Different Audiences, Different Stories

Different Audiences, Different Stories

Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 1:26-38

            Growing up, I heard the story of Jesus’ birth every Christmas morning.  Mom, Dad and I would sit around the tree while Dad read Luke 2:1-21.  Then, with those words as a framework, we would share our gifts with each other.  Dad always paused before reading verse 16, and said, “And here’s the verse that, no matter how you say it out loud, it doesn’t sound right.”  Then he would read, “And [the shepherds] went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.”  Pretty crowded manger.

            Matthew doesn’t really describe the birth scene.  He says (2:1), “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king…” and launches into the story of the wise men and Herod.

            What I find interesting about the birth story happens before the actual event.  Matthew gives us important information about Joseph; Luke tells us more about Mary.  Why the different approaches?  The answer lies in the title of this piece: “Different Audiences, Different Stories.”

            Matthew’s gospel was written for a Jewish audience.  They would have been concerned with Jesus’ ancestry, especially his connection to David.  If he were to be accepted as King by Jewish converts to Christianity, his credentials would have to be impeccable.  He would have to be shown to have descended from David in an uninterrupted line.  The Jewish people already had one illegitimate king—Herod—and weren’t about to replace him, even in a spiritual way, with another king whose lineage was suspect. 

            So Matthew begins by listing Jesus’ ancestors, stating that Jesus was descended from David through Solomon.  Connecting Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph, to the Davidic line was essential.  Remember, while Joseph had no part in the conception (Matthew’s gospel makes that clear in v. 25), he was Jesus’ legal father, so his lineage was Jesus’ lineage as well.

            Luke was writing for a Gentile audience.  As far as we can tell, Luke was a Greek, a physician, and possibly a valued household slave.  He addresses both his volumes (the Lukan gospel and the Book of Acts) to a person with a Greek name:  Theophilus (God-lover).  This could have been an actual person, or a generic title representing all Greeks who loved the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

            What did Luke want to get across to his audience?  Jesus’ Jewishness was not a priority for him.  He gives us his version of Jesus’ genealogy much later, when he begins his account of Jesus’ ministry.  Jesus’ Jewish credentials would have been less important to Luke and his audience than the miraculous aspects of the birth story.  The angel Gabriel pays Mary a visit and tells her that she will have a child whose Father is God.  She will be impregnated by the Holy Spirit in some way that none of us can understand—nor is it important that we do.  Enough that God chose to work a miracle through this young woman.

            Luke also tells us about the visitation by the shepherds.  How did they find out about the birth?  More angels: first, one telling them about the newborn baby, then “a multitude of the heavenly host” singing gloriously in praise of the Messiah.  Luke includes other miraculous events tied to the birth of John the Baptist, but that’s another story for another time.

            So…here we have two accounts for two different audiences, Matthew emphasizing Joseph for his Jewish converts, Luke emphasizing Mary for those coming to Christianity from a pagan background.  Contradictory? No!  Complimentary.  Jesus is the Messiah for the whole world, and his story holds truth and relevance for all people.