By Jeffery M. Leonard, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biblical & Religious Studies, Samford University
THE SAVIOR WHO CAME TO US
Luke 2:4–12,16–20
My mother-in-law was for many years a kindergarten teacher. One year as Christmas approached, she set aside time for her students to draw pictures related to Jesus’ birth.
Among the familiar scenes of barns and magi, shepherds and mangers, one young boy had drawn an airplane. Assuming the boy had drawn what he wanted to rather than what he had been told to, she asked why he had not drawn a Christmas picture. The boy protested, “But I did, Mrs. Renicks, this is the flight to Egypt!” Looking more closely, my mother-in-law recognized figures on the plane that did, in fact, appear to be Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
“Who,” she asked, “is this fellow here then?” The boy promptly responded, “That’s Pontius, the pilot.” As this little boy’s story illustrates, the story of the birth of Jesus, while one of the most familiar in the Bible, is also one with details easy to misunderstand.
Jesus’ humble birth in Bethlehem fulfilled the promise of God to David. (4–7)
One of the most readily misunderstood elements of the nativity story has to do with the “inn” where Mary and Joseph were turned away.
While the Greek language has a perfectly good word for “inn” (pandokeion), that word isn’t found in this story.
The place from which Mary and Joseph were turned away was a kataluma, the “upper room” in a house. Mary and Joseph were poor people; they were not likely to stay in a hotel but rather with relatives. Unfortunately, their relatives turned them away, telling them no room was available.
Perhaps this was true; a small room, perhaps already crowded with other guests, was no place for Mary to give birth. Of course, the chivalrous thing would have been for the men to leave so the women could assist Mary in the birthing process. Instead, the couple went downstairs to the working part of the house where animals set aside for sacrifice were kept indoors. This is where the manger, not made of wood in Israel but of stone, was found.
Angels proclaimed the good news that the Savior was born. (8–12)
The visitors who attend Jesus’ birth in Luke’s Gospel are shepherds. Shepherding conjures up images of green pastures, gently rolling hills and stone walls separating field from field.
Shepherding in Israel could hardly be more different. Shepherds lived at the edge of society, moving from place to place with their flocks to find water, scrambling over dry, rocky hills, always under threat from weather, predators and unsavory characters. Shepherds were poor, tough people. And yet, these were the first to receive the message of the Messiah’s birth. The good news came first to a ragtag band of shepherds living out in the fields.
People rejoice when they recognize the truth of salvation. (16–20)
Luke tells us Mary “treasured up all these things in her heart and meditated on them.” Mary seemed to know even then that the events surrounding her son’s birth would echo throughout the rest of His life. This would certainly prove to be the case.
At the beginning of His life, Jesus would be treated inhospitably in a kataluma; He would be treated the same way at the end of His life in the more famous kataluma where the Last Supper was held.
At the beginning of His life, Jesus was wrapped in strips of cloth and placed in a hollowed out stone manger; at the end of His life, Jesus would be wrapped again in strips of cloth and placed in a hollowed out stone tomb. Jesus was born alongside the sacrificial animals; Jesus would one day die as the ultimate sacrifice. And the message of this unlikely Savior would be embraced not by the rich and powerful, but by the poor and lowly, by those like the shepherds who had nowhere to turn.
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