What Child is this?

As grown-ups, we set aside childish ways.  Some parents will play "tooth fairy" with their children, but I suspect few adults who lose a tooth put that bicuspid under their pillow in exchange for a quarter or dollar. 

Some parents do the same with Santa Claus.  Yes, there lived a historical St. Nicholas (great story, by the way), but most parents don't lay that on their kids.  They sell the guy in the red suit, Rudolph and company, elves, North Pole, that's the schtick the kids get.  Do parents buy into it?  Despite Elf, I would have to say, no, Virginia, they do not believe in Santa Clause.


So what gives with baby Jesus, God incarnate? 

Really, I don't think many adults give it much thought.  Most believe it because it's what they have always believed while many that dismiss it do so because of its apparent patent absurdity.  Neither camp feels it necessary to examine the historicity and veracity of what took place in Bethlehem a couple millenia ago.  For the established Christian, the events of the nativity would prove a source of wonder and amazement at what God really did do.  For the skeptic an objective examination of Christmas might give them a new appreciation for the biblical accounts at the very least and might introduce them to the God who loves them at best.

The accounts of the advent of God the Son come from the pens of Matthew and Luke, the former being one of Jesus' twelve closest followers, the latter being a physician who very likely never met Jesus during his thirty years on earth.  He did take his passion for science and applied it to historic narrative.  So when he came to understand what God had done to eradicate his sin-debt through Jesus Christ, he sought to document accurately the account of those events for a friend of his, Theophilus.  How do I know this?  Luke said so.

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

How did he do this?  Notice what he said above.  He examined all these things over a period of time.  He seems well acquainted with eyewitnesses.  We do know that from the book of Acts, that Luke (also the author of that work) joined Paul in his travels during his second missionary journey.  As they traveled throughout Greece, Asia Minor, and Judea, Luke had ample opportunity to meet those who walked with Jesus Christ and saw the events that transpired.  I would seem he was well-suited to document these events.

Notice his account of Jesus' birth as memorably recited by Linus van Pelt from Luke's second chapter.  Look at the historic detail. 

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

Does anyone today care that Quirinius was governor of Syria? Does he come into play anywhere else in the gospel story?  Not really, but it does anchor the specific time of the events to those who were familiar with the region.  It would be like someone today writing, "During the time that Gerald Ford served as President of the United States."  He did so for so limited an amount of time that your mind would immediately travel to the mid-1970's.

It's also significant because Joseph and the very-pregnant Mary lived in Nazareth, 100 miles north of Bethlehem.  Rome had dominion over the Mediterranean and therefore, over Judea.  When the emporer gets an itch, his subjects scratch.  Augustus wanted some idea about the extent of his territory and so he introduced his census with little concern for the pregnant Nazarene woman.  The Roman had no idea that his itch would have a hand in fulfilling a prophecy given hundreds of years earlier.  Micah wrote,

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

The Messiah would come from one of the most obscure towns in all Israel.  Because Joseph was of the lineage of David, he would have to be registered in the city of David, Bethlehem, he and all his family which would include his betrothed, Mary, great with child.  A God-thing?  Coincidence?  Regardless,  it would seem to be valid history in contradiction with nothing we know from archaeology or extra-biblical history.

The last thing I'd like to highlight from Luke's account is something unique to him in his gospel, something not found in Matthew, Mark, or Luke.  After telling about the shepherd's arrival to see the babe, Luke notes that "Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart."  It wasn't the only time Luke would highlight that tidbit.  Later in chapter two, after the young boy, Jesus, had remained behind in the Temple as his family headed home, Luke writes, "his mother treasured up all these things in her heart."

So what's the big deal with Mary?  How would he know that Mary treasured these things?  Could Luke have gotten this by divine revelation?  Yeah, I guess so, but that's not what he said at the outset of his history.  Eyewitnesses, he told Theophilus.  During Paul's two year imprisonment at Caesarea on the coast of Israel starting in AD 58, is it possible that Luke traveled throughout Judea and spoke to folks who knew Mary and told him about how those events had stuck with her?  Or is it possible that Mary was still alive?  Were she a teen as most surmise, say fifteen, when Christ was born, that would have put her in her 70's.  It is quite possible that Luke got his narrative of the Christmas story directly from Jesus' mom.

Unlike the Tooth Fairy and unlike Santa Claus, we have much that we can believe as historic regarding the story of the babe in a manger.  What we do with that is up to us. 

Merry Christmas!

political cartoon by Gary Varvel, copyright 2009