Christmass 2021 In praise of the Manger maker
“Mary wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.”
The gurus tell me that the word “manger” comes from the Latin word munducare which means “to eat.” A manger or crib is a wooden feeding trough or food box that holds hay for larger farm animals like cattle, horses, and donkeys. Mangers were located wherever livestock were kept, places like stables, corrals, or caves. The Farmer’s job was to keep their mangers well-supplied with fodder at all times so the animals would never go hungry. The cattle could walk up to a manger at any time, and then spend long, leisurely hours chomping away, chewing and slowly re-chewing their cud.
When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem there was no room for them at the local, so they were forced to find lodging elsewhere, probably in a cave where animals were staying. When Jesus was born, Mary would not have wanted to lay her infant on the hard, cold, stone floor. Instead, she had to make do with what was available and the manger proved to be a convenient alternative: the hay was soft, the box was up and off the ground, and the sides tall enough to keep her child safely inside.
This manger gets another mention a bit later on. They went in haste and found the child in the feeding trough and they feasted their eyes on him (Lk 2:16).
A few things about this manger.
The manger was dirty.
Yes, we may be sure that Joseph and Mary cleaned it up as best they could. They, no doubt, padded it in some way to make a comfy little bed. But there is no way to romanticise this bed into anything other than a feeding trough for slobbering animals. The first bed for the Son of God was not a royal cradle. It was a common cold crib. It was meant to hold scraps to be eaten.
The manger is the way of discipleship.
The angel of the Lord came to shepherds, not to politicians or the religious leaders of the day, not to the parish priests or bishops or with the great of respect the local synods people.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased! (Luke 2:14)
Not the wise. Not the understanding. But to mere pimple faced, adolescent youths. The ones who would take no offence at a baby in a feeding trough. The ones that would expect no better bed than their Saviour:
Something else about the manger.
At some point a carpenter must have made this wooden trough. It probably wasn’t Joseph, but it would have been someone like him. Joseph in his day, probably made several mangers along with coffee tables, and yokes. So at your Christmass table raise a glass to the guy who made the manger for God. The manger maker.
Joseph and Mary probably thought that the manger was rough. Here we are laying the most precious thing in the whole world into a wonky wooden manger and yet it is that or nothing. It is the best that can be found and in God’s plan it will do and it is enough. He desires to lie there to identify with all those whose life is rough and less than desirable.
As I was writing this I couldn’t help but think of the manger that you make with your hands as you come to the altar to receive communion. You too are manger makers.
At some point it would be understandable for you to think that my hands are not a worthy throne for the king of kings and Lord of Lords. That my hands are a bit care worn and rough and gnarly and calloused. And yet the miracle happens. The body of Christ is placed into your hands not because any of us are worthy, or brand spanking new, or highly polished and shiny and smoothly fashioned. He comes to us in the gentle vulnerable breakable things like a child, like bread and he comes because he so wants to be joined to us, to enter into our life, our cradles, our muck, our joy and our tears.
Someone at some point must have made that first rough wooden trough. The manger. The feed stall. They would have had no idea this would be the resting place of God. They might have even looked around the finished product and thought… I missed that bit there, or this corner here isn’t quite right. In anything we produce we know where the mistakes are, even if no one else spots our blunders.
Mary and Joseph would not have seen it that way. They would have been so pleased that there was something, anything for their Son. And so are we.
We come forward and we make our own manger. With unspeakable and unstoppable joy, with a divine Yippee! God becomes flesh and so He is inseparable from us. Here’s to you and I, for we are all manger makers with our hands, and with our hearts.