BIBLE 101: NATIVITY

NATIVITY

by Pastor Joel Wight Hoogheem (joel@lordoflife.org)

For many of us, when we think of “the Christmas story” (not to be confused with the movie A ChristmasStory), our minds may drift to the scene depicted in a typical Nativity scene: baby Jesus in a manger, Mary, Joseph, shepherds, wise men, and an assortment of animals. That’s all well and good, yet it’s important for us as discerning readers of the Bible to know that this common scene is an amalgamation of strands of Luke’s story of Jesus’ birth, Matthew’s story of Jesus’ birth, and the imagination of St. Francis of Assisi in 1223.

Truth be told, there are actually four stories of the Nativity of Jesus Christ in the Bible. Luke brings us the shepherds and the little town of Bethlehem. Matthew installs the wise men from the east on the scene, as they arrive days, weeks, or perhaps even months after Jesus’ birth.

And then there are the other Nativity stories: One that’s typically heard on Christmas Day and another that you may have never heard at all. First, there’s John’s story of the coming of Christ. It’s not an intimate birth narrative, but a poetic rendition about the Word of God made flesh for the sake of the entire world.

And that other Christmas story in the Bible? Well, it’s not from the gospel of Mark. It’s not in any of Paul’s letters. It’s communicated by John of Patmos in Revelation 12 and, boy howdy, it’s a doozy. There’s a great red dragon and a cosmic woman, together in a scene that is far from being a silent night. If there were a Christmas song written about this biblical Nativity story, it would be sung to the tune “O Tannenbaum” and include the lyrics, “O great red dragon, O great red dragon, please don’t eat the baby.” (Trust me: it’s there in the Bible.)

What binds these four Nativity stories together, however, are the same promises that God is with us, that God is most fully revealed in Jesus Christ, and that the child born on that day has come to be the Savior of the world. That’s the meaning of Christmas, whatever version of the story you hear.

This may be a particularly good time to recall that this same story of the birth of Jesus gets told in very different ways. We are all well aware that Christmas this year will look and feel different than it has in the past. It’s the first time any of us have had to celebrate the season during a pandemic, after all. Our family celebrations will be reshaped or postponed. Our worship experiences will be different than usual. Our Christmas traditions will have to be reimagined.

Yet in this unusual time, we have the freedom and creativity both to appreciate what we miss this year, knowing it can return in the

future, and we can dream up new and meaningful ways to hear and celebrate the coming of Christ. Every tradition has to start somewhere, and I have a strong suspicion that there will be countless, heartfelt, faithful new traditions established in 2020.

And who knows? Maybe one of those new traditions will be a greater amalgamation of the story of the birth of Jesus offered in ultradeluxe Nativity scenes that have all the old favorites plus that great red dragon and cosmic woman.

Bible 101

reflections

Read the four stories of the Nativity of our Lord in the Bible: 1. Luke 2:1-20 2. Matthew 1:18-2:12 3. John 1:1-18 4. Revelation 12:1-6

What details do you notice in each? Why do you think each author chose to write about the coming of Christ in the way they did?How do these multiple versions of the birth of Jesus deepen your understanding of the meaning of Christmas?