44. The Raggedy Christmas

The Humble Birth of Christ as a Sign

Welcome back to the podcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf. This is episode 44, The Raggedy Christmas. When our Lord visited the earth, he did not come in a thousand horsepower jet-fueled celestial chariot for everyone to see.

He didn't topple the world's greatest empires with heaven's version of Seal Team Six, and he did not sit down upon his rightful throne at the right hand of God to reign, at least not at first. He came initially to the warm, quiet darkness of a poor virgin's womb, just as he promised that he would in Genesis 3 .15.

In so doing, our Lord submitted to the same human gestation that he joyfully designed. He was fed from the same umbilical cord that he artfully invented, and he became dependent upon the mother that he wove together in his grandmother's womb.

The artist indeed painted himself into his own masterpiece. Now, upon his birth, the king of all glory wasn't welcomed with festivals. There was no pomp and circumstance, celebrations and feastings befitting of his majesty.

No heralds were sent out from Bethlehem that evening, as was typical. There was no government holidays or observances that were sanctioned from the capital city, just the humble cry of a newborn babe wrapped in common, ordinary rags.

The Swaddling Cloths as a Sign to the Shepherds

But why? It's here that we have to lift our gaze above the hallmark nativity cards that we're all so accustomed to seeing this time of year if we wanna see what's really happening. Jesus wasn't draped with a warm, cuddly baby blanket that his mother bought at Target.

He was not swallowed up in a plush, baggy onesie that Auntie Elizabeth bought because it was the wrong size. Instead, he was bound with tight strips of linen, making him look more like a miniature mummy than a precious moments model.

But again, we have to ask ourselves why. You see, at that time, such a tight and restrictive binding was used to simulate a mother's womb. A newborn had just recently spent nine months cramped in an ever-tightening uterus, so bindings like this would have made the baby more comfortable, especially as he adapted to a new and wide-open world.

But for Jesus, the symbolism is far more profound, and it gets right at the heart of the gospel itself. Let us explore. First, we know that from Scripture, the angels directed a group of herdsmen to go and find the child.

He told them to view those linen rags wrapped around the body of Christ as a great sign unto them, convincing them of who Jesus is and what Jesus had come to do. This is what it tells us in Luke chapter two, verses eight through 14.

In the same region, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and watching over their flocks by night, and an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened.

But the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you tidings, good news of great joy, which will be for all people for today. In the city of David, there's been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord, and this will be a sign for you, that you will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

And then suddenly there appeared with the angels a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God, saying glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom God is pleased. The rags on Jesus' body were a sign that was meant to be looked at.

It was a sign that was meant to be noticed and pondered in such a way that these men, these shepherds would come to believe three specific truths that those rags were pointing to. Number one, that Jesus was born for their good news.

Number two, that he was born for the world's great joy. And number three, that he was born to be Savior, Christ and Lord. Number one, born for their good news. When the shepherds viewed those shabby rags on the body of baby Christ, they were meant to be a sign unto them.

And that sign was to be a good message, a joyful message. It was a definitive statement from God that communicated eternally good news to his people. But there's more for us to consider here. The word used in the text by the angelic fleet is the Greek word euangelizo, which is where we get our verb to evangelize or more accurately to proclaim the good news.

In those days, that word was not a Christian word and it did not have a religious connotation. Instead, it was almost purely political. At that time, a gospel quote unquote message was not a message about Jesus, but it was a message, a good news report about some army's victory in battle, mostly Rome.

It was a call to celebrate an emperor's birthday or the declaration that a new child had been born into the royal family. That was what gospel was. It was a Roman good news message. And when it happened, heralds were sent out throughout the empire singing the message that a new child had been born into the family.

The heralds went out in a sense to disciple the nations according to the birth of their new son. So when we think about gospel, we have to think about it in its original context. It was a political message that a new king had been born in the empire.

But just because something was good news in Rome did not necessarily make it good news worth celebrating in Judah. Whenever the Judeans would see the heralds come to announce the birth of a new Roman emperor, many of them probably would have rolled their eyes in the back of their head thinking, why does this matter to me?

Why all the pomp? Why all the circumstance? And we can understand this point fairly clearly when we think about our nation's capital, which signs all kinds of horrific things in the law, virtue signals, all kinds of ridiculous things that they masquerade upon our televisions.

And then they call you and I to herald their abominations. More often than not, the things that are happening in the capital city celebrate either things that are irrelevant to the masses or downright disgusting to the masses.

That was true back then. And it's also true today. But when the angels alerted the shepherds of God's good news of his gospel, it wasn't an irrelevant gospel message that was happening somewhere in an irrelevant city in the halls of isolated power.

It was assigned to them. For the first time in their life, a gospel message had come that was relevant to them. It was a sign that was gonna be occurring in the next town over. A sign that a better king than Caesar had been born for their people.

A warrior who was born in the royal city of David to reinvigorate the line of kings and overthrow the tyranny of Rome. A savior born to reclaim the dying world and to redeem everything that had been lost in Satan's curse.

A king who had set up his throne in their backyard and would establish his undying kingdom forever. The good news that these rags draped on Jesus' body symbolized is that God had brought his kingdom and he had brought his king down low enough to be a blessing to his people.

This child was not wrapped in the royal robes of Caesar's. He was wrapped in the rags of Bethlehem. You can't get much lower than a first century animal stall and a poor baby wrapped in rags in Bethlehem's shabby manger for the beginning of your burgeoning world empire.

But yet it was in that humility, it was in that humble, beautiful, cold morning where the good news indeed was found. By going to the very lowest region, instead of to the halls of power, instead of to the castles, instead of to the political realms, by going to the very lowest region, born in the most humble situation, Christ can be a relevant savior to all of God's people.

He went to where we are to save us from who we are, which is very, very good news. Number two, born for the world's great joy. When the shepherds saw the shabby rags wrapped around the newborn king, they were also to have great joy, a commodity which was in short supply in the shepherding industry of that time.

You see, shepherds worked long and grueling hours. They tended nature's dumbest animals and they were constantly on guard for animal and human attack. Because these men were shepherds in Bethlehem, which is a suburb of Jerusalem, they were responsible for the lambs that were gonna be purchased and sacrificed at the Jerusalem temple.

You see, men and women would travel from all over Israel, even from the remotest parts of the Roman Empire to be able to come to the festivals of Jerusalem. And when they got there, they would need to offer animals at the temple.

You see, because the travel was so perilous and expensive in those days, and because their animals could get sick or injured along the way, most people bought their sacrificial animals when they arrived.

This allowed them to remain in good standing to purchase a already verified perfect lamb from the priest. It could allow them to remain in good standing with the law of God without any unnecessary risks that travel might impose.

And it was a tremendous blessing upon you unless you were a shepherd. To be a shepherd, however, meant that you lived outside along with the animals. You slept with them, you tended them, you stepped in countless mounds of sheep dung while caring for them.

And according to the law, this would have put you in a perpetual state of ceremonial uncleanliness. This meant that you would be able to raise the animals that were sacrificed for other people's sins, but for your sins.

You were rendered too filthy and too unclean to enter the temple gate and to sacrifice on your behalf. You would have been on the outside when it comes to God. Now, I want you to think about those shepherds, men who didn't have a whole lot of good news in their life, men who were constantly being looked down upon by the religious elite who needed their sheep in order to keep their sacrificial enterprise going.

For years and years and years, you would have brought the lambs, brought the sheep, brought the goats, you would have brought all of these offerings to the city of Jerusalem and you would have turned around and walked away unable to be in right standing with God.

This was your gift to God. This is how close you could get was handing off the animal to a temple priest. But as these shepherds on that Christmas morning saw the rags on the tiny baby king, they were pointed to the hope that they would soon have exceeding joy.

Their uncleanness was going to be healed because he was gonna take their stripes. After a lifetime of raising other people's sacrifices, he was gonna be the one who was gonna be made a sacrifice once and for all for them.

And that, of course, gave them exceeding joy. Number three, born to be Savior, Christ, and Lord. While no one would have thought to look for an infant Messiah the angels told them to pay very close attention to his rags.

They were not the clothes of a king, as we have shared. They were not the luxurious robes of Jerusalem's elite. They were common rags. Though not much to look at, they would become the greatest sign of God's love that these men had ever seen.

A sign that God had sent them a Savior, Christ the Lord. He is Savior because he's gonna save his people from their sins and stand in their place as the perfect and spotless sacrifice. He's Christ, the anointed one, who's gonna sit on the throne of his father David and reign forever.

The one who came with a kingly mission and who would not be stopped until it had been accomplished. He's the Lord, not just a man. He's the one who can stand in their place, yes, but he's also God, a very God, who's gonna take away their sins, the maker of heaven and earth.

He's the Savior who condescended and took on human flesh. He's the eternal Nagos who endlessly dwelt in the presence of the Spirit and of the Father for all eternity. He was born into the creation that he created to bring relationship with God back to sinful men.

Yes, amen, all of that, and they know that, why? Because of the rags. These rags wrapping the baby, Christ, were a sign from God of the purpose of this child and of his life. And this is where it gets extremely relevant for you and I.

Christ Wrapped in Birth and Death

It's not, Christmas is not just about his birth in meager circumstances. His birth points forward to his death, and that's where the rags come into play most poignantly. Number four, born to die. You may be wondering, why did the angel make such a big deal about the swaddling cloths?

Why did that become the sign to the shepherds? It wasn't because he looked cute in his Middle Eastern pajamas, and it wasn't because of the rags themselves. No, I believe perhaps it was because our Lord was not only bound with linen strips in his birth, but he was also bound in linen strips in his death.

John 19, 39 through 40. Perhaps it was the same angels who heralded the Christ and told the shepherds that he would be in swaddling cloths that were the same angels later who would sit beside the folded pile of linen in an empty tomb, John 20, 11 through 12.

You see, the birth rags were a sign of who he is and who he was going to become. He was not only wrapped in his birth, he was wrapped in his death. His grave clothes are a sign of who this man is and who he forever will be.

He was wrapped in birth, wrapped in death, born to die, die so that we might live, and so that we who live would live for him. The Christmas rags remind us that God has shown his greatest love in the most ignoble birth, and in that he can empathize with us.

He too was brought down low. He left the splendor of heaven to recline in a feeding trough made for pigs. Why? So that you and I would never wonder if God was too busy to notice us, too high and lofty to care for us, too concerned with running the universe to reach us.

But my friends, he proved his love for you when he left the highest places of heaven to dwell down in the lowest places of earth. And even more than that, he showed his love for you when he allowed his perfect body to be wrapped in those humble grave clothes, thrown inside the tomb, lying dead for three days, raised by the power of God to throw off those rags once and forever more.

The Christmas Rags and Christian Freedom

This Christmas, I want you to remember why Jesus came. If you're feeling unloved and overlooked, I want you to look to the rags that wrapped the infant's body and be reminded that God's love caused him to leave heaven seeking you.

If you feel weighted down by guilt and your sin, then I want you to look at to the grave clothes, those humble strips of cloth that wrapped his dead body. And I want you to remember that in his death, he took your place.

If you're feeling bound by life and overwhelmed by sin, inundated with circumstances, captivated by toxic emotions, or enslaved to anything else, then I want you to look to that heaping pile of rags that were left folded up in an empty tomb.

And I want you to remember that Christ has also set you free. Whatever has bound you has now been loosened from you if you're a Christian because of Christ. He was wrapped in rags in his birth. He was wrapped in rags in his death.

And in his resurrection, he burst forth from those rags to set you free. You can experience that freedom this season, but you must look to him. Thanks again for joining us on the podcast. I hope that you are blessed and I hope this Christmas season causes you to ponder and remember who Christ is and why he came.

God bless you, and we'll see you next time.