psalm 89:27:

And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

God established prophetically the coronation of a King who will rule the earth from the human lineage of David.

      In Romans 8:29 Jesus is described as the firstborn among those who belong to the family of God; the Kingdom of heaven.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Jesus is the first to be raised from the dead in a resurrection body that God received into heaven. Someday, so will everyone who trusts that Jesus died on the cross to save them from their sins.

Colossians 1:18

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

Jesus was the firstborn at birth in order to be the firstborn at death.

      Recently I took a short rafting trip down the Youghiogheny River with the firstborn of my family, my brother George. He reminded me of an incident that occurred when I was around 5 years old and still remember. I was riding my tricycle down a hill right next to a steep ravine about 50 yards from the front door of our house. I hit a stone and tumbled over the cliff and hanging onto vines with briars. I screamed for my brother who came to the rescue.

      My brother then confessed that on our last rafting trip, he was watching every move I made for fear I would fall out of the boat and drown. He was still watching out for me.

      Christ, as the eternal firstborn, took care of every believer by taking on human flesh and sacrificing it to redeem us from our sins. Anyone can come under His care by simply trusting in Him alone for eternal life.

      Second, let us rejoice that Jesus was 100 % human as indicated by His wrappings. (wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger)

      The fact that Jesus was wrapped in cloths indicates His humanness. The human body Jesus was born with was in need of all the things human babies are in need of today. His body needed cared for, fed, warmed, and cleaned. The God/Man cooed, cried, and needed changed. He was as human as human can get though without sin. Throughout His life, Jesus showed humanity in being tired, hungry, sad, and other traits regarded as human.

      This is a good thing for us. There is no representative from the human race, nor is there any man-made philosophy or effort that could possibly appease God’s wrath over our sin. The human representative had to be as holy as God is and so only God becoming flesh could achieve this. Jesus is God who became man.

      There was another time in Jesus’ ministry on this earth that He was wrapped in cloths.

Luke 23:53

Then he (Joseph of Arimathea) took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid.

John 20:4-7

⁴ Both of them (Peter and John) were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, ⁷ and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.

      The beginning, in the manger, and the end, in the tomb, of God’s work with Jesus who is God in the flesh is indicated by cloth. It’s not hard to see the presence of the cloth. It does indicate the beginning and end of the reason for God becoming human. Jesus Christ laid His body on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. This is God’s only redemptive plan. No substitute philosophy, no substitute effort, no substitute angel, no substitute notion of any kind can replace Jesus as the substitute for sinners. Anything we think up falls short of God’s requirement. That’s why Jesus was born.  And that’s why we celebrate Christmas.

      There was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays. His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments.

      One snowy evening, his wife was taking their children to a service in the farm community in which they lived. They were to talk about Jesus' birth. She asked him to come, but he refused.  "That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man? That's ridiculous!"

      So she and the children left, and he stayed home. A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. He looked out, but couldn't see more than a few feet.

      When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside to see what could have been beating on his window. In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn't go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed.

      The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It's warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm.

      So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn't seem to notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them, and they moved further away. He went into the house and came with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread crumb trail leading to the barn. They still didn't catch on.

      Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe. "Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed. "Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?"

      He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn't follow a human. "If only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said out loud. Then he had an idea. He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn--and one-by-one, the other geese followed it to safety.

      He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: "If only I were a goose, then I could save them!" Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. "Why would God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!" Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese--blind, lost, perishing. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and save us.

      As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood why Christ had come. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished with the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer: "Thank You, God, for coming in human form to get me out of the storm.

      Let me ask you a question. Is the fact that Jesus Christ took on a human body to save you from your sin reason for your rejoicing?

      Third, let us rejoice in the lowliness of Jesus’ situation. (there was no place for them in the inn.)

      The inn was a place that was either full or not for the type of people Mary and Joseph represented. Jesus did not come to this earth to be comfortable and that was manifest immediately. The stable represents more than just that Mary and Joseph were poor or the lowly state to which Jesus humbled Himself. Becoming human was humbling enough for the Creator of all things. I think the case can be made that the stable represents the hearts of God’s people.

      The stable is a lowly place. If Joseph had his way I would think he would want Mary and the baby to be as comfortable as possible. But, God, in His infinite wisdom and sovereignty, ordained that Jesus would be born in a barn.

      Has God ever decided to dwell in a place that shabby inside and out? Yes. The heart of a person is full of sin. God makes a place for Himself there. Just like many years ago when salvation entered a stable so it happens to those who trust in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life. An old, sinful, barn full of transgressions is cleansed by the work of God’s grace in the heart of the believer. Jesus’ birth was the first offensive into enemy territory by God to defeat Satan and his minions. John Piper said Christmas is God’s invasion of enemy territory to rescue a people from the devil and destroy the sin in their lives. This accurately describes Jesus’ mission to this world.

      Everyone born into this world was conceived with a sin nature, except Jesus due to His miraculous virgin birth. All of us are nothing more than sinful stables in need of the Savior to invade our hearts to rescue us from Satan and destroy the sin in our lives.

      Where do you see yourself? Are you the inn with no room or do you recognize your need for the Savior to dwell in you by the cleaning out of your sin?

      Christ came into this world to give us opportunity to rejoice in His miraculous birth, His being 100% human, and in the lowliness of His situation.