© Paul Maisano, Melbourne, Australia

25 December 2010

The True Meaning of Christmas (as told by the Manger)

Hi, my name is Mannie. I am a feed trough, what some people might call a manger. Yes that’s right,
a manger. You may have heard of me before. My family and I go way back. We have been feeding
animals for many generations. The work of a feed trough is – sorry, I will use the word manger
seeing it is Christmas. The work of a manger is a thankless task. We give, give, give but never
receive anything in return. Well, that’s not entirely true. Cows are especially good at giving, but
usually just their saliva and drool. Occasionally a horse might drop some of its food as it chews.
Donkeys! Now don’t get me started on donkeys……
Anyway. Today’s topic is “The True Meaning of Christmas” and I have been asked to share my
story with you. Before I start I just want to say that I am saddened by how the world has distorted
the reality of Christmas and has turned it into nothing more than a holiday and an excuse to get
drunk or to make money. Even people who are atheists say they celebrate Christmas without
understanding or appreciating its significance, or even believing in the person whose birthday they
supposedly celebrate.
Lately, however, people have been saying – we need to go back to the true meaning of Christmas.
“At last!”, I think to myself, but only to be disappointed once more when I discover that their
definition of the true meaning of Christmas is to do good and give people gifts. These are admirable
things in their own right as the Bible itself in 1st Peter 3:11 says “Let him turn away from evil and
do good” and Acts 20:35 says “It is more blessed to give than to receive”. But they are certainly not
the true meaning of Christmas. People should be doing these things all the time – not just at
Christmas. Sorry, I seem to be drifting from my topic. I will now share my story with you.
My story begins, now let me see, it must be 2,011 [amend to suit date of performance] years ago
now, late November as I recall. I started out as a lump of timber in a carpenter’s shop until one day,
an innkeeper came in and asked for a new feed trough for his horse and donkey (the cow came
later). The carpenter showed him an old one as an example and the two agreed on a price. Two days
later the innkeeper returned to take me home. His stable was a bit dusty, but otherwise relatively
clean. Certainly cleaner than the carpenter’s shop, but much more smelly. He set me up against the
wall on the right hand side of the stable, opposite the little window. Every day he would line me
with fresh straw and make sure I was clean. At first it was a little awkward having animals eat out
of me, but I eventually got used to it. After a while I didn’t even notice the smell anymore.
Life in Israel in those days wasn’t so bad. Sure we were ruled by the Romans but overall, I don’t
think that they treated us all that badly. But not many people shared my opinion. In those days
Bethlehem and indeed all the surrounding cities seemed to be buzzing. Everybody talked about the
Messiah who was to come, how the Messiah would rid Israel of the Romans, how the Messiah
would rule in justice and how everything would be alright once the Messiah came to be king over
Israel, just like God had promised in the holy scriptures.
Sometimes, I would imagine myself being the throne of the Messiah when He became king,
delicately carved and overlaid with gold, just like the wood in the temple. At other times I would
imagine that I was His chariot as he rode me into yet another successful battle in which the enemies
of Israel were defeated. No matter how many times I imagined myself being something important in
the Messiah’s household, I couldn’t escape the fact that I was just an ordinary manger in a stable. If
only I was a manger in the Messiah’s stable! But alas, I was just an insignificant piece of furniture
in the stable of a small inn in Bethlehem. Nothing much happened in Bethlehem. Sure God had

/conversion/tmp/activity_task_scratch/704248117.doc Page 1
 © Paul Maisano, Melbourne, Australia
25 December 2010

promised many things to king David, but his family and lineage had long since disappeared from
the throne. There was nothing left in God’s promises for Bethlehem. Or so I thought…
A few months after I had settled into the stable the Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus, decreed that
a census of the Roman Empire was to take place. This meant that everybody had to return to the city
where their family’s records were kept. The only reason for the census was to raise more money
from taxes. Some things just never change. As the months passed by, thousands of people travelled
all over Israel to return to their town of origin for the census.
It was an unusually cold December and people were flocking back to Bethlehem from all over Israel
for the census. I remember it well because my owner was very happy. At a time when he normally
did not have many customers, every room in his inn was fully booked and, as far as I could tell,
pretty much every inn in Bethlehem was fully booked too. Looking back it seems like only
yesterday but it was actually 2,004 years ago today. How the years have passed so quickly.
I was just getting ready to settle down for the night when I heard some people talking outside the
door of the inn. I could just make out a couple of silhouettes, and one of them looked very pregnant.
I heard them say they had come from Nazareth in Galilee. It must have taken them two weeks to get
to Bethlehem from there. They sounded worried – it seemed that the baby was just about ready to
be delivered and they had tried every inn in Bethlehem – and this was their last hope. My owner
said there were no rooms left. I could hear the compassion in his voice, but I could tell that he didn’t
know what to do. Then all of a sudden he suggested, “You could stay in the stable. It isn’t much and
it’s not very clean, but at least it’s warm.” “Thank you” replied the couple, and they followed my
owner to the stable door. He let them in and gave them a couple of blankets to throw on the floor.
The wife looked extremely uncomfortable and she found it difficult to lie down because of her
condition.
But she didn’t have to worry about lying down, because not long after they arrived she went into
labour. I don’t think I can describe what a woman goes through in labour, but I will say this – I am
glad that mangers do not have to go through that. The night was rather dark as I recall, and the baby
was delivered under the glow of candles. Then a rather strange thing happened, the moon must have
been covered by clouds earlier that night, because as soon as the baby was born, the sky grew really
bright. I couldn’t see the moon through the window, but I could tell it was now much brighter
outside. They wrapped the baby in some clean strips of cloth and then looked around for
somewhere to lay him down. Oh yes, it was a boy. I didn’t catch his name at first.
I tried to look as inconspicuous as possible. It was bad enough that animals ate out of me, and
slobbered all over me. The last thing I wanted was to be the bed of a little baby who would probably
cry all night and keep me awake. But try as I might to hide they soon saw me. Out with the old
straw and in went some fresh, clean straw. Then they placed the baby inside. To my surprise he
didn’t cry. He didn’t make much of a fuss at all actually. I distinctly remember feeling sorry for
him. Imagine being born in a stable – how humiliating is that? Could he ever amount to much in
life? It was bad enough that he was from Galilee, but being born in a stable was not something to be
proud of.
I was certainly a long way from my dreams of being a piece of important furniture in the Messiah’s
household. It looked like both me and this little baby would have to accept our lot in life. I would
always be just an ordinary manger in a smelly stable, and he would always be the boy who was born
in a stable.

/conversion/tmp/activity_task_scratch/704248117.doc Page 2
 © Paul Maisano, Melbourne, Australia
25 December 2010

All of a sudden I could hear a commotion outside. It sounded like there were five, maybe six men
shouting something about angels singing, and, I think they mentioned the Messiah. At first I thought
they may have been drunk, but they were shepherds who had been out tending their sheep. They
said that some angels appeared to them that night and told them that a Saviour, Christ the Lord, had
been born in Bethlehem. Wow! Of all the cities and on all the nights! What a coincidence – two
children born on the same night in the same town. I though to myself that if this baby was Christ the
Lord, he must be the Messiah that everybody had been talking about. After all, it isn’t every baby
that gets his birth announcement delivered by angels.
The shepherds said that when they got to the city, they could see a bright star. I thought to myself
“That must be the bright light I can see – it’s not the moon”. Then they said that the star was right
over our inn. I suddenly got very excited. A very important baby – probably the Messiah – had been
born very close to our inn. Perhaps I would get to see him. How exciting to be so close to the
Messiah. Right then a million questions began to race through my head. What did He look like?
Whose family did He belong to? What was His lineage? Would He really become king of Israel?
Would He really get rid of the Romans? Why was He born in Bethlehem instead of Jerusalem
where the temple is?
Then, in the space of just one sentence, my life was changed. The shepherds went on to tell the
couple that the angels had given them a sign, that they would find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth
and lying in a MANGER! Surely this was too much of a coincidence. I knew there were lots of
mangers in Bethlehem but there couldn’t have been too many with a baby inside. Then it dawned on
me. The baby lying inside of me was the Messiah! I was the Messiah’s first crib. Oh how I wished
that I was cleaner and more elegantly crafted. How I wished that I was in a bedroom in some
beautiful palace and not a dirty, smelly stable. How I wished that I was lined with fine linen instead
of straw. A stable was no place for a king and a manger was not a proper bed for Him, but He didn’t
seem to mind.
Though I was unworthy, God had counted me worthy to hold the Messiah. He was born to be the
Saviour of the world, and here He was lying inside of me – a dirty manger. It seems that Jesus was
to make this a pattern though. For to this day, the king of the universe still chooses unworthy,
seemingly insignificant vessels and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, causes them to perform
significant exploits for His kingdom. Our worth comes from Him, not from ourselves. That’s one
thing I learned that night.
God’s greatest desire is to reconcile a lost world to Himself, so much so that he gave us Jesus in
order that we might be saved. Jesus Himself said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His
only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Did you know that the birth of Jesus is only mentioned in two of the four gospels? Even then, in
Matthew it only says that He was born and that His name was called Jesus. So the details of Jesus’
birth, pretty much the story I just told you, is only written in one gospel. The death and resurrection
of Jesus however, are mentioned in all four gospels. It seems that the low key birth of Jesus was
God’s way of saying that His birth should not be a focal point. Jesus was born for one purpose alone
– to die for a sinful world. But it was His death that gave us life, and His resurrection that gives us
hope of eternal life.
Yes, when I look back, I can’t help but think that the true meaning of Christmas is not about gifts or
holidays, or family or even ‘peace on earth’. The true meaning of Christmas is the salvation of lost
souls. After all, that’s the reason Jesus was born in the first place, to die for sinners, and that means

/conversion/tmp/activity_task_scratch/704248117.doc Page 3
 © Paul Maisano, Melbourne, Australia
25 December 2010

every single one of us. Enjoy the gifts and the holiday and the time with your family but, if you get
a chance today, tell someone about the true meaning of Christmas.
You can tell them that Jesus is more than just a baby who was born a couple of thousand years ago.
The bible says He is:
 Alpha and Omega (Rev. 1:8)
 Anointed One (Luke 4:18)
 Author and finisher of our faith (Heb 12:2)
 Beautiful Bridegroom (Rev 18:23)
 Bread of Life (John 6:35)
 Bright and morning star (Rev. 2216)
 Chief Cornerstone (Eph. 2:20)
 Chief Shepherd (1 Pet. 5:4)
 Christ, the anointed one (John 1:41)
 Creator of all things (Colossians 1:16)
 Everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6)
 Good shepherd (John 10:11)
 Heir of all things (Heb 1:2)
 Holy One of God (Mark 1:24)
 I am (John 8:58)
 Image of the invisible God (Col 1:15)
 Immanuel “God with us” (Matt. 1:23)
 King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16)
 Lamb of God (John 1:29)
 Light of the World (John 9:5)
 Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5)
 Lord of Glory (1 Cor. 2:8)
 Mediator between God and Men (1 Tim. 2:5)
 Messiah (John 4:25)
 Mighty God (Isaiah 9:6)
 Name above all names (Eph 1:21)
 Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)
 Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25)
 Saviour (Luke 1:47)
 Son of God (Mark 1:1)
 Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6)
 Word (John 1:1)

Wise men sought Him. A king sought Him. You should seek Him too.

/conversion/tmp/activity_task_scratch/704248117.doc Page 4