Communion: From a feeding trough to the cross

“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger..” Luke 2:7

This picture of the Christ shows us humility, poverty, and resilience.  With no delivery room, midwife, doctor, baby blanket, bed, or cradle, Mary gave birth to God’s Son in the a bode of animals an d placed Him in a feeding trough.  If there were circumstances that would make you question God’s ability to provide, what more would you need?  This describes God’s judgment and wrath instead of His love and provisions.  Any father, who willfully demanded such conditions for his child’s birth, would be accused of abuse and worthy of jail time.

If you look at the circumstances of Christ’s birth without the benefit of faith in God, Christ is reduced to being the illegitimate son of Mary.  Given the mother’s obvious lack of morals and restraint, Jesus would deserve the birth of an outcast, far from home and in deplorable conditions.  However, as God’s Son, there is still difficulty in imagining why the Creator of everything would be born into nothing.  Leaving the splendor of heaven, Jesus came to this earth to be born into complete poverty and obscurity.  How can you dare to worship the King of kings and Lord of lords as He lies in a manger with animals and feed?  What proof would there be to support such an allegation?  Human reason demands answers not easily discovered in such a portrait.

Today we look at the Nativity with fondness and tender thoughts of kindness and sweetness.  But can you imagine giving birth in such conditions?  As a man can you imagine providing such birthing conditions for your newlywedded wife?  What would you think as the grandparent, aunt, uncle…?  Yet, God chose this for His only begotten Son.  This scenario was the intended choice the Father made for His Son.  Such humility provided complete camouflage from jealous tyrants.  Such circumstances kept those who desire wealth and fame from becoming starstruck.  As the prophet Isaiah tells us in chapter 53, “…there is no beauty that we should desire him.”   Only by faith can we see past the poverty, humility and obscurity to find a loving Savior.

“This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19

The shadow of the cross fell upon the Christ as He was laid in His crib.  When we partake of Communion we remember the sufferings of Christ from birth to the cross.  Christ came to be consumed as opposed to being a consumer.  The foreshadow of the manger points us to a Savior who came to suffer, serve, sacrifice, and save. 

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:6

The word Paul uses for “made himself of no reputation” comes from a Greek word meaning “to make empty.”  Christ literally emptied Himself to come unto us and save us.  Why would He consume when He has already chosen nothingness?  His burden for us meant He sacrificed everything for us.  He chose nothing so we could have everything.

As we celebrate Christ’s birth, let us remember His sacrifice.  He emptied Himself when taking human form.  His sacrifice for us began before His birth and continued until His resurrection.  When we remember His sufferings at Communion, envision the magnitude of Immanuel, God with us, and the sacrifice Christ made not only in death but also in birth.