Born in a Barn

Cold, winter weather always seems to produce a great number of perpetual "open-door" people. These are the folks who make their grand entries with open doors left gaping widely behind them. These are a strange breed of people. They never leave a door open in the summer, only when it is 40 below and the snow is blowing.

There is a slam that works better than the door on these people. It’s a classic! It asks gruffly: "Were you born in a barn?"

Now, asking a perpetual open-doorer if they were "born in a barn" is actually an insult to us country folks. Because most country folks are more thoughtful than that with their barns. Besides, a good barn really isn’t that bad.

I remember when I was a pre-schooler in Spokane, Washington, our family had some good friends who lived up in Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada. They were sheep ranchers.

I used to look forward to our trips up there. Especially when the sheep were there, instead of out on the range. I remember the holding pens in the barnyard, and the runways between the pens, leading to the barn itself. Inside the barn were many small individual pens used during lambing time.

The sheep themselves are interesting animals. I used to like to reach through the fences and stick my fat fingers down into their incredibly thick wool.

Shearing time was also an interesting time to visit. I wish I’d been older so I could have remembered more clearly. But I can remember that the sheep acted almost like they were hypnotized when they were being sheared. I can remember that I was surprised that there wasn’t a terrific struggle. The sheep acted better than a little boy at a barbershop.

But of all the times we visited, I guess I was most excited at lambing time. It seems that the sheep rancher would pay close attention to the sheep, and when one was getting close to the time to give birth to a lamb, he would move her into one of the individual pens in the barn.

The barn was one of my favorite spots. The smell of the hay, the ewes watching as I wandered by, and the new-born lambs trying out their long, wobbly legs. I used to climb into an empty pen and pretend that I was one of those new-born lambs — "born in a barn!"

One of the most exciting parallels that the Bible cares to use is the comparison of Jesus to a lamb. It is a theme that carries from Genesis to Revelation.

One must go back to Genesis 20 and see the story of Abraham offering Isaac as a sacrifice on the very hillside that may have one day been named Calvary. You see a young man climbing the hillside, carrying the wood for his own sacrifice on his shoulders. You see a father willing to offer his only son. You see a son willing to lay down his life at his father’s bidding.

But suddenly there enters a third character — a sheep. And that third character becomes the substitute for the sacrifice. That substitute sheep was a perfect picture of the Lord Jesus Christ!

On into the New Testament the Bible carries the comparison. Look at His introduction, given by John the Baptist at the Jordan River. The Account of it is given in John 1:29, "The next day John sees Jesus coming unto him, and says, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world!" What a way for Christ’s ministry to be introduced! "Behold the Lamb of God."

Yes, the Lamb of God! He is sent to become a substitute for the sins of a lost world. Sent to take the place of the sacrifice lambs offered for sin on the Altar of the temple. 1 Peter 1:19 describes Jesus as "a lamb, without blemish and without spot."

Yes, Jesus was to become the perfect substitute for sin’s payments. "Behold, the Lamb of God."

Then, is it any real surprise when the angels say to the shepherds "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." Luke 2:11-12

Where else would you expect a lamb to be born? Lambs are born in the barn! The parallel needed to be absolutely perfect. Any place other than the stable’s manger would have made the parallel incomplete!

From the manger to the cross, Jesus Christ remained the Lamb. The parallel must be absolutely perfect, so that there could never be any question about it! "Behold the Lamb of God!"

Yes, there He is shepherds, right there in the barn where you would look for a lamb to be born. Don’t you see — this must be why the angels came first to the shepherds! Wise Men and Kings would never have known where to look for a lamb! They had to call the shepherds first! God’s plan must be perfectly complete!

There, shepherds — right there where you would expect a lamb to be born. Yes, right there — next to the lambs destined for the temple altars! "Behold, the Lamb of God . . . wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."

But to leave Jesus at the manger would create an incomplete analogy of the lamb. For the sacrificial lamb’s whole life pointed toward its sacrificial death. Even John’s introduction at the Jordan included Christ’s one purpose. "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world."

Yes, from the moment salvation’s plan was born in the mind of God, the lamb was for sacrifice. Is it any wonder that Isaiah, hundreds of years before the manger, described the trial of Jesus before Pilate. Isaiah wrote, "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." God’s plan had to be perfectly complete.

And it was completed by Jesus Christ on Calvary! Paul wrote in I Corinthians 5:7 ". . . for even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." You see, at the very moment the priests in the temple sacrificed the lambs for the sin offering, Jesus Christ died on the cross! He became the perfect sacrifice lamb.

A sacrifice that still avails for sin today for those who will accept Jesus Christ to dwell by faith within them for the forgiveness of sin. "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world . . . wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."

Yes Sir, God’s salvation plan was absolutely complete in every detail. From His birth in the barn to His death at the moment of the temple sacrifices, Jesus was the Lamb of God.

How useless for you to search any farther for joy and peace than right here where you would expect a lamb to be born. "Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born . . . a Savior!"