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Because we are all very familiar with the traditional Christmas story about the birth of Jesus, it is difficult for us to see it any other way than the way it has always been presented and the way we’ve always heard it and sung it and believed it.
However, when you start to understand the story of the birth of Jesus from a Middle Eastern point of view, it gives you some new insight into what really took place that incredible night in Bethlehem. For example, Middle Eastern culture then and still today is one of great hospitality. Their homes were opened to family and strangers alike. So, when Joseph arrived in Bethlehem and was seeking a place for his pregnant wife and himself, most any home in town would have been open to him and Mary. It is highly unlikely they would have allowed them to go to a cold, damp cave and have her baby there. It would have broken every rule of hospitality known to them then and now.
After all, Joseph was from the royal lineage of David. David was honored above most every other person, especially in Bethlehem, his hometown. Being of that famous family, any place in town would have welcomed him and Mary. And especially because Mary was obviously pregnant and ready to give birth soon.
Luke 2:4 says that Joseph and Mary “went up from Galilee to Judea,” and verse 6 states “while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.” We tend to think that the very night Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem, Jesus was born, but nothing in Luke 2 tells us this. The time spent in Bethlehem before the birth of Jesus is not specified in Luke 2. It could have been days or even a week or more.
It just doesn’t make sense that in this Middle Eastern culture, a descendent of King David would not find a home with open doors to take him and Mary in. How could a Jewish town fail to help a young Jewish mother about to give birth? But we’re told he was born in a manger, and mangers were found in stables that housed animals. That’s true, but mangers were also found in humble homes, where a few prized animals were brought in for the night. These homes would have a manger near their living room, perhaps a few steps lower, and the animals would spend the night there, with a manger for their food. And each morning they would take the animals out into the courtyard and that room would then be cleaned. Such simple homes have been traced from the time of David up to the middle of the twentieth century.
What was the “inn”?
What was it that was “full”? Luke 2:7 states that Jesus was laid in a manger “because there was no room for them in the inn.” The Greek word does not refer to a “room in an inn” but rather to “space” as “There is no space in my house for a piano.” Most homes then, even humble ones, would have a guest room—a space to welcome family and strangers. Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem where they were most likely received into a private home, where perhaps someone else was already in the guest room. If there was no room in the guest room, they could have used the family room area, near the manger. Jesus was born, wrapped in cloths—which is totally traditional to this day—and most likely put to bed in a clean manger in the family room. It could have been a manger built into the floor or a manger used for sheep.
What about the shepherds?
Shepherds in first century Palestine were poor, and rabbinic traditions label them as unclean. They were lowly and uneducated. Considering this, when the angels appear to them they are frightened—no doubt by such a sight. But could they not also have been frightened that they were asked to visit the child? If this baby is the Messiah, would his mother and father allow shepherds, of all people, to visit him?
What did the angels tell the shepherds they would find?
- The baby wrapped in cloths
- The baby lying in a manger
Why does Luke give us this detail? What would this say to the shepherds? It would say that this baby is in a humble home like theirs. He was not in a mansion. So, this had to be really good news to these shepherds. This was a sign that the angels gave them—the lowly shepherds—to know they would be welcomed by Mary and Joseph.
It seems clear that they found the holy family in perfectly adequate accommodations, not in a dirty stable. If it had been otherwise, would they have just left there “praising God for all that they had heard and seen”? They would have insisted on finding a better place for them to stay, don’t you think? The fact that the shepherds walked out without moving the young family seems to say that the shepherds felt they could not offer better hospitality than what had already been extended to them.
Jesus was born for the likes of the shepherds—the poor, the lowly, the rejected. But he was also born for the rich and the wise, who later appear with gold, frankincense and myrrh. Matthew 2:1–12 tells us that the wise men entered the house where they saw Mary and the child.
Consider the condition of the people of Israel at the time of Jesus’ birth:
- They were occupied and oppressed by the Romans
- Before the Romans, the country had been ruled by the Greeks
- Before the Greeks, it had been ruled by the Persians
At the time of Jesus’ birth much of the land was owned by foreigners, and local farmers were obliged to rent land and they were treated very unfairly. Naturally they wanted to be saved from the political and economic oppression they were under. They are expecting a Messiah to come and save them from this horrible occupation.
If you were living in an occupied country for all these years and you had been treated badly and your people had been abused and misused, your idea of sin would be what the oppressors had done to you. They were the sinners; they were the ones who should be run out of the land or killed or judged for their sin against the people of Israel. Salvation would represent to you being saved from this oppression.
So, when Matthew 1:21 records that “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins,” it was not a message well-received. They didn’t see that their problem was their sin; their problem was the oppressors who kept them in bondage. This is no doubt an important part of why “he came unto his own and his own received him not.”
Where did the Wise Men come from?
Some translations say “They saw his star in the East,” but if the magi were east of Israel and they saw his star in the east, they should have gone to India! In Hebrew, the word for “East” also means “the rising.” So, the ESV translation is accurate: “For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2).
These wise men were not Jews. They were Gentiles and we are never told how many there were. Probably they traveled in a much larger company than three. This new “king of the Jews” is recognized and adored by both Jews (shepherds) and Gentiles (magi). The wise men were quite likely from Arabia. These men arrived with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold was mined in Arabia. Frankincense and myrrh are harvested from trees that only grow in southern Arabia. Wealthy dwellers of those desert regions would naturally have gold, frankincense and myrrh.
At the birth of Jesus, humble Jewish shepherds and wealthy, powerful Gentile Arabs came together in adoration of a child. Honestly, I’m looking forward to meeting these shepherds and wise men in heaven, and hearing the story first hand from them. What motivated those wise men to seek this Jewish king? And what must they have thought when they found this baby in a very humble Jewish home, without any trappings of royalty or wealth? Yet they worshiped him; somehow they knew he was to be worshiped.
Simeon and Anna
Luke tells how Jesus was brought to the temple by his parents to be dedicated, according to Jewish law. And there they encounter Simeon and Anna. Luke is making it clear that Jesus came for men and women. In this male-dominated culture, this was very important. He includes both Simeon and Anna, and this was intentional on his part—to show that Jesus does not value men more than women. This would have been a clear message to the people of that day and in that culture.
Well, this is just a brief rehearsal of what happened at the birth of the Messiah, looking at it through Middle Eastern eyes rather than our very modern Western eyes. I’ll admit, it does challenge some of the things we have sung in Christmas carols and things we’ve seen in manger scenes all our lives. But it doesn’t change the wonderful good news that Jesus was born to save us from our sins.
Celebrating Christmas should always include the good news of Easter, because Jesus came to save us from our sins, and that means he came to die, and then to conquer death as he rose from the grave, and now to intercede for us in Heaven on the Father’s right hand. That’s what is really important about the birthday of Jesus.
And so, in a few days, we’ll be gathering with friends and family, with our traditional times of celebration, and I pray that you’ll have a warm, loving Christmas. Be sure to read the Christmas story again; it’s really a good idea to make that a part of your Christmas family celebration. Read again how God became flesh and dwelled among us, and try to imagine what it was like if you had been a shepherd on that field in Bethlehem that night. Or if you had been a wise man coming a long distance to see this child-king. And most importantly, just thank God again and again for his plan of redemption, that his perfect Son has come into this world, paid the price for our sins, and offers to each of us true freedom. Freedom from the penalty of our sins and freedom to live our days to his honor and glory.
