Jesus was Necessarily Born in Humble Circumstances
Someone in Sunday School made the interesting observation that Joseph was of royal descent according to Matthew’s genealogy but was a carpenter in humble circumstances, and in this way was a type and shadow of Christ.
We all know that Christ was born in humble circumstances. In a stable in a manger in a small town in a backwater province. You and I have both had tender feelings when we think about the King being wrapped in common cloth by his young mother there in what was effectively a barn, or according to some scholars a campground or an RV park.
However, Jesus being born in what we perceive as humble circumstances is just God’s way of making the point obvious enough that we can get it. Because no matter where Jesus as born, be it an undersea palace dripping with pearls, it would have been humble circumstances. He was the Lord of the universe, stars blazed at his command. Any circumstance would have been a humble circumstance.
When Nephi says, behold the condescension of God, he doesn’t mean, ‘because he chose to be born in Palestine instead of a nice hospital in an American suburb.”
Filed under: We transcend your bourgeois categories | No Tag
Zen
January 17, 2023
I recall a quote by Brigham Young, that no one was born into more humbling circumstances, with more things to overcome. Part of descending below all things, was overcoming all the obstacles of life, and every temptation. He overcame them all.
Eric
January 17, 2023
We assume stable because Luke mentions a manger, but stables aren’t the only place where one might find a manger. Back in 2002 President Nelson spoke at a BYU devotional where he shared his analysis of Jesus being born in the courtyard of a caravansary. It’s a fascinating talk.
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/russell-m-nelson/christ-savior-born/
Over the years I’ve heard some people suggest that being born in a stable was actually better than being born in an inn, because of privacy. But the scenario President Nelson suggests would be anything but private, and even more humbling than we tend to imagine.
sute
January 18, 2023
My thought on what was the so-called wise men, who visit precipitated having to flee for their own lives, the refugee status of the one they were visiting, and the murder of hundreds or thousands of children. Beware of foreign wise men bringing gifts.
Still not sure of what to make of it. Shepard are guided by an angel and bring peace and testimony. Wiseman guided by learning and death and destruction follow.
Seriously, what can we learn from the wiseman when we take their entire story into account? It’s a Greek tragedy of the highest order.
Zen
January 18, 2023
I rather suspect that the Magi were guided by prophecies of Daniel, when he was the chief Magi of Babylon. They remembered enough that they had greater faith than anyone in Herod’s household, who couldn’t be bothered to walk a few miles to Bethlehem to check this out.
And the Lord honored their faith enough to preserve their lives and to commemorate it in scripture.
Tragedy? Certainly.
To have waited for millennia for the Messiah, and then to ignore him, or fight him when he shows up. And even the wise men of Babylon are wiser than the supposed children of the kingdom.
That is true tragedy.
sute
January 18, 2023
I guess my thought is usually we see lessons to be learned in scripture.
What should I learn to do or how to act from the Wiseman? Certainly not share my knowledge with others in authority and sought further help from an authority. Should they have gone straight to Bethlehem. It would have been nice if the angel came to them who were seeking, rather than just those who were working in the fields.
Is a valid lesson that the most important lessons we should act on should come unequivocally from God and that when we seek to discover God using our own enlightenment we risk destruction as our efforts are inevitably copted?
Do I read too much into this by taking the story too seriously? The problem is, I don’t feel we usually take the scriptures seriously enough. But they are part of the story where it seems things would be better off if they never left home.
Is the best this story accomplishes an (further)indictment of Herod?