Advent study on the Nativity in the Gospels

The second in a Three-Part series in which Bishop Julian dives into the gospel accounts of Jesus' birth

In part two of the study, we looked at the accounts of St. Luke, the physician and missionary companion of St. Paul as well as an evidence-based historian tight on details.

Whereas St. Matthew, with a primarily Jewish audience in mind, writes to underscore the fact that Jesus fulfills Old Testament prophecy, St. Luke as the only non-Jewish gospel writer has the whole world in view, and is concerned to show how Jesus overcomes barriers, between Gentile and Jew, men and women, rich and poor.

The phrase “praising God” appears in Luke’s Gospel more often than rest of the New Testament put together. This praise wells up from the knowledge that the glory and mercy of God are at work behind the veil of social and spiritual darkness. So, despite the violence and corruption of Herod and the oppression of Rome, as John the Baptist’s tongue-loosened father Zechariah declares, the “dayspring from on high hath visited us” (Luke 1:78, KJV). Four hundred years of silence from heaven are to be broken, and the light of life and rescue is to be given to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of a peace that encompasses our past, present, and future.

In noting how the shepherds, after hearing about the Savior’s birth from the angels, go unbidden and with haste to see the manger for themselves, Bishop Julian shared Luther’s famous remark that the Bible is the “cradle of Christ”—the place where we, too, can go to encounter Christ in our midst. The encounter with the child Savior naturally prompts the shepherds to immediately start spreading the good news and praising and adoring God.

We finally meditated on the Benedictus, Simeon’s prophecy upon meeting the newborn Messiah in the Temple in Jerusalem. Having waited with hopeful expectation for many years, trusting in the promise made to him by the Holy Spirit, Simeon immediately recognizes the Child as the One who fulfills the salvation promised in the Old Testament, which is on offer to all. Because of Simeon’s trust in this promise, the “terrors of grave have lost all power for him” (Ryle). But Simeon also knows that, while this salvation is offered to all, it will not be received by all: One outcome of the Messiah’s advent will be both the rising and falling of people, and the Messiah will be a sign that will be spoken against—starting with the massacre of the Holy Innocents.

So, despite Israel’s expectations of what the Messiah is and does, the true Messiah is the One who was born to die, thirty years later on the cross, where the sword of sorrow will pierce the Blessed Virgin’s heart as she watches her Son give up his life for the salvation of the world.