by Phil Ware
If we are honest,
there simply are a lot of things that we get wrong about Jesus' birth. It's not
that we don't care about the facts, we just seem to lose them in the mix of
sentimentality and the re-telling of a story precious to us. As
well-intentioned as we may be, we just get some things wrong:
* The time of
year -- Jesus was probably born in late
September or early October,
though the explanation
of that would take too long to put here,
just take
this one verse and do some investigation on when
shepherds
would have been out in the fields at
night watching their flocks (Luke 2:8).
* The place where
Jesus was born -- probably not a
barn, but a cave for keeping
animals, especially
sheep, and in this cave would have been a carved
out stone for watering them, and this watering
trough was called a
manger (Luke 2:7).
* Joseph and Mary
didn't go to the cave to have
Jesus because the local inn was
out of rooms --
it was because they were outcasts to their own
families: folks to whom they were related wanted
to have nothing to do
with them because Mary was
pregnant and not married and there was
no
explanation of her pregnancy that made sense
(Luke 2:4-7 --
literally it says, "FOR THEM
there was no place in the [family] guest
room").
* Mary doesn't
ride a donkey or a camel -- there
is no mention of her riding. Donkeys
and camels
were expensive. Walking was the common mode of
transportation.
* The magi did
not show up with the shepherds at
the manger -- they came to the
house where Joseph,
Mary, and Jesus were living (Matthew 2:11),
probably
several months after Jesus' birth
(Matthew 2:16) and quite
likely because there
were still unkind things being said about
Mary's
pregnancy.
* The magi were
not three Kings -- they were
astrologers from the East (Matthew
2:1-2
likely Iran), who used a forbidden practice
(astrology) to
find Jesus whom they identified
as king of the Jews (Matthew 2:2).
While we
know they brought three gifts -- gold,
frankincense,
and myrrh -- we don't know how
many of them there were.
When you strip these down and hear the story in its
simple yet brutal beauty, it may lose some sentimentality, but takes on even
greater power. A young engaged couple, expecting a child conceived by the Holy
Spirit, goes back to their ancestral home and has no one who will take them in
because they are unmarried and pregnant. They find an abandoned cave normally
used to keep sheep safe. It is abandoned because the shepherds are in their fields
at night during this special time of year.
Baby Jesus is wrapped in strips of cloth and placed in a
stone watering trough for his bed. (For those who first heard these stories and
knew the culture, this would sound eerily like the tomb in which he was placed
in death!) The Lamb of God is rejected by family and people in power. The Lamb
of God is welcomed by those who tended sheep as he slept where baby lambs would
have slept. The shepherds in the fields could have been the very same shepherds
who watched over the lambs slain at Passover, because that is what many
Bethlehem shepherds did.
God with us, Immanuel (Matthew 1:23), was not welcomed
into this world by those who knew Mary and Joseph. Jesus, who would save his
people from their sins (Matthew 1:21), yet he and his family were rejected
because everyone suspected he was conceived under "sinful
circumstances" in the minds of many people. Shortly after Mary became
pregnant, she left her home in Nazareth and went to be with Elizabeth in the
hill country of Judea, probably because of her questionable pregnancy while she
was engaged to Joseph (Luke 1:39). Even years later, Jesus would still hear the
taunt that he was Mary's boy, implying that Joseph wasn't his real father and
Mary's supposed sin had somehow tainted him (Mark 6:3).
At the end of Mary's pregnancy came the required trip to
Bethlehem.
Where is Joseph's family during this journey? They would
have made the trip, but Joseph and Mary journey alone. After the long hard walk
from Nazareth to Bethlehem, Mary had to give birth without the love or support
of family -- not because they weren't there, but because they had spurned
Joseph and Mary! Mary had risked everything to follow the call of God --
including the risk of losing the love and companionship of Joseph (Matthew
1:18-19). And Mary did all of this to offer herself to God as the servant of
the yet to be born Messiah (Luke 1:38). And when Joseph joined her in this risk
of obedience, he was ostracized, too!
The story of Jesus' birth is a powerful testimony to the
amazing obedience of two simple people who were willing to risk everything to
honor God. And this story is a powerful testimony to the amazing love of God to
risk everything to the faithfulness of these two people.
Such is the love of God for us … for all of us … those
near and far from God … to show us that Jesus came to include us … each of us …
all of us … in his mercy and grace.
So we see Jesus welcomed, worshiped, and proclaimed by
Jewish shepherds (Luke 2:15-20), Iranian astrologers (Matthew 2:1-11), and
angels from heaven (Luke 2:8-14). We see his birth recognized and feared by
King Herod and his religious experts (Matthew 2:3-8). We find precious and
devout servants Simeon and Anna, both long in years, rejoicing in his birth and
proclaiming God's loving mercy in the Temple (Luke 2:22-28).
We see his birth set in history in Roman time (Luke 2:1)
and Jewish time (Luke 1:5-7). We see Jesus' genealogy traced through David and
Abraham (Matthew 1:1-17) -- with some Gentile detours through Gentiles like
Rahab and Ruth -- and we see it traced through David to Adam (Luke 3:23-37).
Bottom line, no one is left out. Whether we get some
things wrong or we research every bit of minutiae, all roads lead to Jesus --
whether those roads are traveled by Jews or Gentiles, the pitiful or the
powerful, the righteous or the rebellious! Jesus is the story of God's love,
the testimony to God's gritty grace, and the living witness of God's costly
kindness for all people (John 1:14-18). And that story is consistent from
beginning to end -- from cave to grave, from heaven and back to glory.
May he be born in us this day and not lost in
sentimentality or sanctimony of our season!
You can find the video here: http://hlt.me/tmlFpr
--------
(c) 2011 Phil
Ware <phil@heartlight.org>. All
rights reserved.
