Nativity Means War!

That peaceful, placid manger scene is really nice, but it tends to obscure one crucial fact from our minds during our celebration of the advent: The birth of Christ was a declaration of war!

Mary seems to have recognized this fact - look at the song she sings after learning she would bear the Messiah (found in Luke 1):

Mary's Song

⁴⁶And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, ⁴⁸for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed,
⁴⁹for the Mighty One has done great things for me–
holy is his name. ⁵⁰His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation. ⁵¹He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. ⁵²He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble. ⁵³He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty. ⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful ⁵⁵to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers.”

Scattering the proud and bringing down the haughty - those are fighting words! I won't quote it in entirety here, but for further proof of the perspective that sees the birth of Christ as an act of war, read Revelation 12.

In Christ God is declaring war on sin and on the Satan. He is, in the most fundamental way, acting as a freedom fighter - launching an attack through which he will save a people from enslavement to sin. God was (is!) fighting on our behalf. The angels that sang to the shepherds were announcing this divine invasion. The King, born that night in the City of David (himself a man of war) , would grow up to be the Savior of the world, the Shepherd King. (Did you think "the heavenly host" was just a choir?) So while we may sing "Silent Night" and "Away in a Manger," and while it may have been a serene evening, the heavens and earth resounded with the news that the King had finally come to make all things new.