Sermon, December 24 & 25, 1997, Text: Luke 2:7 Swaddling Clothes I. Introduction Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. The text of our message is Luke 2:7: "And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn." (RSV) "And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." (NIV) This is the word. You may be seated. In our Wednesday Advent services, we have been exploring some of the materials which were present at our Savior's birth. We used the themes of stone, straw, and oil to help us prepare for our Savior's return. Now as we celebrate our Savior's first coming, we remember the material with which He was first clothed. Swaddling clothes, said the older versions of the English Bible, were wrapped around Him. More recent translations mention that He was wrapped in strips of cloth. This was the garment of the new born king and Savior of all nations. This was what covered God with us, our Emmanuel. Why did our God lower Himself to such shappy dress? To find out, we have to consider our nakedness. We got naked II. Gen 3:7 A. Adam and Eve were the first people and they were running around without any clothes. Genesis 2:25 says, "The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame." They were in their birhtday suits and it didn't bother them one bit. This, however, was prior to sin. Once sin entered the world, everything got turned around. Genesis 3:7 says, "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." Their eyes were opened. This doesn't mean they were blind before they sinned, but sin opened their eyes to their guilt. They saw their disobedience toward God. They saw that they were now shameful and they were ashamed to be seen by each other and by God. They wanted to cover up and hide. Their choice of covering was not so clever, however. They sewed fig leaves together, but they sure didn't think about how long those leaves would last. They made a crude attempt to cover themselves, but that covering was feeble at best. So, not only did they sin, but they also did a poor job of trying to cover themselves from their shame over that sin. 1 B. We are their descendants It is unfortunate that we descended from Adam and Eve, for we picked up their worst traits. First we picked up their sinful nature, their tendency to choose to be disobedient to God. Secondly, we picked up their feeble attempts to cover themselves, when we try to cover our sins. Sin entered the world through the one man, Adam. Yet each of us are responsible for our own orignal sinfulness and actual sins. We are guilty of turning our hearts away from God. We are guilty of breaking God's law. We fail to Love God with our whole heart, soul and mind. We fail to love our neighbors, that is, all other people, as we love our selves. These failures leave us guilty and shameful. Our own attempts to cover ourselves from this shame are weak and bound to fail. We try to earn points by doing the things we think are good. We hope to offset the mistakes. The bad news is they don't offset the mistakes, and the things which we think are good are really just more bad. Genesis 3:21 C. Let us turn back to Adam and Eve to see how the problem was solved for them. Genesis 3:21 explains how their shameful nakedness was resolved, "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." The one doing the action here is God and God alone. The Lord makes the garments. The Lord clothed them. They were completely passive in this process. Their own fig-leaf specials, the first set of cheap clothes, soon yielded to the superior covering made and put on by God. These skin or hides most likely were taken from living animals, who became sacrifices to cover Adam and Eve's sins. A sacrifice would be necessary to cover our sins too. Before the sacrifice was ready, it needed to be prepared. The preparation of our sacrifice involved clothing it. III. God was clothed What were these swaddling clothes? A. "And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn." (RSV) "And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn," (NIV) This baby was covered up. These clothes or cloths were put on it. What are these swaddling clothes anyway? The handling of the newborn child in the Middle East seems to have had a long standing pattern. Even back in Ezekiel 16, the Old Testament, a process is described. There, the normal process is to wash the child with water, rub it with salt and then wrap it in cloths. Even until recent 2 times, Arabs in Palestine would follow basically the same procedure. They would rub salt, water, and oil over the child's entire body and then wrap it tightly in clean rags for 7 days. Then the process would be repeated until the child was 40 days old. So it seems to be that the newborn Christ child was treated like other newborns were treated. If we were to translate into our day and age, then we would probably say Mary put a diaper on Him. This is what we would probably put on a child first. One source I checked suggested that the swaddling cloths were used to restrain the baby. I doubt this means to keep the child from getting up and walking around. Another source spoke of the cloths being used to help straighten out the newborn's limbs. After being curled up in the womb for nine months, they probably have a tendency to want to continue to curl that way, so the cloths can restrain the arms and legs so that they begin to straighten out. Others have said the cloths were basically used to keep the child warm. Some suggest they primarily served the role of a diaper. Still others point to the role of the cloths as a bandage for the cut umblilical cord. In any case, we are certain that the swaddling cloths were regularly used on infants. A sign for the shepherds B. This regularity helped serve a purpose in God's unfolding plan for our salvation. The swaddling cloths made the newborn Jesus recognizable to others as a newborn. Indeed, the cloths served as a sign to the shepherds. The angel of the Lord told the shepherds to look for such a cloth covered infant. Luke 2:12 said, "This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Probably the manger part of Jesus' birth was unconventional, but the cloths would have helped the shepherds know that they were looking for a newborn child. They were part of the sign of the Savior who is Christ the Lord. C. A sign for us too These swaddling cloths are a sign for us also, though they are not a sign used to locate the child. Rather, they are a sign of who and what the child is. This baby Jesus is the most unusual combination that has ever existed. He is the Christ, the Lord, very much God. He is true God. Yet, at the same time, God came and had swaddling clothes put on him. That is a sign for us that Jesus was also truly human. Both God and man, at the same time. God incarnate, God with us, Emmanuel. The truly surprising part is that God would stoop to put on human nature. D. Depths Perhaps the depths to which our Lord stooped can best be illustrated by a typo, that is a typographical error. A worship newsletter came out dealing with Lent, but was mailed in advance, arriving before Christmas. This newsletter suggested a choir piece for the Lent season which was based on Isaiah 53, "Surely He Hath Borne our Griefs." The typographical error occurred in this title, however, and it copied the beginning letter of one word onto another word by mistake. The "B" was misplaced onto the last word. "Surely He Hath Borne our Briefs." 3 This may seem almost sacrilegious. Certainly it is irreverent, or is it? It may really be a strange but accurate way of proclaiming the truth at the very heart of the Christmas account. Indeed, if swaddling cloths were a form of diaper, then Jesus did bear our briefs. This may sound embarrassing, but that is the point. See how deep the Lord stooped as He came into human nature, put on human flesh and blood, and even started with infant flesh and blood. Our briefs, indeed! The Lord who controls the universe put Himself into a situation where He couldn't even control His bladder. We often picture our Lord's earthly life as perfect and clean. Perhaps it was not so. Perhaps it began with dirty diapers. It seems as though the Lord Jesus' earthly life ends in our briefs too. As we know from the Gospel of John, the soldiers divided up Jesus' clothes, and even cast lots for His undergarment. If Jesus was wearing anything when crucified, it would only be His briefs. In this deep state of humiliation, Jesus died. Most of would die if caught in public in our underwear, but Jesus both died and was caught in His underwear. All as the people mocked Him. Another understanding of the "briefs" typo was suggested by a lawyer. See in the legal world, a brief is the group of legal arguments in a case. The accusations or charges, for example, are part of the brief. In Galatians, the Christmas account is described in these words, "But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law." Jesus was born with the Law over Him. He carried the burden of our legal briefs, the charges against us, to the cross. He stooped to take on our guilt. So we could be clothed IV. The Lord Jesus Christ stooped to be clothed with swaddling clothes so that we could be clothed from our sins. The Old Testament uses the same word for cloth, cover and forgive. To be forgiven our sins means to have our sins be covered over. Psalm 132 speaks of the priests being clothed with righteousness and salvation. The righteousness we are clothed with covers our sin and guilt. The Lord is the one who covers us. This is mentioned in Ezekiel 16, too. Like Adam and Eve, we can only be properly and adequately clothed and covered from our sins by God. Zechariah 3:4 says, "See I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you." The Lord took on the lowly form of an infant covered with swaddling cloths so we could be clothed with the rich garment of forgiveness and salvation. Our reading from Isaiah mentioned the same idea too. The Lord has come to bind up the brokenhearted, that is, those who know they are in need of a savior. He has come to proclaim freedom for the captives and bestow on them a garment of praise. Later the garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness are mentioned also by Isaiah. V. Conclusion The eve of Christmas and Christmas day tend to be very special days for Christians. On this special day, I thought I would give you a special summary of my message. Rather than summarizing with words, I have an object for you today. Undoubtedly it is hard to see, but I have here a bandage. This bandage can remind us of the swaddling cloths Jesus wore as 4 He started His earthly life on the road to the cross. Bandages are knowing for sticking to things. They stick to us. Jesus too, came into human nature, and that nature stuck to Him, even today. Our prayer is that Jesus might stick to you. That human nature was also a restrictive experience for God. If you put this bandage right over your knuckle, you can't bend your finger very well. Jesus voluntarily restricted Himself to start as a small child in restrictive swaddling cloths. He also volunteered Himself to be restricted by the nails to the cross. The bandage reminds us of what we often use them for that is for injuries. --- We are weak and all it takes is a small metal object to cut us so that we bleed. Our Savior took on the weakness of humanity to suffer and die for us, shedding His blood to take away our sins. The bandage is an external covering. If you cut yourself you can try to cover your wound yourself, but that would probably not work so well if it was a severe wound. Adam and Eve tried to cover up their own shame over their disobedience, and their self-covering failed, too. We cannot cover our sins, but we must depend instead upon our Lord to cover them with the robe of righteousness and garment of salvation which He provides us as a free gift. I would ask the ushers to pass out bandages tonight, as they gather the offering. Not only will we collect your responses to the many gifts our Lord provides, but we will also give you something to remember the baby in swaddling cloths. Maybe you want to put the bandage on right now to remind you of who your Savior is and what He did for you. Perhaps it would be even better to put the bandage somewhere special so that you would see it everyday. You can stick it somewhere different, like your bathroom mirror. When you see it, it will remind you of the baby born in Bethlehem; the Savior in swaddling clothes who sufferred for your salvation; the Almighty God who came into our world so you might be saved. Remember the one who is our covering against sin, and brings us healing, life and salvation, the God and man, Jesus Christ. Amen. May the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. 5