The Time Came

Are you ready? It is Christmas Eve. No matter how beautifully your halls are decked, no matter how many presents you have wrapped, no matter how many appetizers and desserts you have eaten, no matter what your plan tonight and tomorrow is, no matter whether you feel in the Christmas spirit or not, Christ is coming. This is the Good News that Luke speaks.

He is very particular about the timing. He tells us that Augustus was Emperor, and that it was census time. Every 14 years, the Roman Empire had a census, and everyone was required to return to their own city. Jews were exempt from military service, but they were not exempt from taxation. So this was for Joseph and Mary was a trip to pay taxes. 80 miles from Nazareth to the City of David, Bethlehem.

They couldn’t have been ready. Far from the women she knew so well, far from comfortable, far from prepared.

But while they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. It wasn’t picturesque. But, it was dry and quiet and warm. There, in the stable, God was born to us. He took his first breath. And since then, we have imagined the scene. Mary wrapping him tightly in a strip of cloth, laying him on the hay in the manger. Children play with manger scenes, we tell the story with the warmest, most emotive adjectives we can murmur, we sing the carols and lullabies, and artists depict the scene.

During Advent this year, one of our Sunday school classes has been studying the ways in which the story of Christ’s birth has been depicted throughout history. And Sunday, as we looked at painting of the nativity through the centuries, we noticed that the ox and donkey were pictured side-by-side by the manger over and over again.

So, I did a little research. Since the 4th Century, the ox and donkey have symbolically been present beside the manger. They are there together, because in being born, God said the time had come for the ox and the donkey to sit side-by-side and worship him.

The ox is a ritually clean animal, represented the Jewish people. The donkey is not a ritually clean animal so it represented the Gentiles. Here at the manger it is time for them to come together and worship.

The time came for divisions to cease. The time came for justice. The time came to respect one another. The time came for oppression to end. The time came for love for all people. The time came for peace. Prepared or not, the time came.

As you welcome the Lord again this night, you are invited to the manger. Notice those invited with you. Who is the ox? Who is the donkey? Who is clean? Who is unclean? Who is insider? Who is outsider? The time came, and they all crowded in to pear over the side of the manger and worship the babe, lying there.