“Why Did Jesus Come as a Baby?” – Christmas Mass Homily - 12.25.22

“Why Did Jesus Come as a Baby?”

By: Fr. David Schmidt

Regina Coeli Parish- St. John Neumann Church- Franklin Park, PA

Once again, it’s so good to be with you all as we celebrate the Feast of the Birth of Our Lord. And what we celebrate this Christmas is such a mystery. God, the Creator of the Universe, comes down to us and takes on our flesh and becomes man. It’s a mystery so great that it’s difficult for us to even begin to conceive.

What makes this day even more remarkable is that Jesus didn’t just come to us, but He came as a little baby.

The Jewish people had been expecting the Messiah to come, but they were expecting Him to come as this strong and fierce warrior king who would liberate Israel from the political powers and restore Israel to power.

However, this is not what happened. Instead, the Messiah came as a weak, innocent, vulnerable, and helpless baby.

Why?! Why did Jesus come as a baby and not as this strong and fierce warrior king?

First, Jesus had something greater in mind than what the Jewish people had wanted. Jesus did come as a warrior king to liberate Israel, but in a much greater way than what they were expecting.

Christ came to liberate His people from the powers of hell. His battle was not so much with Rome or those oppressing the people as much as it was with the devil and the forces of evil. There was a battle being fought on the divine level that was playing itself out on earth.

Even today we get into the habit of looking for some great political leader to save us, but we always think too small. God has something greater in mind. Everything He does is to get us to heaven. To free us from our sins, and the clutches of the devil, so that we may be restored to Him and live forever.

Jesus’ whole mission on this earth was too die. Even at His birth there were signs of what He came to do. The Scriptures say that Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes which is meant to point us to the shroud that He was buried in at His death.

Then, it says that He was laid in a manger. The manger was a feeding trough for the animals. This symbolizes the Eucharist and how Jesus was going to be Bread for the whole world. Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, means ‘house of bread’ which again points to the Eucharist, the Bread of our salvation.

Jesus’ mission is clear. He came to earth to die for us, so that we may share in His divine life and live with Him forever.

But again, we ask the question, ‘why did Jesus come as a baby?’

Again, Jesus didn’t just come to save us, but as we have seen throughout the entire Old Testament up to that point, God had been teaching Israel how to be in relationship with Him. Jesus reveals God’s great love for us and His desire to be in union with us by coming as a little baby.

Jesus desires to draw close to us. He desires for us to come close to Him. He knows that if He came as that fierce and powerful Warrior King that we would be too afraid to approach Him and let Him come near to us. He wants a relationship with us that is more intimate than a King with His subjects. He wants a relationship of love.

Babies, as we know, are like magnets. We can’t help but be drawn to them. What draws us to them is the very fact that they are weak, helpless, vulnerable, and dependent on us to take care of them. When we see a little child in need we instantly jump into action to help them because we recognize their helplessness.

This is why the Lord comes to us as a helpless and vulnerable baby because He seeks to draw us to Himself. When we see the helpless and dependent Christ-child, we can’t help but be drawn to Him.

He seeks to show us that He is safe to approach. That we can allow Him into those places in our hearts where we may be wounded and vulnerable. That we can trust Him. That He won’t hurt us. That He is not a threat to us. He desires for us to know this so much that He makes Himself so helpless and vulnerable that He is completely defenseless towards us. He desires us to come so close that we are able to hold Him in our arms.

Not only does He make Himself so vulnerable and defenseless to where we can hold Him in our arms, but He does it to the point that He knows that He is opening Himself to the risk that we might hurt Him. However, He is willing to risk being hurt by us, His beloved children, even to the point of allowing us to crucify Him on the Cross, so that we may come to know how much He loves us, and that He is not a threat to us, and that we can approach Him and embrace Him.

He desires for us to see that He is meek, gentle, humble, and kind. He desires for us to draw near to Him. He desires for us to be in relationship with Him. He desires our love. He desires our heart. He knew there was no better way to reveal His love and this desire of His than to come as a helpless infant.

The interesting part is that although Christ came as a baby, He is still that strong and fierce Warrior King that the Jews were hoping for. However, Christ shows us what true strength is. He shows us how to be a true Warrior of the faith. He shows us what it means for a King to lead His people.

His fierceness and strength is shown in His weakness and humility. It is shown in His vulnerability. It is shown in His radical self-giving and self-sacrificial love.

There is such a desire in our culture to be strong, fierce, and powerful. But we have the wrong perception on what that actually means.

One story to help depict this is a couple friends of mine had a baby back in the spring and the name that they were going to give their baby meant ‘warrior.’ They were all excited about it that they were going to have a son, and they were like, “We are going to name our son, and his name is going to mean ‘warrior’ and he’s going to be strong.” Well, a little while later they came to find out that the name that they had chosen for their son didn’t actually mean ‘warrior’ but it meant ‘little seal.’ And they of course were a little upset, especially the dad, because he was like, “Ah man, little seal, it’s not as strong as warrior.” But they eventually got over it. The irony of it all to is that, so his name means little seal, and they desired for him to be this strong warrior and everything, and when the baby was born, he turned out to be the biggest and chunkiest baby that I think I’ve ever seen. So God has a sense of humor in that way.

So what can we learn from this? Christ in coming as a little baby, and then dying on the Cross shows us that true strength and power comes in our weakness, humility, and littleness because it is only in our weakness where we make ourselves fully dependent on God.

When we ourselves become like little babies or little seals in the spiritual life and allow ourselves to become fully dependent on God the Father, as babies depend on their parents to take care of them, then we become truly strong warriors and can defeat the enemy in our life.

Jesus shows us that if we want to be strong, we first need to be weak. If we want to be a fierce warrior for Christ, we first need to be a helpless infant. It is precisely our weakness and helplessness, not our strength, that draws God to us like a magnet. It is our weakness and helplessness that drew Him to us from His throne in heaven to take on our flesh and die for us on the Cross.

This Christmas may we draw close to the baby Jesus laying in the manger. May we allow our Lord to enter those vulnerable places of our hearts where we may be wounded and in need of His healing love. May we trust in His gentleness, kindness, and love trusting that He won’t hurt us, but that He seeks to heal us. May we embrace our weakness and littleness, and allow ourselves to surrender into the arms of our heavenly Father, so that we may experience the tenderness and intimacy of His Love this Christmas in a way we never have before.