What Does The Bible Say About Christmas?

What does the Bible say about Christmas? This seems like a rather apt question to ask during this holiday season! Let me start off by saying, I absolutely love Christmas. It is my favourite time of the year. I love getting in the Christmas spirit, whatever that means, I love the festivities and the celebration of Christmas, the obligatory Christmas jumper, and putting up the Christmas tree. I am also a Christian, so I celebrate because Christmas talks about Jesus' coming as a baby. It is a time of peace, a time of hope, and the beginning of eternal life.

So what does the Bible say about Christmas? What really happened all those years ago? What is myth? And what are just Christmas traditions? Was there a Splendid Christmas Tree behind Mary with a star on it in a stable? Is Christmas full of pagan origins and pagan practices? What about Santa Claus? Did he deliver gifts at Christ's birth?

Biblical account of the Birth of Jesus

“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 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.

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 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. 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. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

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.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, 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.”

-- Luke 2:1-18

This is Luke’s account of what happened at the Birth of Christ and it is read throughout many churches every year. You may have heard it before, I know I have. The trouble is, when we hear it, we hear it through the tradition that we have grown up with.

The Traditional Christmas Nativity

If you grew up in the west, then the chances are strong that you have not only seen a nativity but that you have taken part in a nativity, especially at school. That play where everyone bought in Tea Towels to wear on their heads.

You know the outline, Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem. Mary is pregnant and so gets to ride on the donkey with Joseph walking next to her. After the long trip, they arrive at the inn and knock on the door only to be told that they have no room, they are full. But, out of pity, the innkeeper lets Mary use the stable that their animals sleep in. Mary gives birth to the Lord Jesus Christ, a baby that doesn't cry. Joseph doesn't really do anything. The shepherds hear from the angels in the field - which is where the majority of the cast is. Then you have the three wise men turning up with gold, frankincense and myrrh. This whole play takes place in front of a Christmas tree, with fake gifts wrapped underneath it probably left by the one and only Santa Claus as the story of Jesus Christ and Santa intertwine.

When done at school, with your kids, the nativity is cute and definitely worth watching. The only trouble is, it's not really that accurate and is based more on cultural tradition than the Bible. The wise men, for example, didn’t turn up until Jesus was at least 2. The Bible also doesn’t tell us there were three wise men either. We don’t know how many wise men came to visit Him. Also, there's usually no mention of how Mary became pregnant - through the Holy Spirit.

So our traditional nativity, whilst cute is not entirely accurate.

What Is The Real Christmas Story?

This is actually quite important because if a lot of our understanding about Christianity, about Jesus, about Christmas, is based on cultural tradition rather than what the Bible says about Christmas so we can miss some of the awe and wonder of Christmas.

The key to the Christmas story, is, of course, Mary and Joseph. Traditionally, we have understood that Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem, with Mary on a donkey. She was heavily pregnant and when they arrived, they went to a commercial inn, like a motel, but they were turned away and had to find space in a stable or a cave.

The truth is quite different though. Mary and Joseph were actually returning to Joseph’s home village where he could have easily found shelter because he knew most of the people there and hospitality was a big deal for those living in the middle east at the time. Mary also had relatives close by. So did a Jewish town fail to help a young Jewish mother about to give birth as tradition dictates? It doesn’t sound right, does it?

So let’s look a little more closely at the inn.

What Is The Inn? And Why Was There No Room In It?

To answer this question - let’s have a look at a typical Palestinian Home at the time

We have the main family room which is where the family would live, sleep, cook and eat. We also have a stable at the bottom of the house. The owner of the house would bring in the animals at night to stop them from getting stolen, but also to bring heat to the house…like living radiators as there was no dividing wall between the stable and the main room. There would be a manger to feed the animals as we see in the nativity.

There would also be a guest room annexed to the house. And it is this room that Luke is referring to when he writes that there is no room in the inn. It’s not a commercial inn - like a motel with a no vacancy sign, but rather a private guest room at someone's home.

So what does all this mean?

Well, if Joseph relied on friends for accommodation then their guest room was already occupied so they would have received Mary and Joseph into the main family room - especially as Mary was pregnant. The room would have been cleared of men whilst the village midwife helped deliver the child, and you can see why Jesus would have been laid in a manger if this was the case - the manger was already in the family room. Add a bit of fresh straw and it is an instant cot.

This means that the village wasn’t all a bunch of folks who could have cared less about the family and Joseph wasn’t an inept husband for Mary, unable to find even basic accommodation. This is a story of hospitality and welcome at the start of Jesus’ life, which I think is amazing. Jesus, Mary and Joseph are relying on the kindness of people to help them deal with this part of their life. It's why our Christmas dinner tables should be a place of hospitality and kindness. I don't know who the family was that inconvenienced themselves for Mary and Joseph. We can inconvenience ourselves, we can show kindness and we can open our house during the Christmas season to those who need it. Often that story is not told. The newspapers don't send a reporter round to our house, they don't print it on the front page of the newspapers. But it is the right thing to do, it is what starts the Christmas story.

By misunderstanding the "no room at the inn" phrase, we can often think of the Mary and Joseph as outcasts, rejects shunned by their own people. And in doing so we miss the fact, 'no room at the inn' means hospitality and it means welcome. It means that somewhere in history an amazing family inconvenienced themselves and welcomed Mary and Joseph into their family home at Christmas.

This kind family is the first group of people that I want to look at. The second group of people in the Christmas story worth looking at are the Shepherds. the ones who washed the socks at night and wore tea towels on their heads!

The Shepherds

Think about it. The shepherds were the first recorded people to hear about the birth of Christ. So why pick those guys? Jesus, the messiah, the Saviour of the world, the coming King, God Himself, Emmanual God with us has just been born and the whole of human history will now be unalterably changed and the first people God tells are a group of Shepherds. And it's not just the fact that God tells this message to Shepherds, it is also the way He delivers this message.

God uses Angels to deliver His message. John Harding talked about this last week when he looked at what does the bible say about angels? - a talk definitely worth checking out! And what started out as one angel, turns into a whole host of angels appearing across the sky, singing and possibly playing musical instruments - that's a pretty radical way to deliver a message, isn't it? It’s not an email or text message that's for sure. We have the most incredible news, delivered in the most incredible way - so just exactly who were the shepherds to deserve this honour? Because logic would dictate they must have been really important.

Well, the truth is - we don't really know anything about them which is surprising. And what's even more surprising is their social status. They weren't celebrities of their time, they weren't the influencers on Instagram. They weren't wealthy merchants.

Yet, despite this, God delivers the message to the Shephards first. The Bible account tells us that they were afraid when the angel appeared to them, which is understandable. I'd poop myself just a little bit if an Angel from heaven appeared with the glory of the Lord God shining all around it. But the shepherds would also have been very nervous about what the angel told them to do. They told them to visit the child.

So why would this make them nervous, visiting a newborn? Well, if you are at the bottom of the social ladder, and you are classed as unclean, then you are pretty much an outcast of society. Kenneth Bailey tells us,

"From their point of view, if the child was truly the Messiah, the parents would reject the shepherds if they tried to visit him."

— Kenneth Bailey

The angel seems to anticipate this by giving pieces of key information - that Jesus would be wrapped, which is what peasants did with their newborns, and that Jesus was also lying in a manger - which the shepherds would have instantly understood that Jesus was born in an ordinary family home, just like their own, and not some Governor's Mansion somewhere that would have rejected them.

So why is all this important?

God announces Jesus' birth in the most glorious of ways to rejected peasants looking after their sheep and in that story, we see acceptance.

The story of Christmas is that God accepts all. There is no division in His eyes between the peasant and the wealthy, or gender, or race, or nationality, or intelligence, or Instagram influence, or celebrity status or marital status. The gospel, the story of Christmas is good news for all of us because in that story God accepts all of us, just as we are.

What does the Bible say about Christmas? Well, it doesn't say a lot about a certain green tree, snow, Christmas carols or Christmas jumpers. We have those as traditions now. Some of them are good, some not so good. But the Bible does talk about acceptance, about good news, about inclusivity, about hospitality, about welcome - all things that the God of heaven demonstrates to us because of the birth of Jesus Christ.

In a small house, 2000 years ago, a family welcomed Mary and Joseph into their home. And in that home, a baby was born, and they met Jesus. The outcasts were invited along to also meet Jesus. And when they all met Jesus - they were overjoyed and praised God.

And that still happens today. When we meet Jesus, and welcome Him into our homes, into our families, we become overjoyed and we praise God because we see life through a different lens. We see things differently, we see the love of God, we see the kindness of Christ and it changes us. And it's beautiful. Christmas, then, is a story of hope, a story of redemption, a story of grace. It's about God's intervention in the suffering of humanity, in which He shows His unequivocal love and His open arms and acceptance towards us.

All you can really say after that is Merry Christmas!