She Wrapped Him in Cloths

Luke is the only Gospel writer who talks about baby Jesus being "wrapped in cloths" or "bands of cloth".  This small piece of the story doesn't appear in Matthew's Gospel (nor in Mark and John where there is no birth narrative).

Yes.

This piece of the story is unique to Luke who (again) was writing to Jewish Christians in 85-ish CE who were recently outcasted by their Jewish tribe because the newly appointed leaders (a group of Pharisees) declared that any sect of Judaism that believed the Messiah had already come should be cast out and thrown away.  

Luke was writing to a group of those throw aways, to encourage them and remind them that although their tribe had thrown them away ... God hadn't.

And so he has this piece about Baby Jesus being "wrapped in bands of cloth", which (on our initial read) seems like a rather meaningless detail ... but is actually (perhaps) quite important.

It makes me think of when my daughter, Jordan, was an infant.  We used to call her Houdini because no human being could create a swaddle that she couldn't get out of. 

A swaddle, if you don't know, is when you take a baby blanket, lay it on a flat surface, lay the baby on top of it, and then wrap the baby VERY TIGHTLY in the blanket so that their hands, feet, arms, legs, etc. are pressed closely to their body.  It seems torturous to an adult, but actually mimics the feeling babies had in the womb and helps them calm down and hopefully fall asleep.

(PLEASE GOD, GO TO SLEEP.)

Anyways.

So no one could create a swaddle that Jordan couldn't get out of.  I remember trying to wrap it every which way and doing everything short of using Gorilla Tape to keep it closed.  We even had one with Velcro on it that gave it a better chance of staying closed, but she could even get out of that if she was feeling extra adventurous!

She would wriggle this way.

Wriggle that way.

Wriggle the other way.

... And before I could blink I'd see a little arm pop out and wave victoriously in the air as if she was saying, "nice try daddy, give it another shot!"

BUT.

When the swaddle worked, and when the cloth was wrapped JUST RIGHT ... she would eventually tire from wriggling and fall soundly asleep ...

** MOMMY AND DADDY BREATHE A SIGH OF RELIEF **

... the swaddle, you see, acted as a womb of sorts that made her feel enclosed, safe, and at peace.

This is what Luke's readers needed to feel, right?

Enclosed.

Safe.

Peace.

... they needed to feel ENCLOSED in the arms of one another, of God, and of their belief in Christ as their Messiah ... their belief that wasn't accepted by the larger Jewish tribe; they needed to be feel SAFE among their newly forming tribe of fellow Christians; they needed to feel PEACE amidst the anxiety they likely felt from being tossed out of their Mother Faith (Judaism).

And so Luke paints this picture of Baby Jesus being swaddled in cloth, wrapped tightly in a blanket so that he would be made to feel enclosed, safe, and at peace ... just as he was in Mary's womb.

In his book "Radical Transformation", Alexander John Shaia wonders if this would have been a great metaphor for the newly forming, outcasted community of Jewish Christians.

What do you think?

I think so.

I mean ...

They were just pushed out of the womb of Mother Judaism.

They found themselves in a world that felt unsafe.

They found themselves separated from their Mother Faith.  

They felt disoriented.

They felt anxious.

They felt unsafe.

... and so Alexander proposes that Luke's description of baby Jesus being "wrapped in cloth" or "swaddled" is a great reminder for the Jewish Christians to stick to the basics of their faith and to allow what they believe to be true about Jesus The Christ to WRAP THEM TIGHTLY as they twist and turn and wriggle and move about and try to figure out what it will be like for them to live in the world separated from their Mother Faith.

It's a great reminder for you and me, too.

If you're deconstructing out of something like Evangelicalism, not only have you (likely) been pushed out of the Mother Faith System and tossed off the ship, but you are also likely asking A LOT of questions as you try to get your bearings and figure out what it will look like to move forward ...

What about hell?

What about the cross?

What about salvation?

Gay people?

Baptism?

Church?

Tithing?

The End Times?

John 3:16?

... Question after question will bombard your heart and mind as you try to figure out how to be a person of faith who has been separated from the tribe of faith that you have known and been a part of for so long.

And so may you swaddle yourself in the most basic truths that brought you out into this huge, expansive ocean to begin with.  

For me, it was the "love of God" ... that's what got me thrown overboard.

I could not fathom how a loving God who is represented in Jesus could have a torture chamber for people who don't believe the right things or how he could look down upon gay people or how he could sentence his son to die a gruesome death.

"How could God be loving and yet allow or even cause these things to happen?  It doesn't make any sense."

None of those things fit with what I was experiencing and learning about God's love and so I decided that ...

Hell didn't exist.

Gay people aren't excluded.

And Jesus didn't die on my behalf 

... and that opened up all sorts of questions for me as I felt disoriented and afraid and unsure what to do with all of the Bible verses, theologies, doctrines, etc. that were ingrained in my head.  I would stay up some nights until 2AM searching the Internet for answers to my questions, tweeting people like Brian McLaren and praying they'd answer me before I fell asleep.

Yeah.

I was literally making myself crazy, but then one day a friend assured me that answers would come ...

Maybe in a week.

Or a month.

Or a year.

Or in 10 years.

... answers about what to do with bible verses about hell and gay people and the cross ... the answers would come, the revelations would be clear ... BUT ... until they did, all I needed to do was let the love of God that I had experienced in my life and had been learning about wrap me tightly so that as I made my way through the ocean of questions with the ship of my former tribe disappearing into the horizon, I would feel safe and at peace.

Let the simple truths that have moved your heart away from your former tribe hold you tightly today.

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