Summary
The Cry of the Christ Child: Human and Divine
The beloved carol "Away in a Manger" assures us that "the cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes." It is a tender lyric, but it is artistic license. Scripture nowhere tells us that the infant Jesus refrained from crying. Had the Bible recorded such a detail, it would carry weight; instead, the silence of the text invites us to consider something more comforting than a stoic infant: a truly human child who cried as human babies cry.
This matters because Christmas confesses the two natures of Christ. The angel announces in Luke 2:11 that "unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord"—a Savior who is the eternal Lord and yet found "wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." Scripture gives us the inside track that the shepherds did not yet have: this child is fully divine and fully human, yet without sin. The cry of the newborn is not a flaw to be edited out of the scene but the very signal of his genuine humanity. As the hymn "Once in Royal David's City" puts it, "day by day like us he grew; he was little, weak, and helpless; tears and smiles like us he knew."
The Lord who cried in the manger went on weeping throughout his ministry. At the tomb of Lazarus, "Jesus began to weep" John 11:35. Looking out over the city that would reject him, "he wept over it" Luke 19:41. Hebrews remembers that "in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears" Hebrews 5:7. Through him all things were made John 1:3, and yet he entered creation to experience disappointment, betrayal, grief, anguish, joy, and love. This is precisely why he is the high priest who can "sympathize with our weaknesses," one who "in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin" Hebrews 4:15.
There is, however, another cry that this little voice was destined to make. The steps of the manger child became fixed in the direction of Jerusalem, where he would bear the sin of the world. Mark records that on the cross "Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last" Mark 15:37, and John tells us the content of that cry: "It is finished" John 19:30. What was finished was the payment for sin, the shedding of his blood, the reconciliation of God and humanity. The Father raised him from the dead, the sacrifice accepted. The cry from the manger and the cry from the cross belong to the same Lord, true God and true man, doing for us what we could never do for ourselves.
This is why the church returns from Christmas worship the way the shepherds returned in Luke 2:20—"glorifying and praising God." The Christian also has a cry to make: the cry of joy at what Christ has accomplished, the cry of peace because God has made peace with the world through his Son, and the cry of confidence that in Baptism God has applied the victory of the cross and empty tomb to us personally and will not let go. The infant's tears and the Savior's final word both comfort, because both belong to the One who took on our flesh to redeem it. For the full meditation, see Human and Divine: "No Crying He Makes" 12-24-25.
Video citations
- Human and Divine: "No Crying He Makes" 12-24-25 — What you open your Bible's please for a time in God's Word to the second chapter of the gospel of Luke. If you're using a Pew edition of Holy Scripture, you'll find in the Pew rack in front of you…