Because this Advent we are following the story leading up to the birth of Jesus, The Wednesday Night Bible Study looked at the two stories used to compile that story. Yes two stories of the first Christmas. Just as Genesis offers two distinct stories of Creation, the Gospels give us two distinct stories of the first Christmas.
The two stories come from Matthew and Luke. Mark and John do not have Jesus birth stories.
Because we most often hear the story as one compiled story of Christmas with specifics from one story winning out over the other, or just stuffing it all together into one story, we rarely realize the differences in the stories.
Think of how you would tell the story of Christmas to friends or children, or how it is told during the yearly Christmas pageant or cantata. Now read the two Christmas stories found in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2 and see what you have missed, or what parts of the stories haven’t seemed to make it into the mainstream storyline.
Here are some things you might notice:
Matthew tells a much shorter story, without the genealogy of Jesus the story is 31 verses long. Luke’s story is 132 verses long. Since most of us hear the whole Christmas story as a pageant, what would a Matthew only, or Luke only, Christmas pageant look like?
If we started with Matthew, the first scene would be the angel appearing to Joseph. Mary is already pregnant and Joseph is trying to figure out the best way to get out of the planned marriage. Notice that Joseph is the main character, Mary doesn’t speak and we are not told of any revelation that she receives from an angel (nor will we for the whole Matthew story).
There is no story of the birth in Matthew – just these words “He had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.” No swaddling clothes, no stable, no manger, no angels singing to shepherds…all of this is in Luke.
The most familiar parts of the Christmas story come from Luke: the decree that all be registered, the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, Jesus born in a manger, shepherds in the fields, angles singing.
If we started with Luke much of the pageant (43 verses) would be about Elizabeth, Zechariah and the birth of John the Baptist (there is no mention of this family in Matthew’s story). and then the birth of Jesus.
Women play a prominent role in Luke’s story. Mary is the central character for much of the Luke story and Joseph is almost invisible, almost the complete opposite of the Matthew story. Luke also adds another female character, Anna.
Matthew’s story is dark. After the quick reference to the birth we quickly move to the story of the the Magi and Herod, where after they bring gifts but are told not to go back to Herod. Joseph is told in a dream to leave quickly and move to Egypt before moving to Nazareth. Notice here, Matthew 2:19-23, that Joseph is planning on moving back home to Bethlehem, but only decides to move to Nazareth after hearing that Herod’s son is ruling in Bethlehem. So there is not travel story before the birth in Matthew, because the family was already living in Bethlehem.
Where Matthew’s story is dark, Luke’s is like an episode of Glee. Luke’s story contains 3 hymns (the Benedictus, the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis). And that’s not all, the angles sing their own little ditty to the sheperds in the field: “Glory to God in the highest and peace among those whom God favors!”
Lastly, Luke’s story keeps going. We have stories of Jesus circumcision when Jesus was 8 days old, and the only story of Jesus as a youth.
Next mid-week blog we will look more into these two unique stories and how we might understand them.
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