Jeshua bar Joseph

Jeshua bar Joseph

Luke 2:1-21

            It is interesting to compare the two gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth.  Matthew says very little about Mary—no visitation from Gabriel, no visit to Elizabeth—and a bit about Joseph.  There is nothing in his account about a trip to Bethlehem, a manger, angels and shepherds—none of the events we associate with Jesus’ birth.  We find out more about Herod and the magi than anyone else—and that supposedly didn’t happen until sometime after the birth.

            Luke tells us about the trip to Bethlehem, about the manger, about the angels and the shepherds.  Was all this important because he was writing for a Greek audience?  Did those reading his account need to hear the miraculous side of Jesus’ birth?  We know (because he tells us) that Luke did first-hand research for his account.  He spoke with “those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses.”  We don’t know who he would have had access to (who was still alive, who he was able to track down), but he indicates that he used multiple sources.

            While my seminary instructors cautioned us not to “harmonize” the gospels—that is, combine them together for a composite picture—this may be one of the few places where it’s appropriate.  Each gospel was aimed at a different audience.  Matthew’s was primarily Jewish.  Luke’s was primarily Greek.  Mark’s seems to have been a mixture of the two.  John’s seems to have been one that needed to hear a completely different take on Jesus’ life—or perhaps it was that John had unique memories of the life of his Lord. 

            We must rely on the incomplete accounts provided by Matthew and Luke for the story of Jesus’ birth.  We learn from Matthew that Mary gave birth to a son named Jesus.  He skips immediately to the story of Herod and the magi.  Luke goes into enough detail about the birth that we have a picture of the setting—a manger in Bethlehem. 

            Let’s set aside the miraculous components of Jesus’ birth for a moment.  This is not to discount the angels who visited Mary, Joseph, Zechariah, and the shepherds.  We can’t say these did not occur since we were not there.  We have the word of eyewitnesses, and we can choose to credit or discredit their accounts.  For now, let’s focus on the human Jesus rather than the Jesus who was God’s Son.

            It was of utmost importance that the Messiah—the Christ—be human as well as divine.  There had to be a connection to us—God’s human children—in order for Jesus’ life, death and resurrection to mean something in God’s grand scheme.  We don’t need to go into all the theology of redemption and reconciliation here.  We only need to make the statement that Jesus’ humanity was as important as his divinity.

            Jesus was born a Jew.  He was not a Christian.  That word didn’t come into existence until many years later.  He was born into a Jewish family, who lived in a Jewish society, and abided by the customs (both religious and secular) of Jewish culture.  He was raised in a Jewish home by Jewish parents, and lived his life as a Jewish teacher—a rabbi.  His message was meant for Jews first, and consisted in part of a scathing criticism of the Jewish leaders and their misinterpretation of Jewish law.  He was put to death at the insistence of these leaders for what they considered crimes against the Jewish state.

            Even his name was Jewish.  We’ve called him Jesus for so long that we forget that this was the Greek form of his name.  His family called him Jeshua (like Joshua) bar (son of) Joseph (his father’s name).  When Gabriel spoke to Mary, the name he used would have been Jeshua—a name Mary would have known well because of its historical significance and its popularity. 

While we remember the Son of God—Jesus Christ—this Christmastide, let’s not forget Jeshua bar Joseph, the human child that Mary and her husband welcomed into the world.