It’s the Christmas season and decorations are everywhere! Nativity scenes can be found drawn on store windows, on display in homes, and even live at different churches. It makes sense with Christmas being about the birth of Jesus Christ, but have you ever stopped to wonder if He was really born in a barn? Where does that come from?
Well, let’s start by going to scripture and seeing what it has to say. We see in Luke 2|1-7 a glimpse into Jesus’ birth. Caesar made a decree that everyone needed to go to their hometown for a census, and Joseph, being a descendant of David, went to Bethlehem. Verse 7 tells us “she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.” We see a few more times throughout Chapter 2 mention of the manger, but a “stable” or barn is never actually mentioned. So how did we get here?
When we read the Bible (or any book) we try to apply it to our own context and understand it based on our own experience, but the culture of the time is an important consideration. When we hear the word ‘manger’, we tend to connect that to a barn since a manger is where animals eat from. While it is true that Jesus was placed in a manger, in Bethlehem at that time valuable animals were brought inside to both keep the animals safe and the home warm. There were multiple levels to the home and different parts were designated for guests, the family, and the animals. There was no guest room available for Mary and Joseph (likely because the descendants in the line of David was long and let’s face it, traveling while pregnant doesn’t happen quickly. Think of the bathroom breaks Mary needed! Not to mention any braxton hicks or real contractions!) The upper room, or guest room, was already full, but hospitality was a high priority in the culture so they made a way for Mary and Joseph to stay with them and have the space necessary when giving birth. It’s not so much a story of ‘knocks on the door and no space available so they stayed in a barn’ as it is a story of ‘rooms filled with relatives and space made in the base of the home.’
So while Jesus may not technically have been born in a barn, he was near the animals and he was placed in a manger. I imagine the animals instinctively knew what Mary was going through and brought peace and warmth to the moment.
As you set out your display or talk about the nativity with your family, imagine another layer to the scene; where there’s a pitched roof, imagine another floor with people walking about. Maybe one relative is ready with blankets while another has food prepped for post delivery. Perhaps they were sleeping peacefully and had no idea that the Savior of the world was just born in the same home as them. However you picture the smaller details of the nativity, ask God to reveal to you the stillness of the scene of that very first Christmas: in a full home, with animals nearby, but not necessarily in a barn.
Sites used in research:
https://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/once-more-jesus-was-not-born-in-a-stable/
https://livingtheologically.com/2018/12/18/was-jesus-born-in-a-barn-cave-or-house/
