Matthew 2 and Luke 2

 I was the one teaching my 9-year-olds Sunday School class today about Matthew 2 and Luke 2.  It was a little awkward because we just had Christmas three weeks and now we are talking about Christmas again.  I decided to teach my class the same principles I used in the "Christmas Week" activities I did with my kids when they were little. The main premise is that each item in the nativity as described in Luke and Matthew was specifically chosen and included because it is a symbol of Jesus' mission on the earth.  As I went back through the scriptures, I realized that, after doing a deeper dive into the Old Testament last year, I could update my Nativity program a little to make it more accurate.

Matthew and Luke wrote their gospels about 40 years after Jesus' death.  They had plenty of time to think about what details were important and which were unimportant in the nativity.  In my last post I said that Luke may have never even met Mary, but in the podcasts I listened to this week, they said that many scholars believe that Luke and Mary may have lived in the same town on Ephesus late in Mary's life, and she probably told him the story of Jesus' birth (though I still think the poetic form of the Magnificat was Luke's invention.)  She must have told the story many times in her life to interested followers of Jesus.  Over time specific details would have come together in symbolic significance in her mind, and in the minds of the Christian community. As I have stated before, Matthew was particularly concerned with showing similarities between Jesus' life and the lives of Moses and David.  This desire would have motivated which details he decided to include.  So, here are the main details mentioned by Luke and Matthew, and scriptures that reflect the symbolism I see there.

Shepherds: John 10:11, Psalm 23: 1-4, Alma 5:38, and also the shepherd imagery throughout the Old Testament.  David was a shepherd before he became king.  Also, if the shepherds in Bethlehem were raising sheep for the temple, they would have had the responsibility to verify which sheep were the first born, without blemish, and worthy of the temple rituals. Who better to testify of the birth of the Lamb of God?

Angel (heavenly hosts): Isaiah 8:15, Jesus is the Lord of Hosts. Also 2 Kings 6:15-17.  The sudden appearance of the heavenly hosts would have reminded Jewish people of the story of Elisha as recorded in 2 Kings 6, suggesting that the new baby would be the spiritual heir of Elijah and Elisha. 

Lamb of God: John 1: 29, 1 Nephi, 12:6. Also the Passover in Exodus 12:5

Star: Jesus is the light of the world: John 12:46, Helaman 14.  There is no prediction of a new star arriving at the birth of the Messiah in the Old Testament, yet one of King David's symbols was the six pointed star, the same star that is on the flag of Israel today.  It is made of two triangles, one pointing up and one pointing down.  It represents the connection between man and heaven. Including the star in the narrative would have suggested that Jesus was the heir of David, and, as such, would be the intermediary between heaven and earth. 

Another way to look at the star is as a echo of the pillar of fire that appeared over the tabernacle when the God was present. As such, the star signaled to Jews that, after centuries of worshiping at a temple with an empty Holy of Holies, (the Arch of the Covenant having been lost centuries before at the Babylonian captivity) the Lord had once more returned to earth, not in the temple, but in a stable. 

Wise men: Psalm 72: 10-11, 1 Kings 10:1-3 These are both refences to the fact that King Solomon, David's son and the only king of a united Israel, was so wise that people would come from distant lands to see him and seek his wisdom.  By telling the story of the wise men coming to see Jesus, the authors were implicitly comparing Jesus to the wisest of Israelite prophet-kings.

Bethlehem: Means House of Bread: John 6: 35  Also Malachi 5:2.  

Manger: John 19: 39-42 The podcasters pointed out that the manger would have most likely been made out of stone rather than wood, since wood was scarce in the region.  So the beginning of Jesus' life, as a small infant wrapped in cloth and lying in a stone manger, would have looked a lot like the end of Jesus' mortal life, with Jesus wrapped in a shroud and laid in a stone sepulcher. 

So there is a more "grown up" version of the Christmas symbols we taught our kids when they were small.