Embedded Files
“CRECHE(cresh)”
Advent Midweek 3
Wednesday December 17, 2025
Trinity - Creston
Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our crucified and risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Our text for this Midweek Advent Service are from the lessons just proclaimed.
Let Us Pray: Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind that you are the light that never goes out, the one and true eternal light that came to us, still comes to us and will come again. Amen.
Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:
People throughout the world decorate for the holidays with Christmas trees, evergreens, and electric lights. Even non-Christians and secular people do that. But there is a decoration for this season that is distinctively Christian.
It captures the true story and message of Christmas. This third week of Advent, we’ll look at how the crèche, the three-dimensional miniature model of the nativity scene, helps us prepare for the coming of Christ.
The crèche is an explicitly Christian exhibition because it presents the characters involved in the birth of Christ, such as Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the Wise Men, and even the angels and stable animals. Our church has a couple nativity scenes in the back and a beautiful nativity outside.
We use these as a witness to our worshipers and to the community to define the real reason for this season. You may likewise display a crèche in your home or a nativity scene outside your house.
I. The tradition of the crèche originated in Europe and has been adopted throughout the world.
The word crèche derives from Latin and means “nursery.” Even today, it is the French word for a nursery or childcare center. In fact, in many European countries, it refers to a nursery school where infants and young children are cared for during the day while their parents are at work.
The word crèche has thus been transferred from this context of baby care to the scene in which the greatest baby in history was attended to by His parents as well as shepherds and Wise Men.
In America, the crèche is most associated with the biblical nativity scene in which figures are arranged to depict the event of Jesus’ birth.
The crèche has been a decoration for Advent and Christmas for centuries. Although the nativity of Jesus was depicted in frescos, paintings, and bas-reliefs in the early centuries of the church, the first reenacted nativity scene is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi in 1223 in Italy.
It was displayed in a cave with living people and animals staged to represent the original nativity of Jesus. This exhibition became very popular and was imitated throughout the surrounding territory, so much so that within a century, most churches in Italy hosted a nativity scene at Christmas.
Thus, the first manger scenes were portrayed with living characters, similar to some “living nativity scenes” today.
Eventually, plaster statues or wooden figures were used to present more permanent and static scenes of the birth of Jesus.
These were later reduced in size to become small models of the stable with miniature figurines of Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the shepherds, the Wise Men, the angels, and the animals. These model scenes are especially associated with the word crèche.
By the 1800s, many Christian denominations, including Lutherans, embraced the use of crèches in their churches. Christians also started using them in their homes. The figures are made of plaster and plastic, wood and wax, paper and porcelain and placed in a setting of a model stable, frequently with a star affixed overhead.
II. The crèche reminds Christians that Christ’s incarnation was a tangible reality in history.
The crèche is a visible representation of the characters who attended the birth of Jesus as depicted in the accounts of Matthew 2 and Luke 2. The crèche provides us with a visible and tangible representation of the setting and event of Christ’s birth.
It enables us to see with our eyes and touch with our hands the scenario in which Christ’s first advent occurred. Since God has created us with multiple senses, the crèche engages our abilities to see and touch to support the hearing of His Word, the story of the birth of the Messiah.
The crèche brings to mind the story of Christ’s first advent and bears witness to the historical event of His coming. This tangible decoration reminds us that God came into the world in a very tangible way.
The advent of our Lord didn’t happen in a spiritual fantasy land but in real time among real people in this real creation.
The apostle John affirms the reality of the incarnate Christ, stating, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life . . . that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:1, 3).
III. The crèche directs us to Christ’s first Advent
The crèche reveals that the Son of God was born in a very earthy setting, in a stable, with livestock surrounding and hay abounding. He was laid in a manger—an animal feeding trough.
God entered this world as a small and helpless infant, dependent upon His mother for food and protection. The earthy diorama of the crèche attests to the reality that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).
The humble setting displays the One “who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6–7).
The crèche points us to the ongoing humiliation of Jesus for our salvation. There are some crèche displays that portray the nativity in a cave, which is authentic to where Jesus was probably born.
But on the top of this model, a cross is implanted. This reminds us of the purpose and mission for which Christ was born: to save us from our sins by dying on the cross.
The passage from Philippians cited earlier goes on to state that God the Son became a human being in order to die for us: “And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).
Jesus did not stay “away in a manger.” He grew up as a man who “was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. . . . But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:3, 5).
Jesus came in humble circumstances to share our humanity and become the Savior of sinners. The crèche reminds us of His humble beginnings on earth.
Conclusion
The classic animated holiday TV special “A Charlie Brown Christmas” provides a scene in which Charlie Brown is exhausted and frustrated with all the hype and commercialism of the Christmas season.
In exasperation, he wonders if anyone knows what Christmas is all about. All the other children are stunned by his outburst.
But Linus says he knows what Christmas is all about and proceeds to narrate the story of the birth of Jesus from Luke 2 and to describe the scene depicted in the nativity.
The Nativity attests to what Christmas is all about. It presents in visible and tangible form the characters and events of Jesus’ birth described by Matthew and Luke.
The decoration of the nativity scene prepares us to celebrate the advent of the baby who was born to save His people from their sins.
Amen.
The Peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Page updated
Report abuse