Christmas Potpourri

By Dr. Don Bierle, FaithSearch President

The celebration of Christmas with family and friends usually includes a feast–a veritable potpourri of eatables.

I couldn’t decide on only one thing to serve up for this Christmas feature, so decided on a potpourri of things suitable for this special season. 

While understandable alone, this article  is more complete when coordinated with our Christmas letter. So let’s dive right in.

Check Out Your Christmas IQ

• Q: Which Gospel account(s) include the event of Jesus’ birth?
  A: Only two, Matthew and Luke (Matthew 1-2; Luke 2)

• Q: What did the innkeeper tell Mary and Joseph? (Luke 2:7)
  A: We don’t know, the Gospels are silent about any conversation with an innkeeper. (Luke 2:7)

• Q: What was the “manger” where the baby Jesus was placed?
  A: While “manger” is “picturesque,” the literal translation of the word would be a “feeding trough,” common in birthing caves used by first-century shepherds (Luke 2:7).

• Q: How many angels actually spoke to the shepherds?
  A: There was only one angel to deliver the Good News. Multitudes of angels then joined the one messenger to praise God (Luke 2:9-14).

• Q: What types of animals were present at Jesus’ birth?
  A: Contrary to modern depictions of the manger scene, no animals are mentioned (Luke 2:4-14).

• Q: How many magi came to see Jesus?
  A: Contemporary depictions usually have three, perhaps based on the three gifts described. The actual number, however, is not mentioned, only that there was more than one (Matthew 2:1-12).

“Lowly” Shepherds

“Ordinary” shepherds in the first century were under the ban of the Rabbis, despised as “sinners,” deprived of all civil rights, and could not serve as witnesses in a court of law. These “ordinary shepherds” would never be allowed to deliver ritually clean lambs for Temple sacrifice. 

The Mishnah (the oral law of Judaism) says that the hundreds of lambs needed for sacrifice in the Temple were secured from their own flocks, which were pastured between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. That’s where the angel announced the Good News at the “watchtower of the flock,” just north of Bethlehem (cf. Genesis 35:21; Micah 4:8). 

Accordingly, the shepherds who watched over these Temple flocks were not “ordinary shepherds,” but rather shepherd “priests.” They made certain that lambs delivered to the Temple were without blemish and ritually clean (kosher). They also would be familiar with Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming Messiah. 

Birthing Caves, Swaddling Cloths, and Feeding Troughs

The historical narrative in Luke’s Gospel records that “…she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in strips of cloth and placed him in a manger…” (2:7). According to the Mishnah, the legs of the first-born male lambs were immediately wrapped in strips of cloth (swaddling) to protect them from thrashing about and causing injury (which would disqualify them from being used for a sin offering). After this “swathing” they were placed in the small and readily available feeding troughs in the cave (translated “manger”).

That’s how the shepherds knew where Jesus was that night. The angel gave them a sign: they would “find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a feeding trough” (Luke 2:12). He must be in the birthing cave! Remembering their Old Testament training, they would also recall the prophecy of Isaiah, “Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign…a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Emmanuel” (Isaiah 7:14; see Matthew 1:23). 

Passover Lambs

When God’s prophet, John the Baptist, introduced Jesus as He began His ministry, it was with the words, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Indeed, Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the birthing place of sacrificial lambs. There was a God-ordained connection between Bethlehem and the Temple in Jerusalem, between the Advent and the Passion of the Christ! The apostle Peter said it well, “…knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold… but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

If you want to experience more new light on the miracle of Christmas, go to my video “Angels, Shepherds and Lambs” at faithsearchlearning.org (everything on the site is free). The discoveries I share there will enrich your celebration of Christmas this year.

Witnessing Shepherds

The Bible tells us that the shepherds “spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child” (Luke 2:17). Perhaps that is how Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:25-38) were alerted to Jesus’ uniqueness for salvation and the redemption of Israel. The shepherds’ testimony must have been unusually credible to stimulate wonderment for “all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them” (v. 18).

Indeed! May we all marvel this holiday season at the AWE and the MIRACLE of Jesus the Lamb of God, the Christ in Christmas.