Meditation for Monday
And this shall be a sign unto you, ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Luke 2:12
What are swaddling clothes? Over the years, we have heard many different definitions for this term. Some have described swaddling clothes as a means of wrapping a newborn baby tightly in strips of cloth for warmth and security. Others suggest it was simply a term for very poor clothes that would be placed around a baby, if the parents were too poor to afford better. These definitions might well have a good application, and indicate the poverty and the cultural conditions into which Jesus Christ was born. However, there is a very different, very solemn definition for swaddling clothes, and I suspect is the correct definition for the manner in which the holy Infant was wrapped on the night of His birth. One expert has identified swaddling clothes as a form of burial cloth that was used to wrap the body of a person who had died during a journey. The swaddling clothes would serve as a shroud for a wayside funeral. So, why did Mary wrap the Lord Jesus in a burial shroud?
In practical terms, Mary undoubtedly wrapped her Baby in the swaddling clothes because that’s all she had. She and Joseph must have been very poor if they had to turn to such a morbid piece of fabric in which to cradle the Baby. This gives us a sense of the deep humility into which the Lord Jesus was willing to come in order to be our Saviour. But consider the spiritual impact of the situation. In that little manger was the Son of God, on the very night of His birth, wearing garments of death. We know that the purpose for which the Lord Jesus came into the world was that He would die for our sins. Every step along His life’s journey was a step toward Golgotha. But it is a bit shocking to consider the imagery of His arrival into the world in grave clothes. How critically important this brings before us the truth of the Scriptures that tell of His coming to lay down His life for us. This grand theme of the New Testament – with all of its types and shadows in the Old Testament – is so important to us. In fact, nothing can be more important. No salvation is available to us apart from His coming and offering Himself a ransom for us. No hope is available to us apart from a Substitute taking our well-deserved wrath upon Himself. No Heaven is available to us apart from the precious blood that purchased our redemption.
Jesus died for me. That is all that we need. And that is what God in His Word wants us to believe and embrace as we consider the swaddling clothes in which our Saviour was first clad. – Jim MacIntosh