Luke 2:1 – 7 The Birth of Jesus

Luke 2:1 – 7 The Birth of Jesus

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

When I first looked at this passage I mistakenly read the heading as the birth of Christ, not the Birth of Jesus. What is the difference? Christ of course is the word for Messiah. Jesus is our Lord’s given name, the name he will be called by his parents, his friends. This scripture describes what appears to be ordinary people – citizens, a married couple, parents in waiting, and then parents in reality – reacting to an ordinary human experience, the birth of a child. Today I want to let them remain as such, regular folks like me and my family, welcoming a new member. Exhausted, yet filled with awe and gratitude and hope for their child and for the world.