Day 22

The ox and the ass are familiar figures in the crib set accompanying the infant Jesus but what exactly was the stable where Jesus were born?

The use of the manger is repeated no less than three times in Luke’s Gospel and this has been understood to mean that Jesus was born in a stable. However recent analysis of the Greek text suggests the world for ‘inn’ could be something more like a ‘guestroom’, rather than a ‘hotel’. Perhaps Joseph and Mary were seeking out their relatives in Bethlehem but because there were so many guests, there was no room for them in ‘family room’ and they had to move into the downstairs room, usually reserved for animals, complete with a ‘manger’.

The ox and ass became ubiquitous in the Orthodox tradition. The Ox, described as a clean animal in the Old Testament, came to represent the Jewish people and the ass (an unclean animal) the nations not chosen by God – yet Jesus came as saviour to both. Even if we do not read the Scriptures in a symbolic way, the presence of the ox and the ass is a reminder of the physicality of the birth of Jesus and the universal dimensions of his incarnation. Jesus came to us as Lord of all creation.