A Child Is Born

We are given little information about Jesus' early life. Mark, the earliest account, starts in briskly with the mission of John the Baptizer, and within nine verses, Jesus, as a fullgrown man, has appeared upon the scene. John, the latest account, has a very important (and difficult) "prologue" on the significance of Jesus' birth, but of the birth itself and the early life of Jesus he too says nothing. In Luke and Matthew, on the other hand, we have beautiful stories about the birth of Jesus. What do these narratives tell us about the significance of Jesus? We learn a great deal, for example, about the significance of Jesus from the story in Luke that when God chose to make Jesus' birth known to men, he did not proclaim it in the palaces of the Palestinian rulers or to the mayors of the big cities. Rather, the news was first told to a group of shepherds, people of quite insignificant social standing. The birth of Jesus shows God's concern with the lowliest. Likewise, the story of the Wise Men in Matthew shows that the message was not just for poor and humble folk, but for all men everywhere, not only in Palestine, but in the far corners of the earth, rich as well as poor, wise as well as simple, foreign as well as native. And when Luke tells us that Jesus was born in a stable, we are reminded that he did not come as a high and mighty prince, but as one who did not have a place to lay his head. The one for whom there was "no room in the inn" will be the one who is "despised and rejected of men."

It is important not to become too sentimental about the birth narratives. It is easy to gush over "the baby Jesus" and what a sweet picture the stable scene makes on a Christmas card with "cute little angels" flying about overhead. We must not forget that the baby whom everyone helps to adore will grow up to be the man everyone helps to crucify. The birth is not the beginning of a human "success story"; it is the beginning of a story in which the hero will be rejected as the villain, and good religious people will be only too glad to have him put to death.