MANNA OF THE MANGER - PART 3 | KAIROS GLOBAL | MARCH 2024

Author: Grace Maria

Recap

On the eve of the Passover festival, young Hannah and her little brother Joachim are at play. Joachim, a talented artist and who longs for the oft-heard manna, makes it with clay. Their Passover lamb interrupts the children; Joachim is sad that the lamb is to be sacrificed the next day. In the midst of all this, the children encounter a wayfarer who turns out to be Jesus of Nazareth, whose journey has come to a close. They befriend him but the fate of their lamb looms large in their minds. 

‘Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth!’¹ The heavenly music erupts.

The ancient stable of Bethlehem resounded with the cry of a new-born.

Mary, his virgin mother fed the crying infant, lulled him asleep. Joseph, his earthly father, wrapped the boy child in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger. The sheltering fig tree had borne fruit as if to bear witness to its saviour’s birth. The figs were gleaming to a new light that radiated from a hitherto unknown star.

‘But what shall we do for the Passover?’ Jesus wakes up to Hannah’s question. His eyes have a sparkle this time.

‘Verily I say unto you, “The Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, is the substitute for the lamb that was sacrificed for Isaac on Mount Moriah, and to this lamb too and many such lambs to come.” Jesus’s voice cracks as he intones this.

‘I don’t understand this.’ Joachim sounds desperate. ‘Do we have to kill him, or not?’

‘The answer lies with the name of our birth place. What does the word Bethlehem mean?’

‘Beth means house and lehem means bread. Bethlehem is house of bread,’ Hannah again unburdens her knowledge.

‘You are right, the house of bread. So where is the bread?’ Jesus asks.

‘I will make you one,’ Joachim breaks the silence. ‘Would you mind joining us in a game?’

‘By all means. I love games,’ Jesus answers.

Earthen bread, the children are back in their ancient game where it all began.

‘I like fish the most,’ Jesus kneels down, carefully picking up Joachim’s works of hand lying scattered all over. He mixes the broken one again into the clay and kneads it. He imitates the children of Bethlehem, whose art imitates life in and around Pesach.

‘I will make you something very special.’ Joachim turns away from Jesus as if to hide what he is up to. Jesus seems to be reliving the Genesis. The ‘formless’ clay is shaped into stars of the sky, fishes of the ocean, flowers of the earth, etc. Jesus ‘sees that all are indeed good’. Life in fullness… Life in abundance… Jesus the life is imitating art.

A sweat of gold sparkles on Jesus’s forehead, he wipes it away with his right index finger. The Nazarene’s visage is smeared with the clay of Bethlehem. Hannah laughs at him. Jesus laughs at himself. Meanwhile Joachim turns towards him proudly presenting his masterpiece – the delicate white bread.

‘Guess what this is,’ Joachim challenges him.

‘Whatever the man calls … becomes its name,’ Jesus intones echoing the déjà vu of the Genesis.

‘Jesus, it is his manna. In fact, Joachim is obsessed with manna.’ Hannah clarifies.

‘Great work Joachim, great work of hand indeed.’ Jesus pats his shoulder.

Hanna serves the masterpiece in the manger along with stars, fishes, flowers and chalice – to Jesus. It is the ‘first supper’ of the kind for Jesus, his last supper being the next day.

‘Manna of the Manger.’ Jesus completes the title. Joachim proudly looks up. Of the flock of sparrows have come to roost on the fig tree, one flaps away into the distant firmament. Probably that might have reminded Joachim of his persistent demand to Jesus, ‘But you have to save our lamb.’

In answer, Jesus works on the clay and out comes the fine shape of a quadruped.

‘The Lamb,’ Hannah rightfully names it.

‘Can you please place this lamb onto your manna?’ Jesus asks.

Without any question Joachim deftly incorporates the lamb in the manna and hands it over to him. Jesus carefully examines the delicately carved lamb in the circle of the white bread. Jesus, his life has reached a full circle.

Having reached his place of birth, that too precisely at the mouth of the cave, where he was born, it's almost a full circle. Only two more days to go, he will be crucified and buried in another cave. The circle of his life he will have to break as the resurrected Christ!

‘Krrack!’ A sound is heard. Jesus breaks the Manna of Manger. The lamb is now broken. Joachim and Hannah gasp at the sight of the broken lamb.

Jesus dexterously joins the broken clay of the manna and breathes soothingly on it. The lamb is back as one as the manna.

‘It is the resurrected lamb!’ the child within Jesus innocently shouts out as if in the Revelation. As if comprehending everything, both Hannah and Joachim smile at ‘the resurrected lamb’. Joachim scatters ash over it to make it white, the Manna of the Manger.

‘Jesus, this boy Joachim always wanted to taste manna.’ Hannah pauses.

Jesus looks intently at her. The shy smile that adorns ‘the little ones’ which Hannah might have eclipsed in her coming of age, resurfaces as she makes her confession: ‘Even I have a craving for it. Jesus, can you please perform a miracle and transform this to real manna?’

Jesus arises. After a long journey – the Exodus – he is hungry and thirsty. Exactly three years ago at the closure of his forty days of fasting in the desert, he was asked a similar question. ‘If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread,’² Satan, the liar and the father of lies had challenged him.

‘Truly I say unto you, your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.’ 

Jesus replies, ‘The Bread I offer will give life and resurrection. Because it is I, the Bread of Life. I lost quite a few of my friends when I told them this³. But I am sure we will stay friends. Because we are playmates. The children of Bethlehem… Aren't we?’ Joachim and Hannah nod with a smile.

Jesus places his hands upon the children’s forehead and raises his eyes. Beyond the leafy fig and the crimson firmament, his eyes pierce the heaven and ‘from heart’s fullness his mouth thus speaks ⁴,’ ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children⁵, the fruits of the womb, your wonderful gifts. Let your work be manifest to this work of their hands. Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands. O prosper the work of our hands!’⁶

Amen.

¹ ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.’ (Luke 2:14)

2 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ (Matthew 4:3)

3 Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. (John 6:66)

4 The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45)

5 In that same hour, he rejoiced in the Holy Ghost, and said: I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight. (Luke 10:21)

6 Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands— O prosper the work of our hands! (Psalm 90:17)