REsources for Living
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What is your favorite Christmas carol? Mine is the English carol “The Friendly Beasts,” which begins:
Jesus our brother, kind and good
Was humbly born in a stable rude,
And the friendly beasts
around Him stood.
Jesus our brother, kind and good.
The rest of the verses are from the point of view of the animals in the stable, which is always a win in my book. You can never have too many friendly beasts, I say! But there’s something else I love about this carol. It really emphasizes the humble nature of Jesus. Not only is he humbly born in a plain, rustic stable (which is what the word rude meant at the time—it wasn’t a stable with bad manners), but he is also described as our “brother, kind and good.”
In most stories when God or gods become incarnate they are powerful, imposing. They are born to royalty or to other gods. They are pillars of fire or capable of throwing thunderbolts. They don’t get described the way you would a favorite babysitter, as a particularly gentle and caring sibling.
The Christmas story makes kind of an extraordinary statement about humility. God is born as a baby. Not a baby with magic powers or extraordinary gifts, just a baby. With ordinary parents—a young woman and her older husband who have no important social connections and no particular gifts beyond an ordinary job as a carpenter. They are not even the long-suffering, put-upon heroes of fairy tales who we know will rise to the top through a combination of wit, courage and goodness. They’re just…folks. With a baby.
And who gets first word of this miracle that God has appeared on Earth in human form? To whom do the angels choose to announce this wonder of the word become flesh? Just some guys. Shepherds out tending their sheep. Just doing the everyday kind of things that shepherds do. The story never claims that they were particularly virtuous or wise or holy to deserve this honor of angels bringing them tidings of great joy. They were just…there.
Of course, literature and music is full of descriptions of Christ as Lord and King and Conqueror. But that all came later. We have a hard time with the whole humility thing. We want to worship power, might, success. We want to be on the winning team, to know that our God could take your God in a fight. But that’s not the Christmas story.
In fact, after an angel visits Mary and tells her that she will bear the child of God, Mary goes to her cousin Elizabeth, who is also pregnant. They share their joy, and Mary sings this song:
My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty….
God, Mary exclaims, has been “mindful of the humble state” of God’s servant. Mary was chosen for this honor not in spite of, but rather because of her humble state. And why would God do this? Well, the song goes on to talk about God toppling the proud and lifting up the humble, filling the hungry and sending the rich away. Much later, some Christians would come to look upon wealth as a sign of God’s favor, but that’s not what’s in the story. What’s in the story is the radical claim that God is on the side of the humble, the poor, the ordinary. The Kingdom of Heaven is not the kind of kingdom that comes with a crown.
After he grows up, Jesus spends a good deal of time trying to explain what the Kingdom of Heaven is, without much success in terms of getting people to understand him. The Kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in a field. It is like yeast that gets in with flour. It is like a mustard seed. It is like seeds that grow in the ground. Whatever the Kingdom of God is, it’s a small thing that has a big effect. It belongs to the humble, to those without power. But yeast is a humble thing that utterly transforms flour. A mustard seed is a tiny thing that grows into a bush large enough for the birds to roost in it.
There is a power in humility, declares the Christmas story. It isn’t the same kind of power that you are used to, the power of wealth and royalty. It is the power of transformation that lies inside the tiniest seed, inside a defenseless baby, inside you and inside me.
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