Bible Study - The Christmas Story Part 9 - Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 2:1-7

Today we hear of the birth of Jesus from the perspective of Joseph and then the simple, most familiar words of the Christmas story. We begin with Matthew 1:18-25. Matthew wrote his Gospel primarily for Jewish people. In Chapter 1, he traces the ancestry of Jesus back to Abraham, father of the Jewish nation. Then he tells us that Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. (Mary was also related to King David in some way. See Romans 1:3.)

We would say today that they were engaged to be married, but as was proper, had not yet lived together; but betrothal was much more serious in Judaism. If the commitment of betrothal was broken, then people would need a divorce to end the relationship. The person guilty of unfaithfulness could even be put to death by stoning. (See Deuteronomy 22:21, for example. Under the New Covenant, we do not have such penalties, though adultery is always sinful and could be a grounds for divorce.)

Joseph discovered that his wife-to-be was expecting a child, and he knew he was not responsible, since they had not yet “come together” as husband and wife. What else could he assume, but that Mary had been unfaithful to him? He was a just man and still cared about Mary, though, and did not want to shame her even more and was thinking that he must divorce her, but quietly (Matthew 1:18-19). What an agonizing situation for him and Mary!

Joseph did not make a quick decision, though, and was still considering all this when an angel appeared to him in a dream. He was told not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, as she had done nothing wrong. It was rather a miracle of God by the power of the Holy Spirit that she was expecting (Matthew 1:20). In fact, the angel said, Mary will have a son, who must be named Jesus (the Savior, or the Lord Saves), for He will save His people from their sins.

This was all in fulfillment of a prophecy from Isaiah 7:14 (more than 700 years earlier) that a virgin would conceive and bear a Son, who would also have the name Immanuel, which means “God with us.” This tells us who Jesus would be - a real human boy, according to the flesh, from the line of King David, who would be one of us and be tempted as we are and yet not sin, and yet God, also, great enough to pay the penalty for the sins of the whole world - the God/man, exactly what we needed.

Clearly, also, Jesus was not going to be a “political” Savior, who would overthrown governments and bring political liberation to people. He would deal with the much greater problem of “sin” - that we have all departed from God’s path and missed the mark of what we should be and would be eternally lost without a Savior to rescue us. The name “Jesus” is the Greek form of the name “Joshua.” The Old Testament Joshua led God’s people into the Promised Land. The New Testament Jesus will lead people to eternal life and joy, by what he does for them (Matthew 1:21-23). (See Acts 4:12 and Psalm 130:7-8 and Hebrews 10:9-10, for example.)

God also gave Joseph grace and strength to believe what the angel said and go ahead and take Mary as his wife and name the child “Jesus.” Joseph also had no sexual relationship with Mary, “knew her not,” until she had given birth to Jesus. It was completely a virgin birth, as prophecy had said, by the miracle of the Holy Spirit. The brothers and sister of Jesus who are mentioned later in the Scriptures were then most likely children of Mary and Joseph conceived and born in the normal human way, after the birth of Jesus (Matthew 1:24-25, and Mark 3:31 and Mark 6:3, etc.).

We turn then to Luke 2:1-7, where the birth of Jesus is told in the very simple way that we know best. Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor, had made a decree (a dogma) that “all the world” (all the people under his control, in all the “inhabited houses” where he reigned) were to be “registered” (counted, inventoried) with the purpose of taxing them all.

Caesar Augustus (“the exalted one”) had the power to do this. He ruled from 31BC to 14AD and had the authority and respect to carry this out. This decree was given in 7-6BC, the time when Quirinius was governor of Syria, one of the Roman provinces (Luke 2:1-2). Both of these people are well known among Roman historians. (Do remember that we just had a census in 2020 in the US that was delayed and barely completed, even with all our modern technology. It will take years to sort our all the information collected, and we will not have another census until 2030. It took much longer to get things done in the ancient world. Some kind of decree was made about the Roman province of Gaul, and it took 40 years to carry out.)

It is no surprise then that Joseph and Mary did not have to travel to Bethlehem, to their ancestral home, the city of David, until years later, when Mary was close to giving birth to Jesus. The trip from Nazareth, in the Northern part of Israel, to Bethlehem, was more than 70 miles, and they had to go “up” because Bethlehem was in hill country, near Jerusalem. The name “Bethlehem” literally means the “House of Bread.” Jesus was “the Bread of Life” and would provide eternal life for people, as they were brought to faith in Him and were spiritually nourished by Him (Luke 2:3-5 and John 6:35).

Then we are simply told that while Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem, the time came for the birth of Jesus. Bethlehem was a very small town and many extra people were there, probably for the registration. There was no room for them in the inn,  a normal place of lodging; and babies come when they come, so Mary had to place baby Jesus in a “manger,” a feeding trough or box for animals. It is from this one word that we know Jesus was born and placed in a stable or maybe a cave, as animals were sometimes kept in caves, also. Only in those places would be mangers from which they could eat food. It was certainly a lowly, unsanitary, smelly place for Jesus and Mary and Joseph.

That Mary did the wrapping of Jesus in strips of cloth, the customary way of covering an infant at that time, indicates that she and Joseph were poor and far from home. If at all possible, couples would try to have someone like a midwife to help the family. Mary had to do all by herself, with what help Joseph could give (Luke 2:6-7).

This very humble birth of Jesus was exactly what other Scriptures tell us. Jesus was “rich” (true God in the glory of heaven) “yet for our sake He became poor” (a tiny baby in a food trough) “that we, by His poverty might become rich” with all the blessings Jesus came to bring to us (2 Corinthians 8:9). Jesus was God, and yet “made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant… in human form He humbled Himself, by becoming obedient for us, even to the point of death” later on (Philippians 2:5-8).

This was the plan of God for our salvation in the humble coming of Jesus. It was prophesied in the Old Testament, Jesus predicted His own suffering and sacrifice in our place to save us, and He had to explain it again even after His resurrection (Isaiah 53:2-12, Mark 8:31-32, Luke 24:25-27, 44-47).

One more thought. Caesar Augustus thought he was in control, ordering everyone to go to the places he told them to go, to be counted and taxed. Over time, the emperors thought they were gods and demanded to be worshiped. The emperor was “savior” and “son of God” and “Lord.” Emperors would usher in the “golden age” and could do miracles and on and on. In reality, though, in the birth of Jesus, God was in control, working through the Emperor to get Mary and Joseph just where they needed to be for the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, just as Micah had predicted hundreds of years before. (We will hear more of this later.)

This is very comforting for us. We worry that governments and leaders are not what they ought to be and use their power for what is not good. Yet God is still working for our good, even in troubled times. The commentator, Donald Miller, wrote of God teaching us about “the meaning of history. By the decree of Caesar Augustus, the Messiah was born where God had chosen. By setting the Babe over against the Caesar, Luke is proclaiming that God is the Lord of history. History is not ruled by fate, nor by the will of man, but by God. Not Caesar, but Christ, is Lord.” We will see this more and more, as the Christmas story goes on.