The Christmas Story: Born for a Purpose...Continued from page 3

David E. Owen

III. Let’s Consider The Particulars Involved In His Birth And In His Death

The French novelist Gustave Flaubert said, “God is in the details.” I do not dispute this. In fact, as we continue to observe these striking comparisons between the birth and death of the Lord Jesus, the more I am convinced that there was Divine design in all of these details. It seems increasingly clear that the Blessed Babe of Bethlehem was meant to be the Crucified Christ of Calvary. It seems increasingly certain that this same Jesus was born to die. Let’s look at some particular aspects that bear this out.

A. Notice The Particular Clothes In These Two Situations. The Bible tells us in Luke 2:7 that Mary “brought forth her firstborn son,” and perhaps Joseph assisted by wrapping the baby “in swaddling clothes.” In his book on Bible manners and customs, James Freeman describes the swaddling process. He writes, “They tightly wrapped His body and limbs in these broad strips of common cloth to protect the baby’s weak limbs. Miss Rogers, an English lady (who had traveled extensively in Palestine), describes the appearance of an infant thus bandaged: ‘The infant I held in my arms was so bound in swaddling-clothes that it was perfectly firm and solid, and looked like a mummy’.” In the same fashion, after his death, Joseph of Arimathaea “bought fine linen, and took (Jesus) down, and wrapped Him in the linen.” No doubt, the body was so wrapped “that it was perfectly firm and solid, and looked like a mummy.”

B. Notice The Particular Cots In These Two Situations. At the time of His birth, Jesus was laid in a crib. And I use the term “crib” in both senses of the word – both a baby’s bed and a feeding trough. We see Him laid in this “manger” (Luke 2:7), which was thought by some to be a hewn-out or hollowed-out piece of rock. James Freeman indicated that archaeologists discovered mangers in the region that were “cut out of limestone and were approximately three feet long, eighteen inches wide, and two feet deep.” Just as He was laid in a

hollowed out stone crib after His birth, He was laid in a hollowed out stone crypt after His death. For the Bible tells us in Mark 15:46 that Joseph of Arimathaea “laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock.” And in all likelihood, the stone slab inside this hollowed out rock also had a length twice the measure of the width. My dear friend, all of these comparisons cannot be mere coincidence. I say again that it points us to the fact that He was born to die!