A Circle of Beasts
Chesterton has a number of compelling reasons for arguing that Christ was born in a hole in the ground. Caves regularly functioned as shelters for the animals of ancient husbandmen. He notes the significance of a global library of pagan myth waiting with bated breath for a real God to come up out of the earth. It, understandably, correlates well with the first Adam. Being born in a cave bookends perfectly with Christ being placed in a tomb and sealed with a rock after His death . . . and we could go on. Hear him in his own words:
The faith becomes, in more ways than one, a religion of little things. But its traditions in art and literature and popular fable have quite sufficiently attested, as has been said, this particular paradox of the divine being in the cradle. Perhaps they have not so clearly emphasized the significance of the divine being in the cave. Curiously enough, indeed, tradition has not very clearly emphasized the cave. It is a familiar fact that the Bethlehem scene has been represented in every possible setting of time and country, of landscape and architecture; and it is a wholly happy and admirable fact that men have conceived it as quite different according to their different individual traditions and tastes. But while all have realized that it was a stable, not so many have realized that it was a cave (Chesterton 1925, 172).
And while the issue of the cave serves as a wonderful bracketing device between Advent and Good Friday, there is another symbol which holds a similarly implied real estate on both of those holidays as well . . . the circle of beasts. There is no mention of animals in the birth story but there is the express language that the inn was full and that where the holy family dwelt required the use of the manger as a cradle. This is not a hard riddle. They are in a stable. It is not problematic in the least to assume that if the hotel was at full occupancy, then the parking garage was as well. But the lack of an explicit statement about the presence of animals does not matter. The manger is mentioned and the inn has no rooms. Christ is brought into the visible world on a stage that is set for animals.
In Psalm 59, the heathen are talked about as if they were dogs. In Amos 4, those who oppress the poor and practice drunkenness are described as being cows. In Psalm 32, people who do not remain in the instruction of the Lord are said to be like mules. We could go on. The point is that while humans share the same day of creation with beasts, they are separate from them. All of creation proclaims the glory of God, but only humans are made in His image . . . as long as they abide in Him. It is not that the unregenerate are not image-bearers of the Triune God. In Scripture, however, more often than not, to depart from the King’s highway is to be categorized by God in a bestial manner. It’s as though, in God’s eyes, status has been lost.
We see this same kind of imagery being cast for us in the Psalmist’s poetic vision of the crucifixion. David sings with stark literalness about the details of our Lord’s death. Listen as he describes with sacred poetry the crowd that presses around Christ at the foot of the cross. It begins in Psalm 22:6 with the image of the One who is cursed by God being described as a worm. From there the wording folds Day 6 in on itself. The men who walk about with vestiges of dominion are described as the very animals that should dwell beneath them:
Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. - Psalm 22:20-21
The unicorns are sometimes argued to simply be horned animals. We need not abandon the King James, for the imagery of a unicorn tearing and goring its enemy with its horns is as powerful an image of ferocity as any ox or rhinoceros, if not more. The heroic emblem devolves in this scene into something hellish and grim. That is the point. Christ being tossed about on the horns of wild animals and being ripped apart by the teeth of lions is a description of his scourging and of his being pierced with a sword. In this nightmare, the laughter is the laughter of men, but the stench is that of the sty.
The Word of God being placed in a manger on the day of His birth is liken unto Him being delivered to the world on a plate. The word comes from the French, manger, which means “to eat.” He is brought into the world as food and He dies as an eternal table spread in the presence of God’s enemies. Those who will eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood will one day stand in a throng of humans who will perfectly mirror the Triune God as He is. We will know as we are known. There will be a circle of humans around the foot of the throne, praising God in the highest, and all of creation will echo back the sound.
