"She Wrapped Him in Swaddling Clothes..." Luke 2:7

“And [Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2: 7

In the name of Jesus, our newborn King. Amen.

Tonight, the King of the Universe, the Savior of us all, the long-awaited Messiah has finally arrived. He’s laid in a manger, doted on by mom and Joseph, spied upon by curious animals and, Luke tells us, this newborn Savior King, is “wrapped in swaddling cloths” (Luke 2:7).

I remember when our baby was born and the nurse showed me how to wrap her up, snug but not too tight, to help comfort and console the baby. It was a soft, cotton blanket. Baby in the center of the blanket, tips pointing up, down, left and right, like the points of a compass, with her head pointing north. The north point was folded down, behind her back, the east point pulled across the chest, the south point brought up and the west point wrapped around, tucking it in behind her head. Someone called it “papoose style,” but you can’t call it that, anymore. So, we’ll call it what it has been called for millenium: swaddling. We wrapped her in a swaddling blanket and placed her in a bassinette.

There’s a learning curve to swaddling a baby. Sure, some may come about it naturally, but ask any parent and they’ll tell you that for most, learning how to wrap that baby tight like a burrito takes some practice. Who’s to say if it took Mary one, two, or twelve tries to get it right? She didn’t have the advantage of watching a YouTube video to speed the process along or read about what she was to expect. She simply had to figure it out.

And she would need to figure it out. Swaddling a baby was, and is, not merely an act of tender care from parent to infant. It’s critical to providing a newborn with warmth and security, both essential to that brand new baby falling asleep. And yes, Mary likely wanted Jesus, meek and mild as he may have been, to take a nap that first Christmas morning.

In the Ancient World, newborns would be washed with water, rubbed with salt and olive oil, and then multiple strips of fabric–likely torn from various garments and household items–would be wrapped tightly around the child, securing their tiny arms to their side and their legs together and serving to shield them from the cold. But they were wrapped in more than mere strips of cloth. Each newborn was wrapped up in love as mom ensured that her little treasure–and in this case, our Lord and Savior–was safe, sound, and snug as a bug.

The swaddling cloths that wrap our Savior on this Christmas night are a small but important detail. It is Jesus’ first outfit after all. More than that, these swaddling clothes are a picture of what this child, once grown, will provide for us all.

We’ll start with the warmth.

Temperatures aside, this world is a cold place. We don’t like to dwell on it on Christmas Eve, but life is hard, filled with broken promises, tension-filled relationships, awkward interactions, gut-wrenching rejections, and terrible misunderstandings. These can leave you feeling like an outsider, alone and caught in the cold, if you will. Perhaps you’ve felt the cold this holiday season. At a time when relationships are front and center, this season is packed with opportunity for the dysfunction so common to human interaction to be felt in full force.

And yet born in Jesus this Christmas Eve is the promise that you will never be stuck out in the cold when it comes to your Creator. Yes, our sins and struggles earn us an outsider status, a rightful rejection when compared to the beauty of our God and the standard for life and love that he’s given to us and desires from us. But this baby has been born to bring just such outsiders back into the fold and family of God. This child will grow to live the life of love that we should live but fail to, and, by faith in him alone, his perfect fidelity to the will of God will be credited to us to enjoy as our own. Clothed, swaddled if you will, in his perfection we also enjoy his status. We are welcomed into God’s grace, God’s pleasure, and God’s family as a son, as a daughter.

You may be “on the outs” with any number of people in this cold world. You may have outsider status in all kinds of clubs and groups, even among family. But one relationship will never more be in doubt. One status is strong and secure. You reside in the light, in the warmth of God’s love. He cherishes you. He celebrates you. He dotes on and smiles at the very thought of you, much like, we can imagine, Mary does with the newborn Savior. And one day, at the return of Christ, the acceptance you have with God will shine brighter than any rejection you’ve experienced and any dysfunction that exists between you and others.

But there’s also the security and the safety.

If an infant’s arms and legs are left flailing about they can feel vulnerable; they shake and shiver as though they’re falling. There’s also the fact that they’re prone to cuts and scrapes from their tiny yet surprisingly sharp little fingernails. But wrapped tight, they feel – and indeed they are – safe.

We too are exposed. This world is not only cold, but dangerous. Death is all around us. And the Scriptures say that “Satan prowls like a roaring lion, seeking whom he will devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Cancer strikes a loved one. A moral failure takes out the career of a respected friend. Divorce pulls apart a home that you fought and sacrificed for–the list goes on and on. The attacks of this sin-sick world come at us from all sides.

But this brave little boy, born this night in Bethlehem, has come to confront every evil that threatens us and battle every foe that terrorizes us. He’s here to live, to fight, to die, and rise like a man on a mission. And in his brief life he will face every evil, he will confront every terror taking each one, including death, head on. And he will crush them all. Sure, he will win by losing, and it seems backward to us at first. But in dying, in being rejected by his own people, punished for crimes he did not commit, and giving his life on the cross as if he was the chief of sinners, this newborn will bring new life to the world. He will drain the world’s evil of its power, absorbing it all–along with God’s wrath–into himself and rendering this world impotent to lay any kind of permanent claim on us. He will die. He will go from being washed in salt and olive oil and wrapped in swaddling clothes, to being bathed in perfume in preparation for burial and wrapped in another set of swaddling clothes, the graveclothes. Instead of a manger for animals He will be placed in another man’s unused grave. And, from that place of the dead, He will rise victorious, the Resurrection and the Life, the Lord of Life, the Victor over sin, death and hell.

And through faith in this child, through a relationship of dependence upon who this baby is and all that he will do, his victory over this dangerous world becomes our victory. Yes, it may at times feel as though we are flailing and falling. We will receive cuts and bruises, scratches and scrapes, but there will be no fatal blows for those who belong to Jesus Christ. We, like he, will be wrapped, swaddled in security.

There is nothing more loving, more sweet, than the love of a mother toward her newborn child. Her eyes fixed on him. Her arms, hesitant to let him go. Tears running down her cheeks as she watches him wiggle and move, yawn and stretch. There is little more loving to behold as she slowly, deliberately takes a tiny blanket, wraps it around his little body and tucks it just right so that it will stay put. She holds him, rocks him, and then he–and she!–finally fall asleep.

Such love. Such a gift.

Ask any mom and they will tell you that there is no better present to hold in your hands.

Mary’s love for the Lord on this Christmas Eve is a glimpse of God’s love for us all, in Jesus Christ. Did you know that God the Father, because of Jesus Christ, looks upon you with an even greater love, that his eyes are fixed on you, and that you are held in his hands? It’s easy, and understandable, if your mind is distracted by other gifts being given and received on this Christmas Eve . But may there be a moment, at least one, where you realize that you too are swaddled in warmth and safety, and in the care of One who loves you more than you can possibly imagine. And why not let it be now? You are warm, secure, and safe in the love of Jesus Christ.

How might life be different, if you fully grasped that truth, truly understood the love of God that is yours, now and forever? Because it is, in fact, yours. 

Would you live with a bit more bravery, willing to take on the things that are of greatest consequence, knowing that God has got your back? Because he does!

Would you let go of some anxiety, knowing that you already possess that which matters most? Because you do, and moreover God possesses you in his loving arms.

Might you sleep more soundly at night, knowing that life’s biggest battles have already been fought for you and won for you? Because they have.

Might there be a bit more boldness in word and deed and more lightness in your heart, if you grasped just how tightly you’re wrapped in the good things of God, through Jesus Christ? Because, and please hear me clearly, God has got you and he is not letting go of you!

The swaddling clothes that wrap our Savior are a small but important detail.

They are a picture of what this child, once grown, will provide for us all.

What we receive this day–a beloved child wrapped in love–is what we all, through this child, get to become.

Now that is an incredible gift. Merry Christmas. Amen.