Yesterday we thought about the crowd around the stable, pressing in to see Jesus, but there are plenty of other people in Brueghel’s picture who seem not to be so bothered about the main event, caught up in their own business.
In this little knot of people, just behind the stable, a man
in a red top and an apron is talking to a caped visitor. Perhaps the man with
the apron is a local trader or innkeeper, negotiating a price for feeding the
visiting Magi and their retinue? Has he spotted the silver lining in all this
commotion, the chance to turn a profit? Elsewhere,
people are tending their horses, playing with their dogs, strolling around or
engaging in debate. They don’t seem interested in why the Magi are there, or
what they have come to see. They are just making the most of a temporary
spectacle, which will be here today and gone tomorrow and which won’t really
touch their lives or make a lasting difference to them.
Jesus said, “For this people’s heart has grown dull, and
their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes: so that they
might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with
their heart and turn - and I would bless them.” Matthew 13.14-15, quoting Isaiah 6.9
Are there things which we know matter, but to which we prefer to close our eyes – climate change, or some seemingly intractable personal or family problem perhaps. Why do we find it so hard to pay attention to them? Is it because they seem too difficult, too painful, or just not important enough?
Name these things before God and ask for his wisdom to know how to respond, and the courage to act.
The whole picture:
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