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   "In the fulness of time" (Gal. 4:4) God chose to act in accord with His character in grace and thereby to reveal Himself in His actions toward mankind by His Son, Jesus Christ. Whenever God acts out of who He is, ek theos, such a revelation necessarily confronts religion, for it negates and abolishes all religious enterprise which is incapable of acting ek theos. Religious enterprise is always derived ek anthropos which is essentially and spiritually ek diabolos. The revelation of God wherein He acts and provides for mankind out of His own Being, ek theos, necessarily exposes all religion to be a fraudulent manufacture of deceived mankind.

   God's revealing of Himself in His Son, "born of a woman" (Gal. 4:4), "made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man" (Phil. 2:7,8), is an action that serves as a refutation of religion. Inherent in the incarnation is the reality of God's action that can never be separate from His Being. The incarnation is representative and inclusive of the totality of God's Being in action and action by Being. The very Being of God is involved in everything He does, in contrast to all religion, and His Being incarnated in a man born as a baby serves to confront religion with an antithesis that fatally exposes its religious foundations of humanistic activism. The birth and boyhood of Jesus therefore confronts religion.

(1) Luke's Introduction (Luke 1:1-4)

   Luke was not one of the twelve original disciples of Jesus. He was a physician (Col. 4:14) who later accompanied Paul on his missionary journeys (II Tim. 4:11; Philemon 24). Luke admits that he was not an "eyewitness" (1:2), but that "servants of the word," i.e. Christians who have subordinated themselves to Jesus Christ, the "Word" (John 1:1,14), have passed on accounts, perhaps both orally and written, and that he has investigated such and written them down. So Luke admits that he is but a compiler of the information available to him, but indicates that he has "investigated everything carefully," so as to produce an account "in consecutive order" that conveys "the exact truth" about the events of the life of Jesus that the readers have previously been taught. From the sequel document it is apparent that Luke does not record Jesus as merely an historical figure, for though he records herein what "Jesus began to do and to teach" (Acts 1:1), the implication is that Jesus continues to act and teach as the living Lord by the Spirit after Pentecost.

   Luke did his homework as a meticulous researcher, and compiled this document to give a perspective of Jesus that would relate to all men universally. The addressee of the document, who is also addressed in the sequel (Acts 1:1), may be an individual, or may be a generic name representative of all Christians. The meaning of the name Theophilus is "lover of God," which may be a literary device to address the document to all "lovers of God," i.e. all Christians.

(2) The Prologue of John's Gospel (John 1:1-18)

   Writing as he did, toward the end of the first century, John had perhaps half of a century more time after the synoptic authors had written, in order to reflect on the theological implications of the life of Jesus Christ. Living as he did, in a predominantly Greek world in Asia Minor, he sought existing Greek words and concepts which would relate the gospel to the world in which he lived. John begins his gospel-narrative by articulating his theology in terminology that had long been employed in Greek philosophy, as he also does in the prologue of his epistle (I John 1:1), and within the account of the Revelation (Rev. 19:13). Connecting the Hebrew theology of creation and the Greek concept of logos, John commences by writing, "In the beginning was the Word (logos)..." (John 1:1). From the Greek word logos we derive the English words "logic" and the latter part of the word "theology," which is "the study or reasoning about God." The Greek philosophers had essentially deified logos, or logic and reasoning, as the supreme virtue whereby one contacts and projects cosmic reason or the divine mind. John does not allow for the deification of abstract rationality and intellect, but rather specifically personifies the concept of logos in the person of Jesus Christ. The person of Jesus is explained by using the metaphor of the logos, indicating that Jesus is the "expression" of God, but more than just a separated and disassociated "expression" or "expresser" of God, Jesus as the "Word" is God. Such a concept boggles all religious thought.

   The Jews could also relate to the concept of logos for they made constant reference to the account of creation in the Torah which records God's speaking things into existence; "God said, 'Let there be...'" (Gen. 1:3,6). The Psalmist explains that "by the word of the Lord the heavens were made" (Ps. 33:6). "The worlds were prepared by the word of God" (Heb. 11:3), affirms the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews. The concept of the "word of God" being employed "in the beginning" was familiar to Hebrew thought, as well as the "word of God" being spoken by the prophets such as Abraham (Gen. 15:1), Moses (Exod. 20:1), Isaiah (Isa. 1:10) and Jeremiah (Jere. 1:2). What the Jewish religion could not conceive of was an incarnated "Word of God" who would be the "exact representation" (Heb. 1:3) of God, allowing God to be made visible. Believing that "no man can see God and live" (Exod. 33:20), Jewish religion rejected Jesus as the "Word" or "image of God" (II Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15) who could express visibly the Being and character of the invisible God, as God.

   John asserts unequivocably that Jesus pre-existed as God, and was in His incarnate form essentially the expression of the very Being of God. Later he will record Jesus' declarations to the Jewish leaders saying, "Before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58), and "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). The unique Christological affirmation of Christianity by the self-revelation and self-expression of God in Jesus Christ, as the God-man, is opposed to the dichotomous dualism inherent in all religion, which inevitably disassociates the action and benefits of God toward man from the very Being of God within those actions. Jesus Christ, the "Word," was and is God in action.

   Religion will do anything to avoid and deny this ontological reality of the gospel in Jesus Christ. From the Arians to the Jehovah Witnesses there have been those who would insert an indefinite article into John's statement, to make it say, "the Word was a god," thus denying the deity of Jesus as well as the Being of God in the activity of Jesus. Protestantism, and now more particularly evangelicalism, has tended to interpret logos and all references to "word" throughout the new covenant literature as referring to a book, the Bible as the "word of God," conferring upon such compilation of literature the very power and activity of God. Such "Christian religion" becomes a "book-religion" guilty of bibliolatry. The "Word of faith" movement among charismatic neo-pentecostals has surmised that God created all things by the procedure of "speaking the word of faith" in order to bring them into being, both creatively and redemptively. The "word" of God thereby becomes a disassociated procedure whereby religious men can utilize the same technique and allegedly bring things into being creatively and redemptively, speaking things into reality. What these religious tenets all have in common is the premise of God acting apart from His Being in Jesus Christ, which is why all religion is confronted by the incarnation of the God-man.

   John continues to tie genesis and re-genesis together in the continuation of his prologue. Asserting that Jesus as God "was in the beginning with God" (1:2), and "all things came into being by Him" (1:3), John is setting up the connection between the physical creation "coming into being" and the spiritual creation of "coming into being" by the very Being of God restored to man through Jesus Christ. Behind his thinking is undoubtedly the idea of Christians being "new creatures in Christ" (II Cor. 5:17) with the whole community of Christians being the "new creation" (Gal. 6:15), sharing "newness of life" (Rom. 6:4) in Christ who has become their identity.

(3) Light and Life - John 1:3-11

   Continuing to key off of the Genesis narrative of God's creating light and life (Gen. 1:3), John then alludes to the spiritual realities of light and life in Jesus Christ (1:4). Though religion promotes enlightenment by rationalistic acceptance of propositional truth-statements and the consequent inculcation of moralistic living, such is confronted as antithetical to the divine and spiritual light and life of God in Jesus Christ exclusively. Christ is life (John 11:25; 14:6; Col. 3:4). Christ is the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5; 12:46). As the very Being of God's life in Jesus Christ becomes spiritually operative within the Christian, true spiritual enlightenment shines forth in the genuine self-disclosure of God. "The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord" (Prov. 20:27). The light goes on in the lamp of man's spirit when Jesus Christ, the life and the light, comes to dwell therein.

   The spiritual light of the life of Jesus Christ shines in the spiritual darkness (1:5) of the world-system (John 3:19; 8:12; 12:35,46; I John 1:5,6; 2:8,9,11), the system governed by "the god of this world' (II Cor. 4:4). Religion is part of that system of darkness. Fred Craddock notes that "this evangelist understands worldliness to assume its ugliest shapes in the entrenchments of religion." 1 Without spiritual understanding religion cannot comprehend, much less overcome, what God is doing in His Son, Jesus Christ.

   As the life and light of God, Jesus came into the world, the very world which He created, and the world of mankind, the world of religion, did not know Him, recognize Him, or receive Him (1:9,10). He came among His own race and people, the Jews, but because of the misperceptions of their religious ideology, they did not receive Him (1:11). He experience national and religious rejection, because religion will not accept Jesus on His own terms, the activity of His divine Being.

(4) Children of God - John 1:12,13

   Only by the receptivity of faith can "as many" as receive Him, be they Jew or Gentile, male or female, become "children of God" believing into His name, His person, into spiritual union with His being (1:12). Once again Jesus confronts the exclusivity of religion, extending God's life to all men in the universality of the gospel, which was God's intent from the very beginning. Jewish religion had the opinion, though, that they alone were the "children of God" by physical birth and national privilege. They could not conceive of the need for spiritual birth, as is exemplified by the response of Nicodemus (John 3:1-6). The spiritual commencement of God's functional life in man is not extended on the basis of racial and genetic heredity, nor on the basis of personal resolve to perform by self-effort in "bootstrap religion," nor on the basis of man's determination to acquire such, but can only be given by the living God (1:13). God is the progenitor of His life which is extended in His Son, and as "like begets like" the receptive Christian believer partakes of the life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

(5) Incarnation - John 1:14-18

   The trinitarian understanding of God is intrinsic to the understanding of the incarnation of Jesus Christ as the God-man, and is fundamental to an understanding of the relational reconciliation of men with God through Jesus Christ. If God is a singular monad, He would be incapable of extended relational expression in His Son or in the "many sons" (Heb. 2:10) identified with Him. As the triune God by means of the incarnation, God could, in His self-revelation through the Son, reconcile all men to Himself (II Cor. 5:18,19).

   "The Word became flesh" (1:14). The divine became embodied in the incarnation of the God-man. The life of the Son did not begin at His birth, for "in the beginning the Word was with God, and was God" (1:4). His incarnate life was an "advent" wherein God descended and arrived in the form of man.

   Such an incarnational advent confronted the thinking of Greek religion. Greek dualism considered the abstract and spiritual as the realm of the divine and the "good," whereas the physical realm was corrupt and evil. That God should become flesh was inconceivable to the Greek. This is why the earliest philosophical perversion of the Christian gospel came in the form of Greek Gnosticism of the second and third centuries, involving the idea of docetism. Docetism is derived from the Greek word dokein, meaning "to appear." To avoid that which was inconceivable in their Greek dualistic thinking, they posited that Jesus only "appeared" to be human and enfleshed as a man. In addition, they developed Gnosticized interpretations of how a long sequence of angelic emanations or aeons would allow Jesus to partake of humanity, only if he were far enough separated from God. Paul counters such in his letter to the Colossians by writing that "the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form" (Col. 2:9). The incarnation of Jesus Christ confronted Greek religious thought at its most basic presuppositions.

   The Jewish religion had an equally difficult time accepting the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. Their conception of God as a monad deity disallowed the extension of divine expression by the incarnate Son as the Word of God. Their belief that "no man has seen God at any time" (1:18) mitigated against the acceptance of the invisible God being made visible as a man. That God should come in the form of a baby born in Bethlehem grated against their attitude of infants and children being contemptible nuisances, and their expectations of the Messiah being a masculine military conqueror who would liberate God's people from the oppressors and establish a nationalistic kingdom for the Jews. The incarnation of Jesus Christ confronted Jewish religious thought at the very core of its theology and Messianic expectations.

   John continues to explain that the all-glorious character of God was expressed visibly in the person and behavior of Jesus Christ as He "set up His tent" and "tabernacled" among men (1:14). The Shekinah glory of God was seen in the tabernacle of Jesus' embodiment. This manifestation of God's glory in man by which God is glorified is far different from the religion that "receives glory from one another" (John 5:44), and seeks to glorify God by human performance.

   That Jesus was "full of grace and truth" (1:14) and "grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ" (1:17), whereby those identified with Him might participate in "grace upon grace (1:16), is a confrontation of all religious thought and methodology. The distinctive of Christianity is that Jesus Christ is the personified truth and reality of God. "I AM the truth" (John 14:6), Jesus said, "and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32) to be all that God intends man to be. Grace is the dynamic activity of God whereby He effects all that He does in Jesus Christ. The whole of Christianity is but the activity of God's grace.

   The Jewish religion was a law-based religion. The character of God was expressed in legal demands for human performance. The Law was thus a separated entity from God Himself, which expressed "words" about God and His character. There was no ontological connection between God and the Law, nor was there any inherency of divine empowering in order to keep the demands of the Law, thereby evidencing the inadequacy of man apart from God. Men engaged in the performance of self-effort to keep the demands of the law, the performance of which could make no man righteous (Gal. 2:21; 3:21). "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Rom. 10:4). The distinctive of grace in the Christian gospel is that the activity of God is expressed in the ontological reality of the "Word," Jesus Christ, providing all divine empowering for all that God desires in man. Grace and truth must never be disassociated from Jesus Christ. Yet "Christian religion" has done so repeatedly by cheapening these concepts into epistemological propositions and explanations.

   Christians are those who have received the fulness of God in Christ (1:16). "All things belong to them in Christ" (I Cor. 3:20-23), and they are "complete in Christ" (Col. 2:10). Those who are "in Christ" have the privilege of operating in the continuity of God's ontological adequacy and empowering, "grace upon grace" (1:16).

   Though the Jewish religion repudiated the visibility of God, they were repetitively caught up in idolatrous pursuits of visibility. Jesus revealed, explained and "exegeted" God (1:18), as "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15). Jesus could say, "He who has seen Me, has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Christ's continued function as the living Lord in the Christ allows the all-glorious character of the invisible God to be visibly expressed in the behavior of man to the glory of God, the purpose for which we were created (Isa. 43:7). Such is the continuing ontological self-revelation of God in man which confronts all religious practice.

(6) Genealogies of Jesus (Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38)

   The genealogies included in the gospel-narratives of Matthew and Luke, provide the link of God's activity back through the history of man leading up to Jesus Christ. Matthew, writing to Jewish readers, traces the roots of God's activity in Jesus Christ back to Abraham, who the Jews regarded as their father (John 8:39), worshipping the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Luke, on the other hand, was writing to all men universally and traces the roots of God's activity in Jesus Christ all the way back to Adam. Mark, writing to pragmatic, action-oriented Roman Gentiles, apparently did not figure it would serve any purpose to his readers to provide the link of preceding divine activity and preparation, since his readers were only interested in the "right now" of present activity.

   Matthew and Luke's genealogies do establish a foundation of historicity which is foundational to the gospel. They do provide a link with Hebrew history and the preparatory religion of Judaism, connecting God's activity especially to David and Abraham (Matt. 1:1), the patriarch and the king of Jewish history. The primary purpose of these genealogies is not to provide precise accuracy of physical, hereditary and racial ties, which was the preoccupation of Jewish religion. Christianity confronts such physical connection, presenting instead the spiritual union that all men might have in Jesus Christ.

   It is interesting that Matthew, writing to Jewish readers, should have confronted their religious prejudices by including four women, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba, as women were not customarily included in Jewish genealogies. Besides, three of these women were guilty of sexual sin, and two of them were foreigners. Their very inclusion may be a confronting of the religious attitudes of self-righteousness and sexual discrimination, in order to reveal that the gospel of Jesus Christ is for sinners of every race.

   These genealogies have subsequently been misused by "Christian religion" in attempts to establish Jewish connections and create a Christianized Judaism. Speculative interpretations have been offered to explain the meaning of the inverted order of one genealogical list versus the other, and the inclusion or exclusion of various names. Many have misused these lists in attempts to calculate and measure time back to creation, failing to recognize that the Hebrew mind-set of generational begetting was not precise (cf. Heb. 7:9,10). There is no reason to try to justify, integrate or harmonize these genealogies. Their purpose was to provide historical linkage, not nit-picking details which religion always delights and dabbles in.

(7) Birth of John the Baptist Foretold (Luke 1:5-25)

   Zacharias, the priest, is informed by the angel Gabriel that he and his wife, Elizabeth, would have a child even though they were "advanced in years" (Luke 1:18). Skeptical of such an announcement, Zacharias was struck with muteness until the time of the child's birth.

   Gabriel indicates that this child who was to be named John (1:13), meaning the "graciousness of God," would "turn back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God" (1:16). The "sons of Israel" in the Jewish religion were separated and alienated from God in their Judaic religion. They needed to be "turned back," converted and reconciled with God, which could only happen through Jesus Christ and His redemptive and restorative work.

(8) Jesus' birth foretold to Mary (Luke 1:26-38)

   Gabriel also came to a virgin named Mary announcing that she was going to conceive and bear a son, whom she should name "Jesus," meaning "Jehovah saves." This son would be called "the Son of the Most High" (1:32), the Son of God. He would assume "the throne of His father David" (1:32), "reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end" (1:33). This announcement definitely identified this child with the expectations of the Messiah's royal descent from the line of David to reign in an everlasting kingdom. The prophet Nathan had spoken for God to David, saying, "I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever" (II Samuel 7:12,13,16). Though misconstrued by Jewish religion as a promise of nationalistic and racial perpetuity in a physical and political kingdom, such was not the intent of God in His Son, Jesus Christ, and these fallacious religious concepts would have to be confronted. The "house of Jacob" became the "house of Israel" at the "house of God," Bethel (Gen. 35:7-15). The house of Israel finds its fruition in Jesus Christ, wherein all who are identified with Jesus become the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16; Rom. 9:6), having striven with God and surrendered to God. Christians participate in the promised fulfillment of a "spiritual house" (I Peter 2:5) of God, and in the spiritual kingdom of Jesus Christ which will have no end (II Peter 1:11). The reign of Christ as Lord and King (Rev. 19:16) is the reign of the Eternal One (I Tim. 1:17), fulfilling the prophecies of an "everlasting kingdom" of God (Ps. 89:29; Isa. 9:6; Dan. 7:14).

   Mary inquired as to how she could conceive a child since she was a virgin (1:34), and Gabriel explained that, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God" (1:35). The supernatural conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary by the activity of the Holy Spirit is the only explanation of how God could again dwell in a man without participating in the same spiritual condition of all fallen men "in Adam," wherein the satanic "spirit works in the sons of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2). If Jesus had not been supernaturally conceived so as to have spiritual solidarity with God, rather than Satan, He could not have saved Himself, much less mankind. The supernatural conception is essential to His perfection of being as a man, which allowed Him to be perfect in behavior and benefit for mankind. Yet, this is usually the first tenet of Christianity that is jettisoned as "impossible" by religious thought. The angel declared, "Nothing will be impossible with God" (1:37). On the other hand, we do not want to make the doctrine which is often called "virgin birth" such a theological focal-point, that we detract from the greater revelation of the incarnation.

(9) Mary Visits Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-45)

   Young Mary went to visit her older relative, Elizabeth, sharing with her what the angel, Gabriel, had announced. Elizabeth's response of, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb" (1:42), has been amplified into undue worship of Mary in the religion of Roman Catholicism. Mary is worthy of honor only because of the importance of the One she bore, who alone, as God, is worthy of our worship. Genuine Christianity must confront all forms of mariolatry, which mistakenly identifies her as "the mother of God" (cf. 1:43).

(10) The Magnificat of Mary (Luke 1:46-56)

   Mary extols God for His activity in the past and in her. Part of her expression of the magnificence of God seems to prophetically indicate what God was going to accomplish in Jesus Christ. She said, "He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones. And has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things: And sent away the rich empty-handed" (1:51-53). These statements seem to portend the manner in which Christianity would upset the apple-cart of traditional religious thinking. In the activity of Jesus Christ the exalted are humbled and the humbled exalted; the rich are poor and hungry, and the poor are rich and filled. God's ways are not our ways (Isa. 55:8,9), nor are His ways the ways of religion.

   Despite her traditional religious perspective concerning God's help for Israel, Mary accurately indicates that God's mercy is displayed toward "Abraham and his seed forever" (Gen. 17:7; Micah 7:20), perhaps unknowingly foretelling the spiritual and eternal fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham in the Christian kingdom.

(11) Birth of John and Zacharias' Prophecy (Luke 1:57-80)

   When the baby was born to Elizabeth, and Zacharias confirmed that his name should be John, despite the fact that there was no one in the family with that name, the voice of Zacharias was restored. His subsequent prophecy sees ahead to the work of Jesus Christ, for whom his son, John, would serve as a forerunner.

   Zacharias rejoices that "God will visit and accomplish redemption for His people" (1:68) in Jesus Christ. The divine "visit" of God in the incarnation, and the redemptive price paid for sin in death by crucifixion, are far more than an amnesty which forgets and pardons by amnesia. Zacharias saw the distinctiveness of the Christian gospel. Jesus would be "the horn of salvation in the house of David" (1:69), the instrument of strength in God's saving activity in effecting the promised Davidic kingdom of Christ's rule. Such salvation is not just deliverance from political and national enemies, as was the expectation of Jewish religion, but being made safe from spiritual enemies in the diabolic forces of evil, and being made safe from dysfunctional humanity by their activity in man.

   "God will remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to Abraham our father" (1:72,73), declares Zacharias. Indeed, the promises of God to Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3; 15:1-5; 17:1-8; 22:17,18) are fulfilled in the redemptive and saving activity of Jesus Christ. The promises of God are all affirmed in Jesus Christ (II Cor. 1:20). Predicated upon such we can "serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days" (1:74,75). Here again Christianity confronts all religion, which can only offer a pseudo-righteousness and holiness based on moralistic performance and behavior modification, by offering holiness and righteousness, both in spiritual condition and behavioral expression, by the presence and activity of Jesus, "the Holy and Righteous One" (Acts 3:14).

   Zacharias continues to prophesy that "the Sunrise from on high shall visit us" (1:78), as has been fulfilled in the Son, Jesus Christ, in His incarnational "visit," which fulfills the prophecy of "the sun of righteousness rising with healing in its wings" (Mal. 4:2), being "the morning star arising in our hearts" (II Peter 1:19). He will "shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death" (1:79), says Zacharias, fulfilled in the fact that Jesus is "the light of the world" (John 8:12), "shining in the darkness" (John 1:5), and delivering men from the "fear of death" (Heb. 2:15). As the "Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6), Jesus is indeed the "way of peace" (1:79), bringing peace with God and peace among men.

(12) Announcement to Joseph (Matthew 1:18-25)

   Joseph also receives an explanation from an angelic visitor that the child Mary was carrying "had been conceived in her by the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 1:20), so he need not put her away discreetly. Religion, with its selective judgmentalism, has sever criticism for such apparent sexual impropriety as pregnancy prior to marriage. No proper religion would want to commence on such a basis; only the reality of what God would do in Jesus Christ.

   The angel also tells Joseph that the son shall be named "Jesus," going on to explain that "it is He who will save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21), for such is the meaning of the name Jesus, "Jehovah saves." Even after relativizing sin as religion often does, it cannot relieve man from the punitive consequences of their sins, nor from the power of sinful indulgence (Col. 2:23). Only Jesus Christ can save people from their sins.

   Matthew notes that the supernatural conception of the God-man in the womb of Mary was a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy that "a virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel" (Isa. 7:14). Immanuel means "God with us" or "God in one," and though it is not used as a proper name of Jesus, it is certainly a titular expression of His being and ministry.

(13) The Birth of Jesus (Luke 2:1-7)

   Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem because Caesar Augustus had decreed that a census be taken of all persons in the Roman Empire. While in Bethlehem the full-term of Mary's pregnancy was complete, and "she gave birth to her first-born son" (2:7). That Luke should call Jesus her "first-born son," may be an indication that she later bore other children, contrary to the Roman view of the perpetual virginity of Mary. Mary wrapped the baby in cloths and laid Him in a feeding-trough in the stable where they were camping. Presentation is everything for religion, and it was particularly difficult for those in the Jewish religion to believe that their King, the Messiah, the Son of God, should be born as a despised baby in a wooden manger stall. Once again we note that the activity of Jesus Christ elevates the lowly and humble, and rejects the proud and mighty.

   The "Christian religion" that developed as a perversion of the reality of God in Jesus Christ, has taken the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke and misled society into thinking that God wants to make a "big deal" out of the "birthday of Jesus." The birth narratives have become sentimental favorites full of idyllic charm. The production and re-enactment of nativity scenes has become a big business, complete with lawsuits to allow such in public places. The inclusion of the birth narratives in the gospel-records serves to establish historicity, but historicity is not the issue of prime importance in the birth of Jesus. It must be made clear that God became man in the birth of Jesus Christ, which was to be prototypical of the birth of God's life in all Christians. As the poet John Scheffler wrote, "Though Christ a thousand times, in Bethlehem be born; If He's not born in you, your soul is still forlorn."

   It cannot be ascertained that the birth of Jesus was ever celebrated by Christians in the earliest centuries of Christian history. The day, the month, and the year of Jesus' birth cannot be fixed with any certainty. Only centuries later did religion make a "big deal" out of celebrating the birth of Jesus, making it into a Holy day selected to correspond with the Roman feast of Saturnalia, and later advocating pilgrimmages to Bethlehem. Such times and places are important to religious operation, but not to the reality of Christianity.

(14) The Angels and Shepherds Praise Jesus (Luke 2:8-20)

   Angels advised some local shepherds of the phenomenon of the birth of "Christ the Lord" (2:11). The first to hear of the birth of Jesus were shepherds, who were regarded as the "low-life" of agricultural workers. This is pertinent for it illustrates that Jesus came for the lowly, the "have-nots," the needy, and those who could recognize their inadequacy.

   Understandably frightened by the presence of the angels, an angel says to the shepherds, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all people" (2:10). To "bring good news" is to evangelize, so the shepherds were the first to be evangelized in order to see Jesus Christ. The good news is of "a great joy which shall be for all people." Such joy (chara) is not an emotional high, but is realized only in the participation of the grace (charis) of God in Jesus Christ, available universally to all men regardless of race, age, sex, nationality, or any other distinction.

   In "the city of David" (2:11), the very city where David had been born, is now born the Messiah of Davidic descent, "Christ the Lord." "Christ" is not a mantle of responsibility bestowed upon Jesus, nor a spark of divinity that exists within every man. "Christ" becomes identified as the proper name of Jesus, for it explains His being and function as the divine Messiah, the "annointed One" who intercedes in man's situation in order to restore God's reign and function. Later, by His resurrection, the functionality of Jesus as "Lord and Christ" becomes fully operative (Acts 2:36; Rom. 1:4). Indeed, He is the "Savior" (2:11), who makes us safe from dysfunctional humanity when we allow Him to function dynamically as "Savior" in our lives, and not because He dispenses a commodity called "salvation" as religion so often projects.

(15) Circumcision of Jesus (Luke 2:21)

   Jesus was circumcised in accord with the Jewish old covenant regulations for all young boys (Gen. 17:12; Lev. 12:3). "Born under the law" (Gal. 4:3), as Paul notes, there was an important historical connection with the old covenant activity of God which prefigured what God was going to do in His Son, Jesus, the "Jehovah-Savior."

(16) Jesus Presented at the Temple (Luke 2:22-38)

   In accordance with the old covenant Law, Jesus' family presented Him at the temple in Jerusalem and brought an animal sacrifice. The usual offering was a lamb and a dove (Lev. 12:8), but Joseph and Mary brought two doves or pigeons, which may indicate a poverty of material resources.

   A devout old man named Simeon was in Jerusalem, and he had been promised by God that he would see "the Lord's Christ" (2:26), the Messiah of God, before he died. When he saw the baby Jesus, he took Him in his arms and exclaimed to God, "My eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared in the presence of all people, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel" (2:30-32). Christ is salvation, and Simeon had seen with spiritual foresight the salvation and restoration of mankind in Jesus Christ. The universality of such salvation for "all people" has always confronted the exclusivism of religion, but God had prophesied that the Messiah would be "a light to the Gentiles" (Isa. 42:6; 49:6), not limited by nationality, race, sex, economic status, hereditary privilege, etc.

   Simeon told Mary that her son was "appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed" (2:34). Jesus was a stone of stumbling for many in Israel (Rom. 9:33; 11:9; I Peter 2:8), and they "fell" over the manner in which God presented His Messiah and the necessity of receiving Him by faith alone. Others of Jewish heritage, primarily the humble and the poor, found resurrection in Jesus Christ. Overall the Jewish religion rejected Jesus (John 1:11; Luke 11:29-32) as "a sign to be opposed." Religion in general opposes the activity of God in Jesus Christ, for the grace of God in Jesus is antithetical to all religion.

(17) The Visit of the Wise Men (Matt. 2:1-12)

   Matthew records the visit of wise men from the East, arriving probably a considerable time after Jesus' birth. The number of these men and their country of origin is not mentioned. They were probably Gentile priests, men wise in the study of the stars as philosopher-astrologers. There is no mention of their being kings. The inclusion of this scenario in Matthew's gospel again serves as a confrontation of the exclusivistic religion of Judaism, evidencing God's universal intent for all men to worship Him through Jesus Christ.

   The Jewish priests and scribes who Herod consulted were quite aware that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem in fulfillment of the prophecy of Micah 5:2. Bethlehem was the birthplace of David, and the name meant "house of bread," indicating the location of a granary. Jesus later claimed to be "the Bread of Life" (John 6:35,48). Micah had predicted that "out of Bethlehem would come a ruler, who would shepherd God's people, Israel" (Micah 5:2). Jesus is that "good shepherd" (John 10:11,14) who rules over the "people of God" (I Peter 2:10), the new Israel (Gal. 6:16), the Christian community.

(18) The Flight to Egypt (Matt. 2:13-18)

   An angel advised Joseph to take his young son into exile in Egypt. Matthew explains that this was in fulfillment of the prophecy of God through Hosea, saying, "Out of Egypt did I call My Son" (Hosea 11:1). The slaughter of Jewish children in Judea under the age of two years old by Herod was also a fulfillment of prophecy from Jeremiah. "Rachel," representing all Jewish women, "was weeping for her children, and she refused to be comforted, because they were no more" (Jere. 31:15), just as the Judean Jewish women were weeping for their slaughtered children. The hope and consolation for such loss is recorded in the same chapter of Jeremiah, in the establishment of a new covenant in Jesus Christ (Jere. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:8-12; 10:16).

(19) Joseph and Mary Return to Nazareth with Jesus (Matt. 2:19-23; Luke 2:39)

   While in Egypt Joseph was advised by an angel that Herod had died, and that he should return to Israel with his wife and child. Hearing that Herod's son, Archelaus was ruling in Judea where Bethlehem was located, he determined to go to Nazareth in Galilee. Matthew indicates that this was a prophetic fulfillment that "He shall be called a Nazarene" (2:23). There is no direct statement of such a prophecy in the Old Testament, so we do not know what he was referring to.

   Jesus was often referred to contemptuously and derisively as "the Nazarene" (Mk. 10:47; 14:67; John 19:19), and the early Christians were identified as "the sect of the Nazarenes" (Acts 24:5). "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" was a common contemptuous question voiced by Nathaniel (John 1:46). The Pharisees pointed out that no prophet was expected to arise "out of Galilee" (John 7:52), seeking to discredit His Messiahship. In general, the Galileans were looked-down upon as amhares, "people of the land," commoners. Nazareth was an obscure "no-name" place of lowliness and simplicity, not known for producing prophets, leaders and thinkers. It was a community of tradesmen, blue-collar workers. Jesus grew up as a carpenter's son, and did not have access to an elite scribal education tutored by the people of renown which mean so much to religion. Religion is always concerned about where a person comes from, where he studied, who he studied under, and the degrees he has achieved. Jesus lives out the reality that God takes the ordinary, and illustrates that the issue is what God does in the man, not what man does for God. Jesus confronted the prevailing religion even by the location of His upbringing and the manner by which he was reared as a boy.

(20) Jesus grows up in Nazareth (Luke 2:40,51,52)

   Jesus grew up in Nazareth, raised like all the other little Jewish boys, educated in the Torah. God's enabling grace empowered His behavior in order that He might be an obedient young man without sin.

(21) Jesus visits Jerusalem at Age Twelve (Luke 2:41-50)

   As was the custom, Jesus was taken by His parents to Jerusalem at age twelve for the Feast of the Passover. When they departed they did not realize that he was not in their caravan, so once this was discovered they returned to Jerusalem looking for their son. They found Him in the "Jerusalem Theological Academy" conversing with the theological doctors who were "amazed at His understanding and His answers" (2:47). Such is indicative of Jesus confounding the religious academia, for they are without spiritual understanding. "The natural man cannot understand spiritual things" (I Cor. 2:14). The wisdom of the natural man is "demonic" (James 3:15), and such is the wisdom of religion.

1      Craddock, Fred, B., The Gospels in "Interpreting Biblical Texts" series. Nashville: Abingdon. 1981. Pg. 133.