THE NATIVITY
1In those days a
decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
2This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3And all
went to be registered, each to his own town. 4And Joseph also went up from
Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called
Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5to be registered
with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
6And while they
were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7And she gave birth to her
firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger,
because there was no place for them in the inn.
8And in the same
region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by
night. 9And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord
shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.
10And the angel
said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that
will be for all the people. 11For unto you is born this day in the city of
David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12And this will be a sign for you: you
will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”
13And suddenly
there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and
saying,
14“Glory to God
in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
15When the
angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let
us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord
has made known to us.”
16And they went
with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17And when
they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this
child. 18And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19But
Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20And the
shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and
seen, as it had been told them.
21And at the end
of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by
the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
LUKE 2:1-21
COMMENTARY
The narrative of
Luke, it was made for people of faith.
Faith is
required to accept that the baby born was the Son of God, and that his
conception as well as his nativity was all covered in supernatural events. This
narrative is to strengthen our faith.
One of the
aspects of this story where we need to exercise faith in God, is in the time of
the birth. Under the reign of Emperor Caesar Augustus (27BC-14CE), during the first
census, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
Historians have
not come yet to historical proof of this census, at the time when Quirinius was
governor of Syria, or if there was a census at all under this Roman emperor. It
is like when only faith could hold the existence of Pontius Pilate, for two
thousand years, before any archeological proof of the existence of Pilate as a historical
figure was discovered. For 2000 years we suffered ridicule from the world,
until 1961, year in which the Pilate’s Stone was discovered in Israel, that
finally proved our faith was correct. The same way now, we are standing between
the denial of historians, and the claim of the Word of God; and men of faith
know God is infallible and that we should trust in Him before fallible men. The
author of the Gospel of Luke ensures to his reader, that everything that he
wrote was made with much care and detail (Luke 1:1-4), so we opt for trusting
Luke before men.
Lord Jesus came
unexpectedly at the nine months of conception, but the couple already in Bethlehem,
could not find suitable accommodation due to the great convergence of travelers,
so they delivered Lord Jesus in the barn, and placed Him in a container used to
feed animals of work (Luke 2:7). Jesus, who could have been born in a royal
palace, as God and descendant of King David, opted to be born in a humble
manner, uniting Himself with the poorest, starting to redeem the poor of the
world with his own poverty.
While Jesus was been
born, angels proclaiming God’s mercy, appeared to the shepherds in the fields
nearby. It must have been an agreeable weather since they stayed doing turns watching
their sheep during the night and received the announcement of the birth of the
Savior of the World (Luke 2:11). An angelic manifestation that moved the people
that saw it, into believing this was a divine event, so they went to see Jesus
born.
The shepherds
arrived, and there were more people there by then, and when they talked about
the apparition, the others were astonished by their story (Luke 2:17-18). After
the apparition, seeing Lord Jesus and speaking to his parents, they must have
had a conversion, because whatever their condition was before meeting Jesus, they
returned glorifying God for what they had experienced (Luke 2:20). But St Mary,
the holy mother of our Lord, listened, and kept all that in her mind, meditating
about the significance of all that, the same as she must have wonder at the
angel’s apparition to announce the conception, and when she presented Jesus in
the Temple later. Mary was growing in understanding the depth of her decision
when she accepted to be the mother of the Son of God.
Finally, our
Lord fulfilled everything He Himself had established in the Mosaic Law as God,
and on the eighth day, He was circumcised, and He was given the Name of ‘Jesus’,
or ‘He who saves’, as angel Gabriel had told Mary (Luke 1:31).
God had become a
man, a perfect human being, to teach the world righteousness, and to offer Himself
as a Son to a Father, as propitiatory offering for the sins of all mankind.
Omar Flores.
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