The Christmas Story (or Stories?)

The Christmas story that we celebrate every year borrows pieces from Matthew and Luke and puts them together In a manner that is somewhat haphazard. We can give our Bibles some leeway in this because the incarnation took place 30 years before there was a community of disciples to write everything down. In fact, the only witness mentioned would be Jesus’s mother, who “treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19) and who almost certainly would have been interviewed by Luke.

Both gospel accounts go out of their way to include prophecies and genealogies to prove that Jesus qualified in all the messianic check boxes.

Matthew’s Account

Matthew begins his account with a brief announcement of the fact that the Holy Spirit had conceived the Messiah in the womb of a virgin named Mary. He related the circumstances that led to this miraculous event and assured his readers that this child had all the credentials to place him legally in the house of David, all of this having been predicted by prophecies. Unfortunately, Matthew made no mention of where all this had taken place. Without evidence to the contrary, there is nothing in Matthew that contradicts the supposition that both Joseph and Mary were citizens of Bethlehem and that the Christmas story started there.

Matthew’s narrative continues with the fantastic story of the mysterious Magi, a group of pagan astrologers who had been manipulated into following a divine star to that would lead them to the birth of the “King of the Jews.” Their first destination was Jerusalem, where they made inquiries and learned that the Messiah’s would be born in Bethlehem. Before going on to that destination, however, Herod learned of their intentions and began plotting a way to nip this Messiah story at the bud. This immediately put the baby Messiah in danger, which set the tone for the rest of Matthew’s narrative. (It al so reminds us of the baby Moses who also survived a deadly threat.)

As all this festered in Herod’s mind, he finally sent his soldiers to Bethlehem to kill every male infant that they could find. An angel told the young couple of what Herod was up to and that they needed to drop everything and run to Egypt, where they remained for some time until Herod died. Afraid to return to their home in Bethlehem, now under the rule of Archelaus, they went on to Nazareth and set up housekeeping there.

Luke’s Account

Luke’s account begins and ends in Nazareth (Luke 2:4). The problem, from a prophetic standpoint, is that the birth must take place in Bethlehem (Micah, 5:2). Luke solves this problem by having Joseph and Mary embark on a trip to Bethlehem to register in a special census. Jesus was born in some sort of animal shelter after they arrived, there being no better accommodations available.

The birth event was accompanied by an angelic show of force that announced that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem. Shepherds immediately went to see what was going on (Luke 2:8) and were greatly impressed by their visit. Fortunately, this news did not make it to Herod as the couple spent over a week in Bethlehem and Jerusalem without being bothered by Herod.

After waiting the eight days set by Leviticus 12:3, the young family had the child circumcised, Mary was purified (Luke 2:22), and they had presented the appropriate sacrifices at the temple. While there they met Simeon, who gave the child his blessing, and then the prophetess Anna, who spread the word about Jesus’s birth. Finally, with no expressed sense of urgency, they returned to their home in Nazareth.

Reconciling the Two Accounts

The two aspects of these stories that are difficult to reconcile are:

• Where did Joseph and Mary live prior to the incarnation? Nazareth? Or Berthlehem?
• After the birth of Jesus, were they rushing to Egypt to escape Herod’s soldiers, or were they taking their time to deal with the temple activities that were mandated when a baby was born?

Most of these kinds of problems can be resolved by looking at Mark’s gospel, as it is regarded as the earliest, but Mark is completely silent on the incarnation. John’s gospel affirms the divinity of Jesus, the fact that there was an incarnation (John 1:14), and that Jesus was God (1:1), but provides no details. It is probably best to look at what the two stories have in common. Both have the birth in Bethlehem, Jesus’s family receives visitors as witnesses, and both are clear on the virgin birth that ensures that Jesus was fully human and fully divine. And that is the miracle of Christmas.