Good Morning, friends.
Did you know that Matthew and Luke’s telling of Jesus’ birth are strikingly DIFFERENT even though the church has done a very good job at blending them together into one for the sake of Christmas pageants, Christmas sermons, and the like?
They are very different, and for very good reason.
Lots of thoughts today, buckle up and pour another cup - HA!
Much love,
Glenn || PATREON / BUY ME A COFFEE
In Matthew's Gospel there was no "inn" that had no room for Mary and Joseph and so there was no need for a manger for baby Jesus to be laid in the night he was born, or animals to be gathered around him ... and there were no shepherds, either.
INSTEAD.
A star appeared and guided some Astrologers to a home in Bethlehem where Jesus was born.
Luke's Gospel, though, is entirely different.
Ahhh, yes. And this is why I love the Gospels - they are all DIFFERENT, no 2 are the same ... and they each tell the story of Jesus exactly how they want to with absolutely ZERO regard for your or my or anyone else's desire for "historical accuracy".
In Luke's Gospel, he tells the story ENTIRELY differently than Matthew does in his. For Luke, there were no Astrologers and there was no home ... instead, there were Shepherds and an angel who appeared to them to tell them that a Savior had been born, a Savior who wasn't born in a home, but in ...
A manger.
That was likely in a cave of sorts.
Surrounded by animals.
Dirt.
Poop.
Cold.
Damp.
... because there was no room for them in the inn.
Don't miss this - both of these stories are VERY, VERY different even though Christmas pageants have melted them together into one.
They are not one.
They are not the same.
They are, in fact, very different in striking ways, for very specific purposes.
Matthew was writing to his audience in the wake of the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD and so he was writing to a group of people who had lost absolutely everything, who had lost the core of their existence.
For them ...
The temple was the center of their world.
The temple was the place where God dwelt.
The temple was the center of the universe.
... and now it was GONE, leveled and ground into dust by the Roman Empire.
And so Matthew was writing to a group of people who were starting over and building their lives and their faith from the ground up. His goal in writing was to encourage them to trust and to be courageous no matter what came their way.
Luke, however, was writing to a group of Jesus believers who had recently been cast out of their Jewish tribe. Shortly after the Temple had been destroyed in 70AD the Pharisees stepped into a vacuum of leadership and once they got established and got their bearings, one of the first things they did was declare that any sect of Judaism that believed the Messiah had already come should be cast out and forbidden to re-enter the tribe.
The Messianic Jews (the Jewish Christians who believed that Jesus was the Messiah) were one of the first to go ...
They were cursed.
They were slandered.
They were tossed out with the trash.
They were not welcomed.
... and so in the mid-80's (15 years or so after Matthew's Gospel) Luke wrote his Gospel to these outcasted and shamed believers, which is why Luke tells the story of Jesus' birth the way that he does.
(This is SO interesting to me, I will do my very best to contain myself.)
For starters, Mary and Joseph - they went to the inn, but there was no room for them. Right? Other people from their community would have been there, other people from their "tribe" ... but there was no room for them.
Maybe they were late?
Maybe they were too slow?
Whatever the case may be, they were out of luck.
Don't you think that Luke's readers knew what that felt like, what it felt like to be out of luck? And don't you think that when they read Luke's words that "there was no place for them in the inn" ... don't you think that their hearts would have been stirred because they knew what it felt like to be told that "there's no room for you here" ... ?
Yes.
I think they knew very well what it felt like to be thrown out into the cold with the animals, to sit among food and poop and dirt and mud while the rest of their tribe sat inside.
And then, the shepherds. In his book "Radical Transformation" Alexander Shaia says that in the first century "shepherds were outcasts, people who had few skills, no resources, and little family. Feared, they lived lives near of starvation, isolated from regular society. They were considered to be an unstable element, potentially thieving and dangerous."
Again, Luke's readers - I imagine that the scene Luke painted where the angels appeared to the shepherds out in the fields and announced the birth of Christ to them ... I have to imagine that the thought of such a scene struck them in all the feels.
Right?
Just like the shepherds, they were the outcasts of their society as they were literally cast out of Judaism ...
Told to go away.
Told that they were no longer family.
Told to turn in their membership cards.
Shown the door.
Pushed aside.
Deemed to be dangerous and vicious and destructive to the religion they once called home.
... they knew what it was like to be outcasted like the shepherds and so I have to imagine that when they read that the angels appeared to the shepherds to announce to them that the Messiah had been born ... dang. I have to imagine that this encouraged them to know and to remember that although their tribe may have cast them out, God hadn't and never would.
Right?
What I'm trying to say today is that these stories may or may not be "historically true", but wow ... they are most certainly 1000000% spiritually, psychologically, and humanly true.
Aren't they?
I mean, I know what it feels like to be Luke's readers. I don't, but yet at the same time ... I do. I don't know what it's like to live in the first century and endure all that they endured, but I do know what it feels like to be cast out by my tribe. I know what it's like to be deemed a heretic by my family. I know what it's like to be pushed away, to have the problems of the world blamed on me. I know what it's like to be called names, to be told that I'm dangerous and vicious, the one who leads others astray.
I know what it's like.
I know what it's like to be Mary and Joseph, to be told that there's no more room for me in the "inn", that there's no room for my ideas, my questions, my doubts, my faith ... to be cast out into the cold like an animal with the mud and dirt and poop.
And honestly.
It brings a tear to my eye ...
To read that even though Mary and Joseph were cast out into a cave, that they were the vessel that brought The Christ into the world, the vessel that brought Good News of great joy into the world for all people.
To read that the shepherds out in the fields were the first ones to hear (from the mouths of angels, nonetheless!) that the Messiah had been born.
... Yes - our tribes and all of the "inns" - the "in places" and "in people" and "in groups" - might cast us out, declare us to be lost causes, tell us that there's no room for us anymore ... but when they do, they are actually casting us INTO the arms of God who declares us not lost, but found, loved, accepted, and vessels to bring forth the Good News to all the people of the world.
Being cast out is hard, I know, and so if you're cast out today it's my hope and prayer that Luke's telling of the Jesus story will bring you hope and peace and a sense that you are not alone.
Until Next Time ✌🏻🤙🏻