Mary Swaddled Him
Christmas Day
Rev. Michael Trask Luke 2:7: 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.
What are “Swaddling Cloths” anyway? What does it mean to “Swaddle?’ From this one word, we learn a lot about this Son of God who came to live among us as one of us. Before I had my own kids I had no idea what swaddling was. It’s not a word that I use only when I read the Christmas story each year. I presumed it was diapers or some archaic form of jammies that poor people would use in ancient times. As it turns out, swaddling is a very common practice to this day; used throughout the world; regardless of the culture. My wife and I were taught how to do it to our kids by a nice nurse in the newborn area of the hospital. There are these nice thin baby blankets that you use, and there’s a precise series of folds and in the end the baby looks like a tightly packed and very large burrito; unable to move his arms and legs. And most newborns love it. It works quite well to calm them down and even put them to sleep for the first week or two of life....after that it’s anybodies guess. So why do they love it? For two reasons. One is obviously for warmth. When they’re born, they often come out very thin and with very little of the baby fat that they will later be known for. So, binding them up with arms and legs held tightly to their bodies, decreases their exposed surface area and keeps them warm. But the other reason, and the most important one is for their overall sense of well being. Think about it. The world is so big and scary, and they are so very small, helpless and exposed. The swaddling gives them comfort and a feeling of security. Even to this day your blankets give you that same feeling as you crawl into bed and go to sleep don’t they? We like the feeling of being covered and protected, even though we are not babies any more. So the fact that Jesus needed to be swaddled tells us something. He truly did become one of us. He came into the world as we do: small, helpless, and so very vulnerable. And he would require the love and the comfort of his Mother. He would need to be swaddled. He was fully human; like us in every way. Like us he took comfort in the care of his Mother and Father who swaddled him love as he grew up like a tender shoot before them. But he would not always enjoy such comforts. Fast forward 30 years or so, and this Son of Man would leave the swaddling comforts of home and would quite literally be exposed to all the evil in the world, for he would carry the sins of the world. At the end, he would be hoisted up to die on the beam of the cross, stripped of all clothing, stripped of all comforts, stripped of friendship. There would be no feelings of security for him. And why? So that we could be made secure. Isaiah puts it this way “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Is. 61). We are clothed, covered, wrapped, Saved and protected by what Christ did. Nothing can now separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! Nothing. For we have been Swaddled and made secure by the merits of Christ Jesus’ life death and resurrection. God never meant for our lives to be so fidgety and frightened. He never meant for us to always be thinking about worst case scenarios....and always worrying about what’s going to happen in the future. He never meant for us to have lives crippled and crumpled by fear. He says “believe on my son. See what he did for you! He endured the worse case scenario behind all the worst case scenarios! He’s got you covered! He’s got the present and the future! Your life is secure in him!” Swaddling: like that word. It represents security. The security that Jesus once had, but gave up for us so that we might have it. AMEN |
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