The scriptures referred to are Luke 2:1-20.
People sometimes scoff at the infancy narratives in the gospels. There are only 2 but they are different, which some take as contradictory. They can be reconciled without great effort. Matthew concentrates on what happened before Jesus' birth and what happened as many as 2 years after. Luke focuses on what happens at the actual time of the birth and a week later. And as any cop will tell, when 2 or more people have absolute agreement on all the details, it means they cooked the story up. In real life, different people notice different details and tell the story a bit differently. Ask a married couple about their wedding and honeymoon. Both were there but one will always add something the other doesn't remember or even dispute some details their spouse mentions. The fact that the church didn't revise the 4 gospels to be exactly alike shows they took them all to be authentic if separate accounts.
Some say the infancy narratives are too mythological to be real. Seriously? The goddess Athena sprang fully formed from Zeus' head. Hercules strangled 2 snakes in his cradle. In modern mythology Superman was super strong and invulnerable from the beginning.
To be sure, there are apocryphal gospels that give us some truly amazing stories of Jesus as Superbaby. In the Gospel of James, touching baby Jesus' head heals the withered hand of the midwife who was punished for doubting Mary's virginity. In the Syriac Infancy Gospel Jesus' diaper heals people. In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas the author really lets his imagination go to town. Jesus makes birds out of clay, breathes life into them and they fly. He is also a true enfant terrible, striking dead a kid who accidentally bumped into him and then striking the boy's parents blind when they complain to Mary and Joseph. But that's okay. He resurrects the kid.
I've said it before: the apocryphal gospels read like bad fan fiction. No wonder the church rejected them.
In the canonical gospels Jesus does nothing other than be born. He is not born from Mary's head but normally. He doesn't strangle anything but presumably just yawns, cries and suckles. He isn't invulnerable; he gets circumcised on the eighth day. And the people around him rejoice, as anyone does when hearing of a baby being born. It's just that some of those rejoicing are angels.
Mary gives birth in less than ideal circumstances but that happens to a lot of people. In her day there were no hospitals or ambulances. You gave birth at home, as many in the world still do. As did Mary, actually. Due to a bad translation, people think Luke said there was no room at the “inn.” The word is better rendered “guest room.” As Kenneth Bailey points out in his book Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, if Joseph was from Bethlehem and had property there he had to register for the tax census, he probably had relatives there as well. They wouldn't let him and his wife give birth in a stable. With the guest room already occupied, Mary would have delivered in the main family room. It would have been a few steps up from where families kept their animals at night. The manger or feeding trough would be on the edge of the floor of the main room, where the animals on the lower level could get it without getting into the family's living area. Less than ideal, as I said, but not, I'll wager, without precedent then or even today.
What is really remarkable about Jesus' birth is how low-key it is. God's son is not born in a palace or mansion. There are no attendants there to wait on the mother as you would expect at the birth of a king. There is no celebratory feast. The guests are not dignitaries and diplomats, just family and some shepherd boys. The shepherds are the only ones who saw angels, by the way. And artists have added halos to the holy family; they are not there in scripture.
If you dropped in to visit, you would see a very ordinary young family: a sleeping baby, a besotted new father and a very tired and sore new mother. Thus does God enter his own creation. Through birth, something commonplace and at the same time miraculous.
We want Hollywood special effects, though. We want things to glow in a supernatural way when something miraculous happens. But that's not what we get. When Jesus heals someone he just touches them. Or spits in the dirt and covers the person's eyes with mud. Even when raising Lazarus, Jesus just speaks. There are no fireworks.
And he refuses to do flashier stuff when people ask it of him. Even when he was under arrest and could have saved himself by wowing Herod Antipas, he wouldn't do it.
If you went to the crucifixion, you would simply see 3 men dying slowly, a sadly familiar occurrence then. The clouds covered the sun and there was an earthquake. Not that unusual for a country with a fault line running through it.
The angels do return at his resurrection. But they basically do what they did the first time he took on life: tell some witnesses what is going on. After all, the Greek and Hebrew words for angel both mean “messenger.” They are there to underline the significance of the event, not do magic tricks.
But sure enough, people are more interested in Jesus' miracles than his words. Because you can just observe miracles. You can accept them or reject them. But they don't demand of you what Jesus' words do.
Angels singing in the sky? Beautiful. It makes a lovely Hallmark special.
But...
“Turn the other cheek.” Hmm.
“Give to all who ask of you.” Ooo; I'm not sure about that.
“Forgive others.” Nice thought, but what about...?
“Love your enemy.” That's going a bit far.
“Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” Do I have to?
As Ben Franklin said, “How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep holidays than commandments.”
You know, Jesus didn't get any gifts on his birthday. The wise men came as much as 2 years later. So you know what would be a great gift for him? For us to actually listen to his words and put them into practice. Ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things for God by just doing what he says we should. And if you do, you will see your life transformed as well as the lives of those you touch.
Give Jesus the gift of your life and he will give you his life: abundant, eternal, ever new.
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