'We Bring You Good News:' The Christmas Story in Harmony

It is the most celebrated holiday on the Western calendar. It is popular even in nations where Christians are in the minority. Christmas is one time of the year when you get the best opportunity to tell the story of Christ.

Did the shepherds and wise men actually meet at the Christ's manger on Christmas night? What is the background to the Christmas story? The following article tells the Biblical story in harmony, drawing from the birth narratives of the gospels of Matthew and Luke in chronological order.

The Great Announcement (Luke 1:26-38)

For centuries, the Israelites waited for the promised king from the lineage of King David. Like the shepherd king, this God-sent man would fight their battles, overcome their foes, and lead them to liberty and a ‘golden age.’ That special person heir of David was known as The Messiah: The Anointed One (Greek: Christ).

God kept His promises - He always does - but not in the way they expected. The Lord sent no one less than the angel Gabriel, who stands in God’s presence, to a teenage girl named Mary (Hebrew: Miriam). She lived in an obscure Galilean village of no more than three hundred residents called Nazareth.

Gabriel greeted Mary with much favour and fanfare, and she was startled. After the introductions, he announced that she was blessed among women because she was appointed to give birth to a Son named Jesus. She would be the mother, but who will be the father? Luke 1:32 makes another startling announcement. Messiah will have two fathers: 1. God - He shall be called Son of the Highest; 2. God will give Him the throne of ‘his father David.’ He will rule the house of Jacob forever in a never-ending kingdom. After this overwhelming experience, Mary submitted herself to God and His will.

Introducing Joseph (Matthew 1:18-26)

Mary was espoused to a man named Joseph. He also lived in Nazareth but was a Judean and a descendant of King David. When he discovered that Mary was pregnant - not from fornication but by the Holy Spirit- he respectfully and discreetly went to put her away - in other words, a quiet divorce.

An angel spoke to him in a night dream not to do it. Mary is your espoused wife - take her with a clear conscience. The child came from the Holy Spirit, not another man. The angel said the babe would be named Jesus (Hebrew: Yeshua), meaning Saviour, because He will ‘save His people from their sins’ (1:21).

Joseph complied and took Mary as his wife. Again, a thoughtful God-fearing man, he ‘knew her not’ until after she gave birth to the child, whom He named Jesus. In essence, Joseph became the ‘third father’ of Messiah, who was legally known as the ‘son of Joseph.’

Silent Night?

Micah 5:2 is a famous prophecy dated seven centuries before the birth of Jesus. It predicts that Messiah would come from Bethlehem, the city of David. The holy couple lived in Nazareth, a four-day journey by foot to the north. They rarely - if at all - went to Bethlehem. Under these circumstances, how could this prophecy be fulfilled?

The Roman emperor Caesar Augustus authorised a census of the occupied population of Judaea for taxation purposes. Everyone was compelled to return to their city of origin to be counted and taxed. This imperial decree was for everyone; no one was exempted, not even a near-term pregnant woman. So Mary and Joseph made the arduous journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. If they travelled due south, they would pass through unfriendly Samaritan territory. If they detoured through the Jordan Valley, they would tackle great heights and depths of the Rift Valley, plus ascend the robber-infested Jericho-Jerusalem road.

Mary was about to give birth. Problem: there was no home to stay in; the Inn and the town were full. The couple ended up in a cave, where the livestock found shelter. At least it protected them from the weather. There, the King of kings was born in absolute obscurity and humility. His first bed was an animal feeding trough, which is euphemistically called a manger.

The first people to meet the newborn king were not leaders, the high and mighty, or the rich and famous. The witnesses came from the lowest caste:-they were shepherds. God chose them to be the first to meet the King. The angel of the Lord came, also with a glorious and frightening entrance, and announced the good news of great joy for all people: For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11).

The announcement was accompanied by the heavenly host’s choir, and they were singing

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14).

After recovering from the initial shock of glory, the shepherds decided to meet their King. They found Him just as it was described: A child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Once visited, they spread the good news to everyone everywhere - a precursor to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8).

A Visit to Jerusalem (Luke 2:22-39)

Mary and Joseph were observant Jews. According to Leviticus 12, she was ritually unclean for seven days. As per Jewish law, Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day. After thirty-one days, Mary was no longer ritually unclean and was free to go to nearby Jerusalem and Herod’s temple to make the prescribed offering of two pigeons or turtledoves.

There at the temple, they encountered elderly Simeon who was promised by God that he would live to see Christ - though an infant. They also received added confirmation of the special nature of their Son through the words of Anna the prophetess who affirmed that this infant would bring redemption to Jerusalem.

When they had completed their religious legal duty, Joseph and Mary returned to Galilee and their own city Nazareth (Luke 2:39).

The Wise Men (Matthew 2:1-12)

At this point, many will be tempted to ask: What about the visit of the wise men? We are used to Christmas cards and public Nativity Scenes that have the local Bethlehem shepherds and the foreign wise men standing side-by-side near the manger. In all probability, the wise men did not meet Christ on the day of His birth and possibly not in Bethlehem either. Yet their visit is still part of the birth narrative of Jesus (Matthew 2:1).

Matthew says that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the days of Herod the King (known as Herod the Great, the founding father of the Roman-endorsed Herodian dynasty), the wise men came from the East to Jerusalem. They visited the paranoid monarch at his Jerusalem palace by Jaffa Gate.

They had a burning question: where is He who is ‘born king of the Jews?’ They may not have realised, but this was a sore point for Herod. The Romans installed him as their puppet king. He was a good manager and a master builder but utterly ruthless, even to his own family. Herod, also a ‘half-breed’ Idumean (part Jewish, part Edomite), was spurned by his Jewish subjects. Even building them a legendarily magnificent temple in Jerusalem was not enough to win their love. To add to his insecurities, he now learned that a ‘true’ and ‘Biblically-based’ ‘King of the Jews’ was born nearby. Herod tolerated no rivals to his throne, including his own sons. This young King must go. But he had to find him first.

Herod assembled the chief priests and theologians to tell him where the Messiah would be born. Without hesitation, they answered Micah 5:2. Herod sent the wise men to Bethlehem, asking that they report back to him when they finished so he could come and worship Him also.

It was a lie. Herod’s intention was not to worship but to kill the young king. Fortunately, the wise men heard from God and returned home another way. Having been mocked by his foreign guests, and since he could not identify the specific child, then he would target all children. Imagine the absurdity: The high and mighty king in his palace was threatened by a child who was born and lived in lowliness.

The mad monarch went on a rampage and killed all the male toddlers of Bethlehem region, two years old and younger. This vile event is called ‘the slaughter of the innocents,’ and it was a fulfilment of prophecy (Jeremiah 31:15).

The wise men were led from their country to Jerusalem by the Star from the East. When they departed from Herod’s palace, the Eastern Star appeared again to guide them to the Christ-child. Like a heavenly GPS, the Eastern Star stopped at His exact location. Matthew 2:11 says they entered the house. Then, with great joy, they worshipped the child and presented their gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. After this historic visit, the two parties went their separate ways: the wise men returned home to the East, and the Holy Family, instructed by an angel, departed for Egypt. The land of Israel was too small for them and a murderous King Herod. It, too, was a fulfilment of prophecy (Hosea 11:1).

Where did the wise men meet Christ? While Bethlehem is the popular choice, the problem was Mary was not in a house or inn when she gave birth to Jesus; in fact, they had no house at all in Bethlehem.

So where was ‘the house?’ Very possibly in Nazareth, which they returned to after thirty-one days when Mary was ritually purified. Remember, Herod was not looking to slay only infants, but those males from two years old and under, ‘according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men’ (Matthew 2:16). Chances are that when Jesus was two months old, he was living in a house in Nazareth and, apart from the sojourn in Egypt, continued to do so for the next thirty years.

We cannot know conclusively where the wise men met the young Jesus. This we do know:

A literal meeting took place;

It happened where the Star stood and shined over the house;

It was tied with the birth narrative of Christ;

The wise men saw Jesus after the shepherds and not concurrently;

The visit changed history.

This is the Christmas story in harmony. Like Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the wise men, we have seen His glory. With grateful hearts, let us join with the heavenly choir and worship Him, singing:

Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace,

goodwill toward men. Luke 2:14