Why ideas matter.
Why ideas matter.
After meeting with king Herod, the Magi continued to follow the star to the place where they found Jesus with his mother. They gave valuable gifts to the child. The fact that three gifts are listed has given rise to the…
Our reading now shifts back to the Gospel of Matthew, as Matthew relates part of the Christmas story that Luke doesn’t. Matthew doesn’t say much about the birth of Christ, instead, he focuses on what happened after. Matthew is the…
After Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph fulfilled what the Jewish law said to do after the birth of a son. They had Jesus circumcised on the eighth day. After 40 days of a purification period, they went to the temple in…
Looking at the sheep in the stable reminds us not only that Jesus is the Lamb of God, it also reminds us that we are lost sheep in need of a shepherd. In Micah 5:4-5a a prophecy about the Savior says, “He…
Having sheep in the manger scene reminds us of two things. First, Jesus is the sacrificial lamb that takes away the sin of the world. John 1:29 says, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the…
We do not know for sure what animals were in the stable when Jesus was born, but we can imagine that there were perhaps a donkey and some sheep and these are the animals we will look at in this…
Once they got over their terror, the shepherds must have been awestruck when the heavenly host appeared to them. Their response was to go and see what they had been told. They believed and so they obeyed. We too must believe the…
We have already seen the role that the angel Gabriel had in visiting Zechariah and Mary. Now we see that a whole host of angels appeared to a humble group of shepherds at the birth of Christ. The shepherds were…
As we look at the scene in the stable we want to evaluate the surroundings into which Christ was born. In the last reading we read that Mary wrapped Jesus in cloths and placed him in a manger. A manger is…
When Jesus came to earth the first time, everything surrounding his birth showed he came as a humble servant. Mary and Joseph were humble, obedient people. Bethlehem, the town of David where the prophet Micah said the Savior would be born,…