The Christmas story in Luke 2 is so familiar to most Christians that some may feel there could be nothing new to learn from the passage. Our aim is to take a fresh look at the very familiar story.Caesar Augustus was the ruler of the great Roman Empire. He had reigned as an absolute monarch for more than 40 years, and maintained a high degree of order and peace. This helped to prepare the way for the rapid spread of Christianity. Verse 1 says that Augustus (near the time of Jesus’ birth) decreed that a census should be taken. It was likely for the purpose of taxation.
1. MARY: MOTHER OF THE ANOINTED ONE (Luke 2:4-7)
When the census was announced, each citizen was to report to the town of his ancestral heritage for the registration. Joseph and Mary were law-abiding citizens, and so together they went to Bethlehem-even though the time for the arrival of Mary’s child was drawing near.
Some 700 years earlier, the omnipotent God had chosen Bethlehem to be the place of the Messiah’s birth (Micah 5:2), and now God overruled events, so as to make the decree of a heathen emperor fulfill His promise, and carry out His word. Thus, by the will of God, Joseph and Mary came to Bethlehem.
When they arrived in Bethlehem, the town lodging places were filled, and so Jesus was born in a stable among cattle. This was not like a cattle barn as most of us would think of it today, but was much more likely a cave cut into the limestone rock. The phrase “no room in the inn” (verse 7) sometimes is taken to have been a hardship for Joseph and
Mary, but actually the animal heat in the stable made it safer for both mother and child, than it would have been in the cold room of a Palestinian inn.
The great spiritual lesson drawn from the phrase (“no room in the inn”) is this: What the Judean innkeeper did 2000 years ago, is what many do today-they refuse to make room in their daily lives for the Son of God.
The word “firstborn” (verse 7) implies that Mary had other children later, and thus denies the dogma held by some about Mary’s perpetual virginity. (The names of Jesus’ brothers are in fact listed in Matthew 13:55.) The term “swaddling clothes” speaks of bands of cloth folded piece over piece and wrapped around the baby’s body. The little baby-the swaddling clothes, the manger, the feed trough for cattle-all speak of simplicity, frailty, and helplessness. God chose to condescend to this form when bringing the Saviour into the world.
If human beings had arranged for the birthplace of Jesus, surely they would have chosen a palace. God chose a cave. They would have prepared a royal crib. God prepared a feed trough. They would have provided robes of silk. God provided swaddling clothes. We are reminded of the great truth revealed in 2 Corinthians 8:9, where the Apostle Paul says, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich.”
2. SHEPHERDS: THE ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE ANGEL (Luke 2:8-14)
The night Jesus was born, shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks out in the fields. Some say the events of this chapter could not have taken place in the month of December, but careful studies make it clear that indeed shepherds did pasture their flocks in the winter. The Mediterranean climate of the Mideast does not produce winters such as many of us are familiar with.
The “glory of the Lord” which accompanied the, angel that appeared to the shepherds suggests a cloud of amazing brightness. The brilliant light may have been the same glory that shone around Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration; it may have been the same light that blinded the eyes of Saul on the Damascus Road.
The angel said to the shepherds, “I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people” (verse 10). These words quieted the shepherd’s fears, and then the angel made the greatest announcement ever heard on earth–“There is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (verse 11).
That message was “good news”–the Gospel–the good message that the Messiah’s coming (and later, His death) provides for eternal salvation from sin. And this message is “to all people” (verse 10b). All persons everywhere are invited to come to the Saviour and find pardon and forgiveness and hope!
Verse 12 says that God chose to come to earth in the frail body of a little child. The shepherds were given a sign, so that they could find Him. The baby would be “wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”
When God decided to draw near to cold, cruel, suffering humanity, He placed a baby in a manger. The quickest way to the human heart is by way of an innocent little child. When shopping at the grocery story, or visiting a home for the aging, a little baby will bring smiles and pleasant greetings.
An interesting story comes out of World War 1. A day was dawning on the battlefield in northern France. It was a dismal, foggy morning. During the night, the German armies had receded a short way, and the French army had advanced a bit. Between the two positions, a lonely farmhouse was still standing. As the day grew brighter the guns began to boom–but suddenly on both sides, there was a strange dead silence. Midway between the trenches, near the shattered farmhouse, there was crawling on its hands and knees, a little baby. Not a shot was fired. The spot, which moments before had been an inferno of flying shells-was now something like a peaceful island. Suddenly a soldier jumped out of a trench, and ran to where the small child was crawling. He tenderly picked up the child and carried it to shelter-and out from the trenches on both sides, came a loud cheer.
The appearing of a little baby brought a temporary peace. Just so, the coming of Jesus into the world is intended to bring peace among humanity.
In verse 10, the one angel who made the announcement about the “good tidings of great joy,” was later joined by a chorus of angels who praised God for the “peace and good will” that He is able to bring (verse 13). The “peace on earth and good will toward men” (verse 14), is not for everyone. It is for those with whom God is well pleased. The hearts of the unsaved are always restless, like the troubled sea, but in Christ there is a calm that is hard to describe. Christ is the true Prince of Peace. He came to bring peace to human hearts, and He is the only hope for world peace. World peace will only come when Jesus reigns “from sea to shining sea” (Zechariah 9:10).
3. JOSEPH AND MARY: THE VISIT BY THE SHEPHERDS (Luke 2:15-20)
There was not a shadow of doubt in the shepherds’ minds, that what they had been told, had indeed “come to pass.” When the light disappeared, and the angels departed, the night once more settled over the Judean hills-the shepherds set out-not to see if this thing had come to pass, but to “see this thing which is come to pass” (verse 15).
The shepherds “came with haste” (verse 16) and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. This is the first picture of the Holy Family. It was a humble scene. It is interesting to note that often today the Saviour is found by the poor, the humble, and the unlearned–while sometimes the rich, the intellectuals, and the elite are unaware of His gracious presence.
The shepherds “made known abroad” (verse 17) what they had heard and learned about the Christ child. The shepherds thus became the first evangelists of the new age of grace. Those who heard the message spread abroad by the shepherds, “wondered” (verse 18) at those things which were told them. Wherever the shepherds told their wondrous story, they left their hearers in deep thought.
Mary knew more about her child than any other person (verse 19), but there were many things she still did not understand. Yet those things did not stagger her faith. She simply stored them up as precious memories, and from time to time pondered what they might mean.
Luke 2:20 says that “the shepherds returned … praising God.” Meanwhile, the hundreds of rioting, laughing, cursing visitors to Bethlehem, were unaware of what had taken place.
The shepherds went back to their routine of caring for the flocks–but in their hearts they could never be the same again. In our last glimpse of them, they are still praising God for what they had seen and heard. Our Christmases should also consist of glorifying and praising God. Christmas should be a spiritual experience. It should be a time for heart searching, and for drawing closer to God–in light of the wonder of His incarnation, and what it means to the human family.
There are some practical applications from the lesson:
1) If you’ve ever had a bad hotel experience and complained about it later, think of Joseph and Mary’s story-and take the frustration in stride. What could have been for them a time of complaining, really became a night of joy!
2) We must not be too hard on the innkeeper. He was not necessarily cruel and inhospitable. He had to send Joseph and Mary away because the inn was already overcrowded. Just so, there are human hearts that never welcome Jesus-not because they hate Him, but because their hearts are already so overcrowded with thoughts of riches and prestige and pleasures, that they simply have no room (and no time) for Jesus.
3) The Christmas story should renew our sense of relationship with God. Jesus was sent from heaven to identify with us, to walk with us, to die for us, to be raised for us, and to relate to us. The story of Jesus is a story worthy of praise, and it is a great message to tell to the world. Fanny Crosby wrote some beautiful words: “To God be the glory great things He hath done! So loved He the world that He gave us His Son, Who yielded His life an atonement for sin. And opened the Lifegate that all may go in.” That is news worth celebrating!
BRF Witness
Vol. 37, No. 6
Pp. 7-10