Spirituality Column #736
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Part 2: What’s Left Unsaid Is …
By Bob Walters
“The shepherds returned [to their flocks], glorifying and
praising God for all they had heard and seen.” – Luke 2:20
These gleeful shepherds who had just seen the baby Jesus
would have been horrified shepherds if the popular Christmas birth-of-Jesus
narrative were true.
Not horrified or fearful of the angel who spoke to them, nor
of seeing, well, God in a feeding trough. No, if they knew Mary and Joseph had
been refused hospitality and then left alone in a stable or cave to fend for
themselves in childbirth? Impossible. Even
these poor shepherds would not have let that happen, or let them stay alone in
a stable.
That would not have happened anywhere at that time in that
culture: not in Bethlehem, not among the rich or the poor, and certainly not to
a family of “the house and lineage of David” in “the town of David.” (Luke
2:4). In that town Joseph, basically,
was a royal and would have been welcomed into any home in Bethlehem. Likely, he had a plan to stay with family or
friends … the Bible doesn’t tell us if he did or didn’t.
Let’s take a brief, issue-by-issue look at the words of Luke
2 and the birth of Jesus through the lens of Middle Eastern cultural expert Ken
Bailey’s book, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes. Cultural context answers (and poses) many questions.
- The Trip (v4): “Nazareth up to Bethlehem…” That’s a 91-mile trip south though
farmland but “up” into the Judean hill country, not far from Hebron where pregnant
Mary had traveled 90 miles to visit Elizabeth for three months, then returned
home. (Luke 1:39, 56). I notice nowhere does the Bible say Joseph and Mary
traveled to Bethlehem alone, so perhaps others from Nazareth went, too. I’d have organized it for Mary to stay with
Elizabeth and meet Joseph in Bethlehem 1. to hide her pregnancy from Nazareth
and 2. to save Mary, basically, two 90-mile trips in late pregnancy. Nobody asked me.
- Birth time? (v5): “While they were there the days were
accomplished …” We mentioned this last week. Very plainly, Jesus was not born the night
they arrived.
- The “Inn” (v6): “no room for them in the inn…” “Inn” here means an extra room in someone’s
home (Greek word katalymati is a spare
room, not a hotel), adjacent to or above a home’s main living area. The “stable” would be a lower, open area on
one end of the house where animals at night were kept inside for protection
from thieves and the warmth for the family. A manger would have been in there;
warm and well-attended. The home’s “spare room” evidently was already occupied.
- Manger (v7): – That’s an animal eating trough, either a
stand or possibly a bowl dug into the floor of the main room adjacent to where
the animals were kept at night.
- Birth attendants: As was custom nearly everywhere in the
world, local women would have taken care of the pregnant Mary. Men would have been cleared out of the main
room of the house where the birth took place while various women attended to
Mary and the newborn. Then, as was every baby of that time, Jesus would have
been swaddled – v7 says “[by] Mary” and, in that circumstance, laid in
the warm hay of the nearby manger because “there was no room in the inn [guest
area]” of the house.
- Born at night? (v8): The Bible says the angel visited the
shepherds at night, not that Jesus was born at night. However, in v11, the angel says Jesus was “…born
this day …” which could very well imply nighttime, since Jewish “days”
started at sundown.
- The Shepherds 1 (v8-15): The lowliest of peasants, the
shepherds were the first to be visited by the angel. Note that it was not the Jewish leaders who
were notified.
- The Shepherds 2: The shepherds (v9) were “terrified,”
then the angel says “fear not.” Why
is that important? Because, as St. Jerome in the fourth century pointed out,
when you are terrified you do not understand what somebody is trying to say to
you. The angel wanted the shepherds to
calm down, listen to his message, and understand. That “glory of the Lord” display (v9),
I’m sure, would likely take anyone’s breath away.
- The Shepherds 3: They were first to learn, and it’s
critically significant, that “a savior has been born unto you … he is Christ
that Lord” (v11). “Unto you” is personal.
- The Shepherds 4: Their sign (v12) that the shepherds would
find their savior in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes, was also critical.
Why? Because this told the shepherds
that the savior / Christ / Lord – anticipated by the whole Jewish nation – was humbly
one of them. The fact they could go visit the Messiah in a common home
in a common manger among common people would bring the shepherds great joy; it
meant they were not separated from God by their lowly station in life.
- The Shepherds 5: That the shepherds visited Jesus and then
(v17-18) “spread the word about Jesus’s birth, the angel’s visit to them, and
all they had “heard and seen” is rich with meaning. They had understood what the angel told
them. On the authority of that angel,
the shepherds told “others” what Mary and Joseph likely would have been
reluctant to tell them: that the baby Jesus was the Messiah. It was only the shepherds who the Bible
identifies as the initial spreaders of this news. Even Mary “pondered [these things] in her
heart” (v19). And the fact that the
shepherds had “others” to tell suggests strongly that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
were not alone.
- The Shepherds 6: The shepherds returned to their flocks in
the fields, “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen”
(v20). These shepherds had just been trusted with telling the truth of Jesus’s
mission to fulfil God’s salvation of mankind, and whether they understood the
full impact of that is hard to say. But
what we can say is that not only were they rejoicing to God; they were
satisfied that the village had provided adequate and maybe even laudable care
and hospitality amid this birth. Culturally,
that’s something the shepherds would have insisted on and understood,
What’s left for us to understand is to rejoice and praise
God, too. What’s left unsaid is that we aren’t meant to be Jesus; we are meant
to be shepherds
Say what you will, I’m pretty sure that is the true meaning
of Christmas.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes a few other
things: 1. Some Bibles say they went to Bethlehem to be taxed (KJV), for a
census (NIV), or to be registered (ESV).
It’s all the same Greek root word “apographe.” 2. Jerusalem was also
known as the City of David. 3. Nobody knows the exact date of Jesus’s birth;
but everyone agrees it was not December 25, and not the year “0000.” 4. The Wise Men showed up months later
(Matthew 2:1-12). 5. Everybody tries to
explain the Star in terms of astronomy (like the Saturn-Jupiter confluence this
week); maybe God just put it there … like the Bible says.