Verses 1-52
Chapter 2
2:1-7 In these days a
decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census should be taken of
all the world. The census first took place when Quirinius was governor
of Syria; and everyone went to enroll himself, each man to his own town.
So Joseph went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judaea,
to David's town, which is called Bethlehem, because he belonged to the
house and the line of David, to enrol himself with Mary who was
betrothed to him and she was with child. When they arrived there her
time to bear the child was completed; and she bore her first-born son
and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because
there was no room for them in the place where they had meant to lodge.
In the Roman Empire periodical censuses were taken with the
double object of assessing taxation and of discovering those who were
liable for compulsory military service. The Jews were exempt from
military service, and, therefore, in Palestine a census would be
predominantly for taxation purposes. Regarding these censuses, we have
definite information as to what happened in Egypt; and almost certainly
what happened in Egypt happened in Syria, too, and Judaea was part of
the province of Syria. The information we have comes from actual census
documents written on papyrus and then discovered in the dust-heaps of
Egyptian towns and villages and in the sands of the desert.
Such censuses were taken every fourteen years. And from A.D. 20
until about A.D. 270 we possess actual documents from every census
taken. If the fourteen-year cycle held good in Syria this census must
have been in 8 B.C. and that was the year in which Jesus was born. It
may be that Luke has made one slight mistake. Quirinius did not actually
become governor of Syria until A.D. 6; but he held an official post
previously in those regions from 10 B.C. until 7 B.C. and it was during
that first period that this census must have been taken.
Critics used to question the fact that every man had to go to
his own city to be enrolled; but here is an actual government edict from
Egypt:
"Gaius Vibius Maximus, Prefect of Egypt orders: 'Seeing that the
time has come for the house-to-house census, it is necessary to
compel all those who for any cause whatsoever are residing
outside their districts to return to their own homes, that they
may both carry out the regular order of the census, and may also
diligently attend to the cultivation of their allotments.'"
If that was the case in Egypt, it may well be that in Judaea,
where the old tribal ancestries still held good, men had to go to the
headquarters of their tribe. Here is an instance where further knowledge
has shown the accuracy of the New Testament.
The journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was 80 miles. The
accommodation for travellers was most primitive. The eastern khan was
like a series of stalls opening off a common courtyard. Travellers
brought their own food; all that the innkeeper provided was fodder for
the animals and a fire to cook. The town was crowded and there was no
room for Joseph and Mary. So it was in the common courtyard that Mary's
child was born. Swaddling clothes consisted of a square of cloth with a
long bandage-like strip coming diagonally off from one corner. The child
was first wrapped in the square of cloth and then the long strip was
wound round and round about him. The word translated "manger" means a
place where animals feed; and therefore it can be either the stable or
the manger which is meant.
That there was no room in the inn was symbolic of what was to
happen to Jesus. The only place where there was room for him was on a
cross. He sought an entry to the over-crowded hearts of men; he could
not find it; and still his search--and his rejection--go on.
2:8-20 In this country
there were shepherds who were in the fields, keeping watch over their
flock by night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of
the Lord shone round about them and they were much afraid. The angel
said to them. "Do not be afraid; for--look you--I am bringing you good
news of great joy, which will be to every people, for today a Saviour
has been born for you, in David's town, who is Christ the Lord. You will
recognize him by this sign. You will find the babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes and laid in a manger." And suddenly with the angel there was a
crowd of heaven's host, praising God and saying, "In the highest heights
glory to God; and on earth peace to the men whose welfare he ever
seeks." When the angels had left them and gone away to heaven, the
shepherds said to each other, "Come! Let us go across, to Bethlehem and
let us see this thing which has happened which the Lord has made known
to us." So they hurried on and they discovered Mary and Joseph, and the
babe lying in a manger. When they had seen him they told everyone about
the word which had been spoken to them about this child; and all who
heard were amazed at what was told them by the shepherds. But Mary
stored up these things in her memory and in her heart kept wondering
what they meant. So the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God
for all that they had seen just as it had been told to them.
It is a wonderful thing that the story should tell that the
first announcement of God came to some shepherds. Shepherds were
despised by the orthodox good people of the day. They were quite unable
to keep the details of the ceremonial law; they could not observe all
the meticulous hand-washings and rules and regulations. Their flocks
made far too constant demands on them; and so the orthodox looked down
on them. It was to simple men of the fields that God's message first
came.
But these were in all likelihood very special shepherds. We have
already seen how in the Temple, morning and evening, an unblemished
lamb was offered as a sacrifice to God. To see that the supply of
perfect offerings was always available the Temple authorities had their
own private sheep flocks; and we know that these flocks were pastured
near Bethlehem. It is most likely that these shepherds were in charge of
the flocks from which the Temple offerings were chosen. It is a lovely
thought that the shepherds who looked after the Temple lambs were the
first to see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
We have already seen that when a boy was born, the local
musicians congregated at the house to greet him with simple music. Jesus
was born in a stable in Bethlehem and therefore that ceremony could not
be carried out. It is a lovely thought that the minstrelsy of heaven
took the place of the minstrelsy of earth, and angels sang the songs for
Jesus that the earthly singers could not sing.
All through these readings we must have been thinking of the
rough simplicity of the birth of the Son of God. We might have expected
that, if he had to be born into this world at all, it would be in a
palace or a mansion. There was a European monarch who worried his court
by often disappearing and walking incognito amongst his people. When he
was asked not to do so for security's sake, he answered, "I cannot rule
my people unless I know how they live." It is the great thought of the
Christian faith that we have a God who knows the life we live because he
too lived it and claimed no special advantage over common men.
2:21-24 When the eight
days necessarily prior to circumcision had elapsed, he was called by
the name of Jesus, the name by which he had been called by the angel
before he had been conceived in the womb. When the time which, according
to the law of Moses, must precede the ceremony of purification had
elapsed, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (in
accordance with the regulation in the Lord's law, "Every male that
opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord") and to make the
sacrifice which the regulation in the Lord's law lays down, that is, a
pair of doves or two young pigeons.
In this passage we see Jesus undergoing three ancient ceremonies which every Jewish boy had to undergo.
(i) Circumcision. Every Jewish boy was circumcised on the eighth
day after his birth. So sacred was that ceremony that it could be
carried out even on a Sabbath when the law forbade almost every other
act which was not absolutely essential; and on that day a boy received
his name.
(ii) The Redemption of the First-born. According to the law (Exodus 13:2)
every firstborn male. both of human beings and of cattle, was sacred to
God. That law may have been a recognition of the gracious power of God
in giving human life, or it may even have been a relic of the day when
children were sacrificed Lo the gods. Clearly if it had been carried out
literally life would have been disrupted. There was therefore a
ceremony called the Redemption of the Firstborn (Numbers 18:16).
It is laid down that for the sum of five shekels--approximately 75
pence--parents could, as it were, buy back their son from God. The sum
had to be paid to the priests. It could not be paid sooner than
thirty-one days after the birth of the child and it might not be long
delayed after that.
(iii) The Purification after Childbirth. When a woman had borne a
child, if it was a boy, she was unclean for forty days, if it was a
girl, for eighty days. She could go about her household and her daily
business but she could not enter the Temple or share in any religious
ceremony (Leviticus 12:1-8
). At the end of that time she had to bring to the Temple a lamb for a
burnt offering and a young pigeon for a sin offering. That was a
somewhat expensive sacrifice, and so the law laid it down (Leviticus 12:8)
that if she could not afford the lamb she might bring another pigeon.
The offering of the two pigeons instead of the lamb and the pigeon was
technically called The Offering of the Poor. It was the offering of the
poor which Mary brought. Again we see that it was into an ordinary home
that Jesus was born, a home where there were no luxuries, a home where
every penny had to be looked at twice, a home where the members of the
family knew all about the difficulties of making a living and the
haunting insecurity of life. When life is worrying for us we must
remember that Jesus knew what the difficulties of making ends meet can
be.
These three ceremonies are strange old ceremonies; but all three
have at the back of them the conviction that a child is a gift of God.
The Stoics used to say that a child was not given to a parent but only
lent. Of all God's gifts there is none for which we shall be so
answerable as the gift of a child.
2:25-35 Now--look
you--there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon. This man was good and
pious. He was waiting for the comforting of Israel and the Holy Spirit
was upon him. He had received a message from the Holy Spirit that he
would not see death until he had seen the Lord's Anointed One. So he
came in the Spirit to the Temple precincts. When his parents brought in
the child Jesus, to do regarding him the customary ceremonies laid down
by the law, he took him into his arms and blessed God and said, "Now O
Lord, as you said, let your servant depart in peace, because my eyes
have seen your instrument of salvation, which you have prepared before
all the people, a light to bring your revelation to the Gentiles, and
the glory of your people Israel." His father and mother were amazed at
what was said about him. Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his
mother, "Look you, this child is appointed to be the cause whereby many
in Israel will fall and many rise and for a sign which will meet with
much opposition. As for you--a sword will pierce your soul--and all this
will happen that the inner thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."
There was no Jew who did not regard his own nation as the
chosen people. But the Jews saw quite clearly that by human means their
nation could never attain to the supreme world greatness which they
believed their destiny involved. By far the greater number of them
believed that because the Jews were the chosen people they were bound
some day to become masters of the world and lords of all the nations. To
bring in that day some believed that some great, celestial champion
would descend upon the earth; some believed that there would arise
another king of David's line and that all the old glories would revive;
some believed that God himself would break directly into history by
supernatural means. But in contrast to all that there were some few
people who were known as the Quiet in the Land. They had no dreams of
violence and of power and of armies with banners; they believed in a
life of constant prayer and quiet watchfulness until God should come.
All their lives they waited quietly and patiently upon God. Simeon was
like that; in prayer, in worship, in humble and faithful expectation he
was waiting for the day when God would comfort his people. God had
promised him through the Holy Spirit that his life would not end before
he had seen God's own Anointed King. In the baby Jesus he recognized
that King and was glad. Now he was ready to depart in peace and his
words have become the Nunc Dimittis, another of the great and precious
hymns of the Church.
In Luke 2:34 Simeon gives a kind of summary of the work and fate of Jesus.
(i) He will be the cause whereby many will fall. This is a
strange and a hard saying but it is true. It is not so much God who
judges a man; a man judges himself; and his judgment is his reaction to
Jesus Christ. If, when he is confronted with that goodness and that
loveliness, his heart runs out in answering love, he is within the
Kingdom. If, when so confronted, he remains coldly unmoved or actively
hostile, he is condemned. There is a great refusal just as there is a
great acceptance.
(ii) He will be the cause whereby many will rise. Long ago
Seneca said that what men needed above all was a hand let down to lift
them up. It is the hand of Jesus which lifts a man out of the old life
and into the new, out of the sin into the goodness, out of the shame
into the glory.
(iii) He will meet with much opposition. Towards Jesus Christ
there can be no neutrality. We either surrender to him or are at war
with him. And it is the tragedy of life that our pride often keeps us
from making that surrender which leads to victory.
2:36-40 There was a
prophetess called Anna. She was the daughter of Phanuel and she belonged
to the tribe of Asher. She was far advanced in years. She had lived
with her husband ever since seven years after she came to womanhood; and
now she was a widow of eighty-four years of age. She never left the
Temple and day and night she worshipped with fastings and with prayers.
At that very time she came up and she began to give thanks to God and
she kept speaking about him to all those who were waiting expectantly
for the deliverance of Jerusalem. When they had completed everything
which the Lord's law lays down they returned to Galilee to their own
town of Nazareth. And the child grew bigger and stronger and he was
filled with wisdom, and God's grace was on him.
Anna, too, was one of the Quiet in the Land. We know nothing
about her except what these verses tell but even in this brief compass
Luke has drawn us a complete character sketch.
(i) Anna was a widow. She had known sorrow and she had not grown
bitter. Sorrow can do one of two things to us. It can make us hard,
bitter, resentful, rebellious against God. Or it can make us kinder,
softer, more sympathetic. It can despoil us of our faith; or it can root
faith ever deeper. It all depends how we think of God. If we think of
him as a tyrant we will resent him. If we think of him as Father we too
will be sure that
A Father's hand will never cause
His child a needless tear.
(ii) She was eighty-four years of age. She was old and she had
never ceased to hope. Age can take away the bloom and the strength of
our bodies; but age can do worse--the years can take away the life of
our hearts until the hopes that once we cherished die and we become
dully content and grimly resigned to things as they are. Again it all
depends on how we think of God. If we think of him as distant and
detached we may well despair; but if we think of him as intimately
connected with life, as having his hand on the helm, we too will be sure
that the best is yet to be and the years will never kill our hope.
How then was Anna such as she was?
(i) She never ceased to worship. She spent her life in God's
house with God's people. God gave us his church to be our mother in the
faith. We rob ourselves of a priceless treasure when we neglect to be
one with his worshipping people.
(ii) She never ceased to pray. Public worship is great; but
private worship is also great. As someone has truly said, "They pray
best together who first pray alone." The years had left Anna without
bitterness and in unshakable hope because day by day she kept her
contact with him who is the source of strength and in whose strength our
weakness is made perfect.
2:41-52 Every year his
parents used to go to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. When he
was twelve years of age, they went up according to the custom of the
feast, and when they had completed the days of the feast and returned
home, the child Jesus stayed on in Jerusalem. His parents were not aware
of this. They thought he was in the caravan and when they had gone a
day's journey they looked for him amongst their kinsfolk and
acquaintances. When they did not find him they turned back to Jerusalem,
looking for him all the time. After three days they found him in the
Temple precincts, sitting in the middle of the rabbis, listening to them
and asking them questions. All who were listening were astonished at
his understanding and at his answers. When they saw him they were
amazed. His mother said to him, "Child, why did you do this to us? Look
you, your father and I have been looking for you and we have been very
worried." He said to them, "Why were You looking for me? Did you not
know that I was bound to be in my Father's house?" They did not
understand the meaning of what he said to them. So he came home with
them and went to Nazareth and he was obedient to them. His mother kept
all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew wise and grew bigger and
increased in favour with God and man.
This is a supremely important passage in the gospel story. it
was laid down by law that every adult male Jew who lived within fifteen
miles of Jerusalem must attend the Passover. In point of fact it was the
aim of every Jew in all the world at least once in a lifetime to attend
that feast.
A Jewish boy became a man when he was twelve years of age. Then
he became a son of the law and had to take the obligations of the law
upon him. So at twelve Jesus for the first time went to the Passover. We
may well imagine how the holy city and the Temple and the sacred ritual
fascinated him.
When his parents returned he lingered behind. It was not through
carelessness that they did not miss him. Usually the women in a caravan
started out much earlier than the men for they travelled more slowly.
The men started later and travelled faster and the two sections would
not meet until the evening encampment was reached. It was Jesus' first
Passover. No doubt Joseph thought he was with Mary, Mary thought that he
was with Joseph and not till the evening camp did they miss him.
They returned to Jerusalem to search for him. For the Passover
season it was the custom for the Sanhedrin to meet in public in the
Temple court to discuss, in the presence of all who would listen,
religious and theological questions. It was there they found Jesus. We
must not think of it as a scene where a precocious boy was dominating a
crowd of his seniors. Hearing and asking questions is the regular Jewish
phrase for a student learning from his teachers. Jesus was listening to
the discussions and eagerly searching for knowledge like an avid
student.
And now comes one of the key passages in the life of Jesus.
"Your father and I," said Mary, "have been looking for you anxiously."
"Did you not know," said Jesus, "that I must be in my Father's house"?
See how very gently but very definitely Jesus takes the name "father"
from Joseph and gives it to God. At some time Jesus must have discovered
his own unique relationship to God. He cannot have known it when he was
a child in the manger and a baby at his mother's breast or he would be a
monstrosity. As the years went on he must have had thoughts; and then
at this first Passover, with manhood dawning, there came in a sudden
blaze of realization the consciousness that he was in a unique sense the
Son of God.
Here we have the story of the day when Jesus discovered who he
was. And mark this--the discovery did not make him proud. It did not
make him look down on his humble parents, the gentle Mary and the
hard-working Joseph. He went home and he was obedient to them. The fact
that he was God's Son made him the perfect son of his human parents. The
real man of God does not despise earthly ties; just because he is God's
man he discharges human duties with supreme fidelity.
-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)