A Humble Birth

A few years ago I read a story about a woman who had a painting in her home. She had purchased it at a garage sale for five dollars. (It had been marked eight, but the owner agreed to sell for five.) The painting hung in her home. She got used to it and didn't think much about it. One day a friend was over and began looking closely at the painting. The guest said to her friend, "Who's the artist?" The owner told her she did not know. The friend then said, "Well, it really looks like a Jackson Pollock." The owner was unfamiliar with Jackson Pollock, who is one of the twentieth century's most celebrated abstract artists. Soon, however, she visited a dealer and inquired about the painting. She discovered that it was, indeed, an original Jackson Pollock, and it was valued at $50 million!

Sometimes we do not know the value of what we have. This happens not only with art or physical goods. It can happen with a story or an idea. We can become so familiar and used to it that we forget how unique and extraordinary it really is. The birth of Jesus is among the most well-known stories in the world. Much of the world celebrates it every year on December 25. We celebrate it with elaborate pageants and displays. Perhaps the familiarity of the story, however, has hidden some of its deeper meanings. We may know it so well that we miss its depth. Indeed, when we look at it closely, we see that, from the setting to the language, every part of Jesus's birth narrative echoes parts of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament). Those echoes help us see the story in a new way. They illuminate profound lessons and implications threaded throughout the New Testament accounts of Jesus's birth.

Let us begin with the setting. Jesus is born in an out-of-the-way guesthouse. He is then taken to a manger. It is a world away from the palace of King Herod in Jerusalem. Yet, Herod has heard of the coming birth. He does not know where it will take place, but he is aware something important is going to happen. Thus, he sends three "men from the East" to witness it. They arrive at the manger.

One of the cardinal rules of biblical interpretation is that the Bible does not include unnecessary details. Everything matters. Why, then, does the text reveal these details about Jesus's birth location? It could have just said Jesus was born and soon left for Egypt. What message is the emphasis on the birthplace meant to convey? It's meant to draw a parallel between the births of Jesus in Bethlehem and of Moses in Egypt. Indeed, the setting echoes the humble circumstances into which Moses was born. Moses was born while the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. Like Herod in Jerusalem, the Pharaoh in Egypt suspected an important birth was going to take place. Thus, he ordered all Israelite males be immediately thrown into the Nile River upon birth. Moses is born under these terrifying circumstances. Then, just as Herod sent the three wise