THIS SHALL BE A SIGN

by Pastor Jacob Doran,
Flathead Valley, MT

For as long as I can remember, I have heard the story of the angel appearing to the shepherds and the heavenly host announcing the Savior’s birth, as it is recorded in Luke chapter two, read aloud on Christmas and in the days that precede the holiday. In fact, it is what we evangelicals refer to as “reading the Christmas story.”

Many years have passed since I first heard the Christmas story, and I have learned many new details about the account which have enhanced my love of the story. Today, it is one of my favorite stories in all of the Bible.

I haven’t the time or space in so brief an article to write all of the reasons why the Christmas story is so very special to me or so profoundly significant to the world, but I will give here four of what I consider to be the most important reasons.

I. The Significance of the Author

Luke was a physician and historian of sort. He was given to exacting detail, because every detail was of the utmost importance in his profession. A history of Luke’s journeys with the Apostle Paul and of the purpose of his gospel is to me more epic than Homer’s The Illiad and The Odyssey.

I’ll not retell that journey or give all the details of the many interviews that Luke conducted, but I can assure you that God had the right man in mind to search out the details of the Christmas story and to commit them to writing for the benefit of the whole world. Luke compiles the particulars of dozens of eye-witness accounts, probably including intimate information known only by Mary and Joseph, which Mary still lived to share at the time of Luke’s writing.

I have often pictured Luke searching out and sitting with Mary, listening to her retell the story and watching the emotion well up in her eyes as face as she did so, and I have envied him that special meeting with the woman whom the angel Gabriel called “highly favored”—who witnessed the life of Christ from His nativity to His crucifixion (and probably also his resurrection and ascension).

II. The Significance of the Shepherds

What once served only as great puzzle to me has become one of the most precious gems that the New Testament holds.

Of all the ways that the Heavenly Father could have announced the advent of His Son on earth, I have long deliberated over the meaning of that glorious occasion being heralded only to shepherds, who were then give the charge of spreading the news throughout Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

The angels could have just as easily appeared over Jerusalem or Rome, over both simultaneously or even around the whole earth to ensure that all men knew what unspeakable wonder had just taken place on the spinning speck of dust called Earth.

Instead, they appeared only to a handful of men engaged in the work of one of the lowliest occupations in all of Israel. However, I have recently learned that they were not so base as most shepherds of their day, for these were special shepherds indeed.

As prescribed in the Mishna, those animals between Jerusalem and Bethlehem were to be available at all times to be sacrificed at the temple in Jerusalem, for which they were destined (Shekelim 7:4). Because of the staggering numbers of unblemished lambs that would be necessary for the sacrifices, the Temple authorities kept their own flocks, which were reserved for this special purpose.

These flocks were pastured near Bethlehem, which lay only seven miles south of Jerusalem. Here, there stood a tower for watching over the flocks, in order to determine any danger from predators or thieves. It was known as the Tower of the Flock or, in Hebrew, Midgal Edar, of which Micah prophesied 700 years earlier (Micah 4:8) that the Kindgom and dominion of Christ would come.

It seems that the priest may even have used the tower of Edar to inspect the lambs for blemishes, using a special cloth to swaddle and restrain the animal while it was being scrutinized prior to fulfilling its purpose.

The shepherds who kept these sheep were devout men who were trained for this special task, educated in the law concerning sacrifices and the importance of protecting the lambs from anything that might blemish or make them unfit for temple sacrifice. They also knew what the ritual sacrifice of these lambs foreshadowed and looked for the promised Messiah who was able to make peace between God and fallen man.

The announcement to the shepherds, in Luke 2:8-20 was a purposeful part of God’s ultimate plan to redeem fallen man through the perfect, unblemished sacrifice of one whom John referred to as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

When the angel sent these shepherds to Bethlehem, he was pointing the way to the very last sacrificial lamb who, once offered, would end all need for further temple sacrifice. The Lamb was the culmination of all other sacrifices that had ever been, according to the law of Moses—the One to whom all other sacrifices had pointed—who would at last remove the enmity of our sin and make us acceptable before God.

In essence, once they had found the Lamb of God, lying in a manger, they were—for all intents and purposes—out of a job, as far as God was concerned. The last Lamb, God Himself would nurture and inspect before offering Him up for the sins of all.

III. The Significance of the Christmas Wrapping (Swaddling Clothes)

The angel gave the shepherds a sign.

Luke 2:12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. We all know that Jesus was wrapped in "swaddling clothes" and laid in a manger, and even in our day hospital wrap newborn babies what is commonly referred to as a "swaddling" cloth or receiving blanket, which is something of a 2,000 year-old misnomer, since the word translated "swaddling clothes" in this passage possesses a meaning far deeper than the customary wrapping of children. It is significant that the Greek word here translated as "swaddling clothes" is the same Greek word that signifies "burial bandages."

In the Middle East, traveling long distances was much more difficult than in our day. Joseph didn’t simply load up the family sedan and head for Bethlehem. If you think that your vehicle is in need of a luggage carrier because there is not enough room to transport you and your things, just think about what Joseph was able to fit in his vehicle.

The donkey only had room for one suitcase and that was Mary’s womb. The Bible points out that Mary was GREAT with child, which means that the donkey probably didn’t carry anything other than Mary and the child. Joseph walked the whole distance. Imagine having to walk along side the family car on the way to visit family in the next state.

People often took sick and died on such journeys or were overtaken by robbers and killed. Back then, when you left home, there was no guarantee that you would reach your destination, which is why they wore swaddling cloths under their garments. These were a thin, gauzelike cloth, wrapped in a band around the waist so that they could be easily removed and used to wrap the body until it could be transported home and buried or entombed.

Thus, it would seem that the first clothing given to the baby Jesus was, unlike traditional receiving clothes or blankets, the same type of cloth that would be used for His body after His death on the cross. The significance is clear. From the very beginning, the Father signified to the His people and to the countless generations who would read the account in the interim between his first and second coming, that he came into the world not to rule as earthly kings but to die as a sacrifice for sins.

“This shall be a sign unto you.”

A sign is something that gets your attention, conveys relevant information and points you in the right direction. It would not have been a sign for me to tell someone that they would know a certain baby because they would find him wrapped in a receiving blanket in a blue cap in the nursery of the local hospital. There are probably several of those. However, it was certainly a sign when the angel told the shepherds that they would recognize the King of Kings by the fact that he had been wrapped in burial clothes and laid in a lowly feeding trough—the Lamb of God, born to die for the sins of the world.

IV. The Significance of the Manger. (Luke 2:7) He was laid in a manager for want of a bed. A feeding trough. A place that contained grain and hay to feed the livestock.

Again, “This shall be a sign unto you.”

Bethlehem means, “House of Bread.” The significance of Christ being laid in a manger as a sign to the shepherds—and to us—is that He came into the world as the bread of life for our for our hungry souls.

However, the bread had to be broken and consumed.

During the last Passover meal that Jesus ate with his disciples, he broke the bread and gave to his disciples. He told them, “This is my body, which is broken for you.”

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Mary pondered these things in her heart, and so must we. Although our gifts to one another are wrapped in colored paper, they are cheap compared to the gift that the Father gave to you and I. His gift was wrapped in grave clothes, to signify the cost of our redemption. His was the gift of reconciliation, through the offering up of His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sins.

He gave of Himself. He gave the very best that He had to offer.

What will we give Him, in return?

David told Ornan the Jebusite when offered the threshing floor and oxen for a sacrifice to the Lord that He would not offer anything to the Lord which cost him nothing. Instead, he paid the full price.

I’m not talking about earning Grace through works, nor I’m I talking about gifts of plastic and circuitry that we probably spent too much on. I’m talking about giving from the heart that same Lord that Christ has given us.

Greater love hath no man than this…

These are a few of the reasons why I love the Christmas story.