FIVE VERSES. The anonymous lyricist of “The First Noel” dedicates five verses to angels, shepherds, and wise men. Three of those verses focus on traveling toward the star. Jesus is only mentioned once. If the point of Christmas is Jesus’s birth, why do so many carols and nativity scenes depict the holy family surrounded by these other characters? Is the presence of shepherds, wise men, and angels even significant? Yes, but not in the way you may think.

Let me start with two short stories that have informed my thinking.

First, Bible and religion scholar Dan McClellan broke the brains of his 134K Instagram followers (including me) yesterday when he offered evidence that the story of Jesus’s birth in Luke 2 is not historically accurate. That passage is deeply embedded in Christian Christmas culture. While several of the Gospels include information about Jesus’s birth, it’s the account in Luke that most churches read on Christmas Eve. When explaining the true meaning of Christmas to Charlie Brown, Linus’s speech comes directly from Luke 2. Yet, McClellan isn’t the first or only Biblical scholar to say that the passage doesn’t line up with history.¹,² What are we supposed to do with that information? Should we just cancel Christmas?

Second, in my seminary classes this semester, we’ve spent a great deal of time studying the writings of liberation theologians. Liberation theology emphasizes the saving hope that marginalized people groups find in the life and ministry of Jesus. It seeks to answer the question, What do “the teachings and life of Jesus have to say to those who stand, at a moment in human history, with their backs against the wall”?³ These days, that’s the question at the front of my mind when I think about God’s relationship with humanity.

It’s through this lens that I began to think about the writer of Luke. He claims to have “investigated everything carefully” and to have written “a carefully ordered account.” (Luke 1:3, CEB) Immediately, our 21st-century western minds assume that this means he is declaring his work to be historically accurate. But Luke was not a 21st-century western writer, and historical accuracy wasn’t his aim.

Yes, Luke carefully investigated. In his investigation, he saw the significant impact that Jesus had upon the early Christians. Those who witnessed Jesus’s dynamic preaching, miraculous healing, peaceful submission to execution, and victorious resurrection were moved to live differently because of his witness. Those closest to him were eventually martyred because of their commitment to spreading the Gospel. The early church lived in community, sharing their possessions with each other so that nobody went unfed, unclothed, or unhoused. While under the boot of the Roman empire, they lived in peaceful resistance to it. These are the results observed by Luke the investigator.

And yes, Luke carefully ordered his work. Commentator David A. Neale states that Luke’s writing should be understood not as a documentary, but as a literary work. This approach “does not concern itself overly with historical inquiry. It emphasizes the role of the author in conveying meaning rather than assessing his historical accuracy or seeking to discover ‘what really happened.'”⁴ Luke – the artful storyteller – carefully, intentionally ordered his material to paint a word picture. Writing toward the end of the first century, he didn’t have a library of history books at his disposal to verify dates and places. But his story conveys a certain message about this Jesus, who changed history and continues to transform the hearts and minds of those who choose to follow him.

I look at it this way: Someday, when someone writes my obituary, what message do I want the readers to hear? What if my birthdate or the place of my birth is incorrect? Would those things change the essence or quality of my character? No. My essence and character are captured in the stories of my interactions with family, my service to the community, and my actions informed by my faith. I hope that whatever small measure of good I did in the world will have a lasting effect on others. Luke was telling a story about the way Jesus’s life and ministry affects us. Of course, there’s one significant difference between a modern obituary and a document written by a first-century Syrian physician: We expect the obituary to be historically accurate. If we expect the same of Luke, we will miss his point.

Luke’s gospel emphasizes Jesus’s compassion for marginalized people: women, the poor, the lepers. Love for God and others was at the heart of his message, and his life was love in action.⁵ He embodied inclusion. His story addresses Jewish people “experiencing exclusion within Israel” but also “is an invitation for [those outside of ethnic Judaism] to join the salvation of Israel’s God.”⁶ He also modeled peaceful resistance. Christopher Carter reminds us that, “Jesus was a practicing Jew who was once a refugee and, as an adult, lived in a territory controlled by Roman political, military, and economic forces.”⁷ Jesus knew what it was to suffer, to be treated unfairly, and to be dehumanized. He knew the cost of treating others with love and compassion. And all of this is communicated to us in Luke’s story.

Luke 2 is not an historical account, nor a romanticized, pastoral remembrance of sweet-smelling hay, quirky characters, and a peacefully sleeping baby. What if we listen to the story again, and see ourselves represented there? What would it mean to know…

…that out of the body of a consenting woman God was born in our midst, to share our plight? For those who have been minimized because of gender, for those whose bodies have been used against their will, God elevates our status and honors our bodily autonomy.

…that shepherds, loathed by their society, are the first to hear the news that their Savior has arrived? For those are dehumanized, God restores our dignity.

…that wise men, who were foreigners, were gifted with the knowledge that a different kind of kingdom, one ruled with humility, had come to earth? For those who are strangers in a strange land, our citizenship in God’s peaceful kingdom has already been accomplished.

…that angels sang songs of praise over the frightened shepherds? For those who are afraid and uncertain, God calms us with love and rejoices over us with singing.

…that Joseph, presuming betrayal by his life partner, was obedient to God and acted with honor? For those who choose the path of loving others even when it’s difficult, God is faithful.

…that a baby – God in the flesh – came to earth that we may have life to the full? We must follow his example, treating each other with compassion, serving one another, and loving one another through action.

When we sing carols this season, we may be tempted to reduce Christmas to sentimental mythology or glorious pageantry. It is neither. Luke’s message is encompassed in the lyrics below. Christmas is God with us, in all of the muck, elevating the downcast and calling us to live in loving, compassionate relationship with each other.

“It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” verse 3, Edmund H. Sears

And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
whose forms are bending low,
who toil along the climbing way
with painful steps and slow,
look now! for glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
and hear the angels sing!

“O Holy Night” verse 3, Placide Cappeau, translated by John S. Dwight

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we;
Let all within us praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!

1. Doulgas R.A. Hare, a New Testament scholar, concurs with McClellan’s claim in Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, Kindle, p 284-6). ↩︎
2. The NIV Study Bible (Zondervan, 1985), which never explicitly challenges the historical veracity of Luke’s claims, subtly acknowledges the discrepancy in reports of Quirinius’s reign by stating, “This official was probably in office for two terms,” (study note for Luke 2:2, p. 1538, emphasis mine). The commentators offer no evidence to substantiate this statement. ↩︎
3. Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (Boston: Beacon Press, 2022 ed., Kindle, p. 1) ↩︎
4. David A. Neale, The New Beacon Bible Commentary: Luke 1-9 (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 2011, Kindle, location 810, emphasis mine) ↩︎
5. see Luke 10:25-28, Matthew 22:36-40, Mark 12:28-31 ↩︎
6. Neale, The New Beacon Bible Commentary: Luke 1-9, location 673 ↩︎
7. Christopher Carter, The Spirit of Soul Food, (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2021, Kindle, p. 154) ↩︎