Today is the third Sunday of Advent, and this week we light the third candle. On a traditional Advent wreath, this candle is pink. The rose color is representative of the joy we feel as Christmas Day approaches. The lights of the wreath are growing brighter; just as our joy is growing stronger the closer we get to the happy day. This candle is also known as the “Shepherd Candle,” for the shepherds were the first to hear the good news of Jesus’ birth.
We can read about the shepherds in the Christmas story in Luke 2:6-20 (ESV). It says:
6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Most likely, the Christmas story is very familiar to us all. Sometimes the problem with familiar passages of Scripture is that we have read it or heard it so many times that we stop listening to what is being said. Our brains skip over it, for we know it already. Or so we think. In preparing for these Advent sermons, I discovered something in the text that proved to me the importance of not skimming over familiar passages.
Be warned that what I’m about to say might be controversial or might even be a disappointment to some people. While I was researching the place in Bethlehem where Mary and Joseph stayed, I discovered that the idea we have, especially in the West, of Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem and visiting inns and finding them all full so they must find refuge in a stable that is full of animals, might not be entirely accurate. It makes for a really great story, and for really cute nativity scenes, but our traditions and what actually happened seem to be different from each other.
I think a lot of us have already learned that Mary and Joseph didn’t stay in a wooden stable, but instead, they stayed in a cave. We know this because around A.D. 150, Justin Martyr wrote that Jesus was born in a cave in Bethlehem. To this day, you can visit the place where Jesus is thought to be born. A church has been built over the site, The Church of the Nativity.
To be as accurate as possible in understanding the true story of Jesus’ birth, we need to look closely at the text. To start with, we should look at the word inn, in the original Greek. The New Testament was originally written in Greek, and the Greek word translated “inn” here is kataluma. It is usually translated as “guest room” or “guest quarters.” Young’s Literal Translation uses the term “guest-chamber” instead of an inn. It says: “And she brought forth her son—the first-born, and wrapped him up, and laid him down in the manger, because there was not for them a place in the guest-chamber.”
In addition, Luke uses this same word, kataluma, again where it clearly refers to a guest room and not an inn. In Luke 22:11, Jesus said to His disciples, “and tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’”
In contrast, there is a different Greek word for “hotel” or “inn.” Luke uses it in Luke 10:34-35, in the account of the Good Samaritan who paid the “innkeeper” (pandochei) to tend to the injured man after he brought him to the “inn” (pandocheion).
Why is this word difference important to note? It means that Mary and Joseph didn’t arrive in town and visit “inns.” They most likely would have gone to stay with members of Joseph’s family. Since everyone had to return to their hometowns, all the relatives would have returned, and maybe there simply wasn’t any room for them in the guest-chamber. Some commentaries suggest that the reason there wasn’t room for them in that guest chamber was not because other people were there, but because they needed a bigger space in which to give birth to a baby. So, in order to accommodate the birth, they were placed in the larger room where animals were kept. If there was no room because the guest-chamber wasn’t large enough or if the guest-chamber was already full with guests, either way, we know they did not stay in it but instead took shelter in a place that had a manger.
The website Answers in Genesis points out that archaeologists have uncovered first-century dwellings in that area of Bethlehem. They have found that the bottom level was separated into areas for living and areas where animals could be brought in at night to keep them safe and warm. The upper level was used as a guest room. Many of us find this unusual because we wouldn’t consider bringing part of our livestock inside the home at night, yet in that time and place, this was a common practice (answersingenesis.org/christmas/born-in-a-barn-stable).
All that to say, Justin Martyr’s scholarship seems to be correct, for just as a church has been built over the cave where Jesus was thought to be born, so could a home have been built over it, as well. While it’s always important to be accurate in our reading of Scripture, I don’t know how important it is that we know for certain whether He was born in a private home among animals or in a stable cave of an inn. If it turns into an argument, then we know we are focusing on the wrong thing.
N.T. Wright, who also notes that the word guest-chamber is often mistranslated for inn, points out in his book, Luke for Everyone, that the Gospel of Luke mentions the manger or “feeding-trough,” three different times in this story, but the purpose of mentioning it that many times is not because it’s important that Jesus was placed into a manger after His birth. The reason it’s mentioned so many times, according to Wright, is because the feeding trough is “the sign to the shepherds. It told them which baby they were looking for. And it showed them that the angel knew what he was talking about. […]the reason Luke has mentioned it is because it’s important in giving the shepherds their news and their instruction. Why is that significant? Because it was the shepherds who were told who this child was. This child is the savior, the Messiah, the Lord. The manger isn’t important in itself. It’s a signpost, a pointing finger, to the identity and task of the baby boy who’s lying in it” (p.22)
Wright also points out that by telling these shepherds this, the Lord is also providing confirmation to Mary and Joseph that this miracle baby is indeed the Messiah. The text tells us in verses 17-19 that after the shepherds saw the baby, “they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”
That tells us two things: there were more people than just Mary and Joseph at Jesus’ birth, and Mary had not yet fully realized she had just given birth to the Messiah. To address the first: in that time and culture, there would have been women there to help Mary deliver the baby. I think we assume she was by herself, but it’s more likely there were midwives there to assist.
That second thing we learn is that the message from the shepherds was needed to help Mary realize whom she had given birth to. The text says she treasured these things and pondered them in her heart. That sounds like she was still working out what it all might mean, doesn’t it? She was most likely pondering what the angel who told her she would become pregnant said, and what her cousin Elizabeth had told her about her baby leaping in her womb, and now she was weighing all those things in her mind with what these shepherds told them. All of those things were telling her that her baby was no ordinary child.
All that to say, we should be careful that we too are not missing the point of Luke including this information about Jesus being laid in a manger. The point is not that there wasn’t room in an inn, or that Jesus was born in a dirty stable. The point is the same point that Mary is pondering in her mind: this baby’s birth is the fulfillment of prophecy and, as such, He is the promised Messiah.
This is so important to note because this is the whole point of the Gospel message. This is the whole point of celebrating Christmas. If Jesus was just another regular baby, or even if He was a prophet, His birth is no more important than any human’s birth. But He is no regular baby. He is Christ the Lord; Savior of the world. If we miss that point, then we will miss the whole point of Christmas.
Yet, I’m afraid that this is what has happened to Christmas. People celebrate Christmas and completely miss the point that they are supposed to be celebrating the birthday of Jesus. Now, I know that in different cultures Christmas doesn’t carry the importance that it does to most Americans, and as such, maybe this is not the case in your country. Maybe only those who are Christians celebrate Christmas. But in America, most people celebrate Christmas, but they have missed the point. They aren’t even looking only at the manger, they are looking at Santa Claus and presents.
If we are looking at the wrong thing at Christmas, we will miss out on the joy that is available to us. In a lot of ways, Christmas is the perfect metaphor for life. For the same people who have missed the point of Christmas have also missed the whole point of life. Christmas amplifies what is really in our hearts. Maybe that is why so many people are depressed at Christmas?
In his book, Toward a More Perfect Faith, A. W. Tozer says, “Most modern Christians are not joyful persons because they are not holy persons. They are not holy persons because they are not filled with the Holy Spirit. They’re not filled with the Holy Spirit because they are not separated persons. The Spirit cannot fill whom He cannot separate. Whom He cannot fill, He cannot make holy; and whom He cannot make holy, He cannot make happy” (p.16).
That’s a sophisticated way of saying that most Christians aren’t joyful because they are disobeying God in some area of their life. To be holy means to be separated or set apart. A lot of Christians haven’t separated themselves from the world. Tozer explains this and says, “They live outside the will of God, and live beneath the Scriptures to a great degree, and thus outside the will of God” (p.17).
In other words, they live like just everybody else. Because of that, the Holy Spirit hasn’t grown the Fruit of the Spirit inside of them. One Fruit of the Spirit is joy.
I was reading Psalm 51:12, and I think this speaks to this same idea. As the NASB says, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.” The NIV says, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” I can’t help but think that David’s prayer for God to give him a willing spirit is in direct correlation to his joy. It’s the same sentence. How does David have the joy of salvation built up inside of him? By willingly obeying the Lord. It makes sense, doesn’t it? If David disobeys the Lord, he is setting himself on a path to fall away from the Lord, thus losing the joy of his salvation. If he stays faithful to the Lord, then he will not fall away from Him. That can be applied to us, too. If I want to experience the joy of salvation, then I need to keep my faith in Jesus. David’s prayer is that God will sustain him, and will help him keep his faith in the Lord. He’s in essence saying, “God, help me obey you so that I keep my faith in you and keep my joy in the salvation You have given me.” For if we disobey God, we are going to lose our joy. If we obey the Lord and follow His ways, then we will be filled with joy. I don’t know where I heard this sentence, but I know it to be true: joy follows obedience. When we obey the Lord, we will find joy.
The shepherds are the perfect example of this truth. They obeyed the instructions they were given by the angel. They left and went and saw the baby and, because of their obedience, they were filled with joy. If they had ignored the angel or disbelieved the message, they would have stayed with their sheep and missed out on meeting the Savior of the world. Instead, as verse 20 says, “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” They were so filled with joy they were glorifying and praising God. They were probably so excited that they were jumping around and shouting out loud. Joy followed their obedience.
Joy resulted in their hearts because they saw the Messiah. They saw the fulfillment of the all the ages, born and lying in a manager.
Have you seen the Lord? Do you know that this baby’s birth we are celebrating is no ordinary baby? Do you know that He is the promised Messiah? His the one prophesied about. He is the One born to save us. Has this truth been confirmed for you in your heart? Are you filled with joy because of your salvation?
These are all the questions we must ask ourselves this week of Advent. If we don’t have joy, is it because we are in disobedience to God in some area of our life? Is there something that is keeping the Holy Spirit from filling us with the fruit of joy? If so, let us repent and find forgiveness and cleansing. Let us repent and begin to obey Him. Let us pray as David did: Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then we can be like the shepherds and glorify and praise God for what He has done for us.
At this Christmastime, we Christians should be the most joyful of all people. For we know the purpose of this baby’s birth. We have seen the fulfillment of Scripture. He has been born for us. Let us worship Him by giving Him our full obedience so we can joyfully praise Him.
Pray: Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your great love for us. Thank You for sending us Jesus to be born of woman. Thank You, too, for sending us the Holy Spirit to live in our hearts. Help us to walk in obedience to You so You can grow the fruit of the Spirit inside of us. Please fill us with joy this Christmas season. Help us to be like the shepherds; glorifying and praising You and telling others about the true meaning of Christmas. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
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